Okay, everyone, we can get off of Defcon 5…

#SFGiants No. 3 prospect Marco Luciano left last night’s @SKVolcanoes game early and is out of the lineup tonight. I’m told he’s dealing with a leg injury, but it’s not serious — Dalton Johnson (@DaltonJ_Johnson) August 23, 2019

It’s not serious…just the usual kind of injury players get, and recover from. We can go back to Defcon 1.

Er….eh, let’s keep it at Defcon 2, just to be safe.

Highlights: Jaylin Davis hit another home run; Victor Bericoto had 3 hits in the AZL.

Sacramento defeated El Paso (Padres), 9-3

There’s really no stopping Jaylin Davis, is there?

Davis hit his sixth double and tenth home run with Sacramento in his 18th game with the River Cats. His on-base percentage with the Cats is over .400…which is pretty easy, since now he’s batting over .400. His on-base percentage (.494) is close to breaking .500, and his slugging percentage (.940) is approaching four digits. Seriously, this is a video game in a cartoon run, even if it’s only 18 games.

Jaylin Davis has played in 18 games for us AND HE HAS HOMERED 10 TIMES. GET OUT — Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) August 23, 2019

Meanwhile Joey Rickard, got his first home run since returning to Triple-A on August 19th. And then he got his second. Rickard now has six home runs with Sacramento, ten in Triple-A, one with the SF Giants, three in the Majors, 13 overall this season and that’s a lot of specifics I need to go over.

Mauricio Dubon had three hits for the second time in three games, Dubon is now batting .325/.400/.488 with the River Cats, and the future is looking good for the Giants.

While the offense was off to the races, starter Conner Menez gave up a few runs of his own, allowing nine baserunners. Menez had been a strikeout machine, but has just 11 strikeouts in 12 innings. Overall, he has 77 in 56.1 innings. Dan Winkler continues to perform well as a River Cat. He’s just allowed one run in 9.2 innings.

Playoff Picture: First Place, 9.0 games ahead of Reno. Magic Number is 3 with 11 games left.

Heliot Ramos continues to put things together in Richmond, as he had two hits for the third time in four games, raising his batting average from .176 to .231, and he hit his third double and second home run with Richmond (15th overall). Ever since he was named the Giants Prospect of the Year by Baseball America, he’s been rejuvenated.

Joey Bart, meanwhile, earned the honored day off after having collected the Golden Stetson yesterday.

Caleb Baragar had the tough start, giving up four runs after two straight starts without any earned runs. Baragar has a .194 batting average allowed against Double-A hitters, but his ERA is back up to 3.60. Garrett Williams was in relief, and while he didn’t allow a run, he walked two more batters. Williams now has 102 strikeouts to 57 walks in 106.1 innings.

The Squirrels had a chance to win it in extras, but they only got there because of the best highlight you’ll see in this Minor Lines!

Walk-off DENIED.@BryceJohnsonSF makes a diving catch to save a run and send us to extra innings in Akron tied 4-4 pic.twitter.com/S0P0NOXcWB — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) August 23, 2019

Playoff Picture: Out.

San Jose came up with a big game to stay relevant in a competitive wild card race.

Diego Rincones picked up a pair of hits, and his second double in San Jose, helping them to a win. Rincones has been slow to get up to speed in San Jose after debuting with three hits in his first game at the level. He’d been just 3-for-27 since until today’s 2-hit game. Meanwhile, Sandro Fabian got his fourth double in his 41st game in San Jose. Fabian has ten total extra-base hits, with five home runs and a triple to go with the doubles.

Manuel Geraldo was the other power of the offense, collecting four RBI with his two hits. Geraldo is batting .240/.285/.337 on the season. He’s batting .308/.343/.508 in the playoff race of August, however.

Casey Meisner was on the mound, and he continues to be pretty much average. In 14 games with San Jose, Meisner has a 4.71 ERA, and keeps the Giants in games. Camilo Doval struck out four in two innings, and continues to put up the crazy strikeout numbers people love. He has 76 in 51 innings. But he has allowed just one hit and one walk allowed in his last eight innings of work.

Playoff Picture: 1.5 games back of Stockton in the Wild Card race with 11 games left.

After pulling out a win in the second game of the series, Augusta’s offense went silent one more time as they lost to the first place Tourists.

Seth Corry had a very good start, giving up just one run despite walking five, thanks to just two hits allowed. Corry’s control issue have returned over the last two starts, with eight walks in 9.2 innings. On the season, Corry still has an excellent 161 strikeouts with 57 walks in 114 innings of work. But one run was too many for Augusta this time.

The only GreenJacket with more than one hit was Jacob Gonzalez, whose rough season had obscured the fact he’s begun playing left field for Augusta. Gonzalez was 1-for-his-last 15 before this 2-hit game. He’s batting .232/.305/.344 on the year.

Playoff Picture: 2nd place, 2.0 games behind Asheville. Elimination Number is 10 with 11 games left.

Minus Marco Luciano, Alexander Canario picked up the slack for the Volcanoes. Batting in the third spot, Canario got at least two hits for the fifth time in six games, with two doubles, to put his Volcano OPS up over .900. The 19-year old Canario has stepped up as the star of Keizer as the final push to the playoffs is here. He has 16 doubles, one triple, and six home runs in 42 games.

His supporting cast is pretty good as well. Armani Smith picked up three more hits, and the 21-year old Walnut Creek native is batting .326/.379/.470 this season. Meanwhile, 20-year old Yorlis Rodriguez now has five straight games with multiple hits. Rodriguez is batting .275/.324/.363, but is batting 16-for-35 (.457) over his last ten games.

On the mound, Travis Perry was back to giving up runs. Perry had a 3.53 ERA this season in 13 games with the Volcanoes. But Abel Adames followed it up with a solid bit of relief to keep Salem-Keizer in the game, striking out three without allowing a baserunner. He has 20 strikeouts and six walks in 19.1 innings.

Playoff Picture: In as First Half Champions.

It was a quiet day for the Black team, offensively. Grant McCray picked up a single hit, which extended his hitting streak to nine games. He’s batting .272/.386/.341, and has 30 walks to 51 strikeouts. Garrett Frechette also picked up a hit, inching his batting average closer to .300. Frechette has 10 walks against 32 strikeouts, batting .299/.373/.381. Andrew Caraballo had a pair of hits, and hit his first home run with the Black team (he had one previously with the Orange team).

Trevor McDonald gave up his first run as a pro, in his third game. He struck out two more, and now has eight strikeouts with two walks, in four innings of work. Freddery Paulino struck out five in four innings of relief. He has 42 strikeouts in 54.2 innings this season.

Playoff Picture: Out.

The good play for the promotions continues! Victor Bericoto collected three hits on day 2 in the AZL, and the 17-year old is batting 5-for-10 across two days. He also got his first AZL double after posting 15 in the DSL. Meanwhile, Luis Matos got a hit and a walk, and is now 4-for-7 in the Arizona League. Not bad for a couple of young players!

Javeyan Williams also chipped in two more hits, and the 22-year old now has a nine game hitting streak. Williams is batting .287/.374/.336 as one of the few stars of the Orange team to have stuck around all season.

It was a combination effort on the mound with six pitchers for the day. Blake Rivera made the start, as the 2018 4th round pick made his first appearance since going down with injury at the start of July. It did not go well as he gave up four hits in his first inning back. Jesus Gomez was the only pitcher to go more than one inning, as he gave up two runs across four innings. Gomez only got two strikeouts, despite averaging more than one per inning. He has 63 strikeouts in 54 innings.

Playoff Picture: 2nd Half Title Clinched! (The Orange team has clinched both!) The win also gives the Orange team what appears to be a AZL record of 42 wins in a season. We’re waiting for the official AZL Twitter account to confirm it.

Also, we’re waiting for an official AZL Twitter account.

With Luis Matos and Victor Bericoto gone, there are not many obvious prospects left to look for every day in the DSL. But one of them is Rayner Santana, who hit his 10th home run of the season. The just-turned-17-year old is one of the youngest players in even the DSL. It’s the second home run in as many games played, and he’s batting .291/.440/.552 in his first pro year.

Meanwhile, 18-year old Jose Peralta kept up his recent hot streak, getting two hits and a walk, and now has five multi-hit games out of his last seven. He also picked up a pair of stolen bases, which brings him to an even 50% stolen base rate. In his firt pro year, he hit .211/.302/.316 in 17 games. This season, he’s up to .288/.401/.386.

Jose Mullings had a huge start, although he didn’t get a win for it. He had nine strikeouts in six innings, and now has 66 strikeouts and 17 walks in 53.1 innings of work.

Playoff Picture: Out.

Today’s Scheduled Starters

Sacramento (Justin Haley) at El Paso (Jerry Keel), 6:05 pm PDT

Richmond (Alfred Gutierrez) at Akron (Adam Scott), 7:05 pm PDT

San Jose (TBA) at Stockton (TBA), 7:10 pm PDT

Augusta (Trenton Toplikar) vs. Lexington (Zach Haake), 7:05 pm EDT

Salem-Keizer (TBA) at Vancouver (TBA), 7:05 pm PDT

It’s a big series for San Jose, as they begin the first of two series against wild card-leading Stockton in the final games. Modesto still lurks ahead of San Jose in that race as well, but this series will set the tone for the final week of the season.