In a year where so many things have gone right down on the farm, the one dark cloud has been heat-seeking pitches and that cloud showed up again last night:

Bad news for the @SJGiants. Heliot Ramos appears to get hit on the hand in the 5th inning. Ump said ball hit bat. Ramos tagged out, but he's in obvious pain. Taken out of game. Replaced by Logan Baldwin. pic.twitter.com/Bjwq3h37a2 — Ali Thanawalla (@Ali_Thanawalla) August 6, 2019

Hope for the best: No broken bones! Another broken hand would obviously end Ramos’ year at this point.

HIGHLIGHTS: Johneshwy Fargas had three hits and stole his 43rd base of the year; Sean Hjelle allowed 1 Run in 5.1 IP;

Sacramento lost at Round Rock Express (Astros), 6-3

losing their series, 1-3

The first place RiverCats lost their third straight game in Round Rock to close out their road trip. Casey Meisner, up from San Jose for another spot start got roughed up a little bit in the 2nd inning and the Sacramento offense never could quite make up the difference.

Cristian Adames hit his 3rd HR for Sacramento. The ball was originally ruled a double, but got overturned after a discussion.

Christian Adames double gets overturned and is ruled a home run! River Cats trail 4-3. pic.twitter.com/9LjxBmQ7JQ — Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) August 6, 2019

Mike Gerber had two more hits including a double. Gerber is 11th in the PCL with a .324 average and 10th in the league with a .989 OPS; both marks lead the RiverCats.

Jaylin Davis could only manage a single and an RBI groundout so now he’s only driven in 9 runs in his 4 games with the Cats.

Richmond lost at Altoona Curve (Pirates), 6-5

The one real aspect of this Richmond team that’s generally been a strength this year has been the bullpen. But after the offense clawed back from behind last night, the normally reliable Caleb Simpson and Tyler Cyr couldn’t hang onto a 1-run lead in the late innings. After getting a leadoff groundout in the 7th, Simpson walked the next two batters he faced. Cyr was called upon to try to get out of the mess but a two-out bases loaded single from Pirates #3 prospect O’Neil Cruz turned the one-run lead into a one-run deficit and that’s how it ended.

Johneshwy Fargas led the offense with three hits including his 8th double of the year. Fargas also stole his 43rd base of the year — he’s aiming for Kelby Tomlinson’s franchise record for stolen bases in a season (49).

Jalen Miller picked up his 24th SB of the year. Miller also showed his speed off in the field ranging far to his right to help save a run in the 8th inning.

What a play by @Jalen_Miller4!



He keeps it a one-run game heading to the ninth inning pic.twitter.com/6HklPGOose — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) August 6, 2019

San Jose won at Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres), 3-1

Sean Hjelle helped the Giants snap a five-game losing streak, throwing 5.1 strong innings against the Lake Elsinore Storm. Hjelle, who had one of his worst outings last time out against this same Lake Elsinore squad, allowed just 1 run on 6 hits and didn’t walk a batter. He lowered his Cal League ERA to 2.78. For the year (across two levels) Hjelle has averaged a strikeout per inning while walking just 28 batters in 118.1 IP.

Luis Amaya has also been fantastic since coming up from Augusta. He’s allowed just two runs in 12.1 IP, striking out 14 while walking just 3. The 20 year old LHP will be Rule 5 eligible this winter.

For the second time in a week, San Jose hitters got to measure themselves against former big leaguer Garrett Richards. Heliot Ramos had to feel good about the matchup, he singled twice off Richards — the only two hits the former Angel would allow.

Followed the @SJGiants down to Lake Elsinore. @HeliotRamos leads off the game with a single and moves to second in a ground out to the pitcher by Joey Bart. pic.twitter.com/EWfYjwXMqz — Ali Thanawalla (@Ali_Thanawalla) August 6, 2019

Sadly the injury ravaged Richards would leave the game in the 3rd with shoulder discomfort. Also sadly, Ramos himself would leave the game with injury not too much later.

Joey Bart had two hits of his own on the night, including his 10th double of the year. Bart also drew his 13th walk of the year.

Joey Bart with a solid single over the leaping shortstop. It's his second hit of the night. @SJGiants pic.twitter.com/npjEilsPYE — Ali Thanawalla (@Ali_Thanawalla) August 6, 2019

Augusta beat Hickory Crawdads (Rangers), 3-2

Frankie Tostado broke a 2-2 tie with an RBI single and strong relief work from Preston White (another Master’s College find) and Peter Lannoo made the thin margin stand up.

Simon Whiteman, who’s given the team a boost at the top of the order, led the team with three hits. Franklin Labour had just one hit, but it was a biggie, as his two-run double put the GreenJackets up early in this game.

Augusta will finish off its homestand today, trying to win its sixth consecutive series.

We'll fist bump to that!



Jackets win AGAIN! A 3-2 victory tonight as we improve to 62-50. The farthest above the .500 mark we have been in 2019!#CatchTheBuzz pic.twitter.com/ipjxrMydnH — Augusta GreenJackets (@GreenJackets) August 6, 2019

Salem-Keizer has hit its All Star Break

The NWL-Pioneer League combined All Star game will be tonight in Boise, ID

Greetings from Boise, where the @BoiseHawks are hosting the 2019 Northwest League - Pioneer League All-Star Game tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/Zzg8eyVcbE — Jared Ravich (@JaredRavich) August 5, 2019

I haven’t seen word yet of who replaced Labour and Genoves on the All Star squad.

The AZL Giants were OFF last night

DSL Giants beat DSL Pirates2, 11-6

What’s this? Same-day video highlights from the Dominican? From an official looking source? Prospect following sure has come a long way!

I’d like to think our little corner of the world has played its part in helping spread the excitement of prospect watching around the internet.

Rayner Santana followed up his huge 3-homer day with a modest but solid two hit game yesterday. His OPS jumped up 130 points in those two games!

If you missed this piece from Ben Badler yesterday, the Giants’ offensive stars Luis Matos and Victor Bericoto were among those profiled in this piece on players in the DSL who are catching scouts’ eyes.

Is there another Tatis Jr. or Yordan Alvarez amongst this group? These guys are opening some scouts' eyes at the Dominican Summer League:https://t.co/0e2oZJc4kZ — Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) August 6, 2019

Today’s Scheduled Starters:

Sacramento: OFF

Richmond (Alfred Gutierrez) @ Altoona (Pedro Vasquez)

San Jose (Aaron Phillips) @ Lake Elsinore (Luis Patiño)

Augusta (Keaton Winn) vs. Hickory (Hans Crouse)

AZL Giants Orange (TBD) vs. AZL Giants Black (TBD)

DSL Giants (Jason Bonilla) @ DSL Pirates2 (TBD)

The A ball squads square off against some serious heat with Hans Crouse going up against the Greenjackets in the series finale and the Giants getting Luis Patiño for the second time in a week. The Padres right-hander pretty much had his way with San Jose last week.

Lo, the times have changed in the system as we come down the stretch with nearly the entire system in a post-season hunt.

Teams in the playoff hunt:@RiverCats 61-52 overall, 1st in PCL PacNorth, 7-game lead@SJGiants 21-23 in 2nd half, 3rd in Cal Lge North, 5GB@GreenJackets 25-18 in 2nd half, 1st in SAL Southern, 1-game lead@SKVolcanoes 32-19 overall, clinched 1st half playoff berth — SFGProspects (@SFGProspects) August 5, 2019

They mentioned the AZL Orange team (which could be nearing an all time wins record in the AZL) in a second tweet. Should note that in San Jose’s case, their most likely path at this point is as a Wild Card team, which is somewhat comical since they have the worst overall record in their division. But Visalia has once again run off and hid, they won the 1st half and hold a solid lead in the 2nd half. If Visalia finishes off the 2nd half title then it will come down to the second best overall record and currently the three other division teams are tightly clustered, well below .500 on the year, and separated by just 2 games.

Finally, two members of the org got top prospect of the week notice with both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America last week. Congrats to a couple of rising prospect stars!