“So you like home runs, do you.....”

Yeah we have some dingers today. Enjoy, gluttons!

HIGHLIGHTS: Chris Shaw had five hits, HR; Hunter Bishop walked five times; Dilan Rosario doubled twice and tripled.

Sacramento won at Salt Lake Bees (Angels), 12-11

Brandon Crawford and the Giants weren’t the only ones in the org enjoying some friendly confines last night. Down I-80 apiece the RiverCats had their own Rocky Mountain retreat outside of Salt Lake City, and they busted out the bats. One big bat in particular!

FIVE hits tonight for Chris Shaw!! He becomes the first River Cats player to record five hits in a game since Chris Shaw on April 11, 2018. #ClawsUp — Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) July 16, 2019

Chris Shaw has a huge night at the plate with five hits including his 11th HR with Sacramento pic.twitter.com/tNXxkPsi1t — Roger Munter (@rog61) July 16, 2019

Yeah that seems good! Seven members of the lineup had multi-hit games, and the team got exceptional performance at the top of the order from the collective OF. Steven Duggar, Joey Rickard, and Mike Gerber in the 1-2-3 spots provided seven hits, two walks, drove in five, and scored half of the team’s 12 runs.

It all added up to a heh-heh-heh-heh-heh....LAUGHER! Up 10-1 after 2 innings. Up 12-3 after Shaw’s HR! Why even bother playing the res...... hey what’s going on here!!!!!

The final three innings were an entirely different story, as the Bees ripped off 8 unanswered runs and with two outs in the bottom of the 9th moved the potential tying run to 3b with the potential winner at 1b. DRAMA!

⁦@RiverCats⁩ barely hung on to a 9 run lead last night thanks to this heads up play from Aramis Garcia to nail pot. Tying rum at 3b to end game pic.twitter.com/jSi4FcOW8U — Roger Munter (@rog61) July 16, 2019

Can you give a Catcher a Save? Nice thinking Aramis!

Richmond lost at Hartford Yard Goats (Rockies), 5-4

Jalen Miller had his first multi-hit game since June 29 last night, including his 12th double of the year. Miller had six multi-hit games in April, and another five in May. But this was just his third since June 11. Jalen is having a slight uptick in July. After batting .202 from May 1 through June 30, he’s hitting .243 so far in July. And more interestingly, his K/BB ratio is his best since April. He has just 6 Ks and 4 BBs in 41 PA this month, after having 52 Ks to 21 BBs in May/June. For the season, he’s posting a career high 9.4% BB rate and a career low 19.6% K rate with a .139 Iso — though he has just 2 HRs since May 11. It would be good to see the 22 year old finish the year out on an upswing.

A three-run rally against starter Caleb Baragar in the 3rd proved to be decisive as the Squirrels could never put a crooked number on the board and couldn’t quite come all the way back. Gio Brusa’s 9th HR with Richmond made it a one-run game in the 9th but that was all Richmond could manage as they continue to sink in the EL. The team is currently 25 games below .500 — an all time franchise worst. One gets the feeling they’ll increase that before this year is done.

San Jose lost at Lancaster JetHawks (Rockies), 6-5

winning their series, 2-1

All Rockies affiliates are essentially their league’s Red Door Spa for offensive players. Come in, relax, get pampered, feel rejuvenated!

And certainly the Lancaster Experience was enjoyed by Heliot Ramos and Joey Bart! Joey Bart torched the Hawks, going 9 for 16 over the three game series, with two doubles and a HR. Meanwhile, Ramos wrapped up a terrific southern road trip, going 5 for 14 in Lancaster with 2 doubles, 2 HRs, and 2 BBs. He hit 3 HRs in the swing through Rancho Cucamonga and Lancaster, boosting his OPS back up to .904 for the year.

Heliot Ramos enjoyed playing in Lancaster! His 4th XBH and 2nd HR in the series though the Lancaster PxP team was unimpressed! pic.twitter.com/uInZftqF8s — Roger Munter (@rog61) July 16, 2019

Ramos is no doubt waving a sad goodbye to the Hangar — a guy could get used to this place! (although the nightly 100+ degree weather might take a toll).

Sandro Fabian also had a nice series, going 6 for 12 with a HR, continuing a hot start for Fabian since rejoining the the Giants. Fabian is 13 for 37 with San Jose with two HRs and a double in his first 10 games back in the Cal League. The 21 year old is once again swinging a little freely, however, with 10 Ks (to 3 BBs) in his first 40 PA.

Despite 12 hits, San Jose wasn’t quite able to pull off the sweep that would have given them a winning road trip, but the return home from the southland having gone 3-3.

Augusta lost to Charleston RiverDogs (Yankees), 3-2

Throwing errors in the 2nd and 3rd innings led to two unearned runs off starter Keaton Winn that ultimately sent Augusta to defeat.

The Greenjackets only runs came on two solo homers, including just the second home run of the year for Diego Rincones. That was one of two hits for the night for Rincones who pushed his season average up to .299 and his OPS to .768. Diego got off to a slow start in 2019, hitting just .247 in April with a .650 OPS. But he’s been on a roll since May 1, improving in each month since then. He posted a .299/.353/.411 line in May, .312/.365/.419 in June, and is now hitting .366/.400/.561 in the Small Sample Size theatre of July. The move up to full season ball hasn’t made a dent in his excellent contact abilities, as he’s striking out just 13.6% of the time in the Sally, and he’s even managed to boost that BB rate up to 7%, nearly doubling his mark from the NWL last year. But as a corner OF, the power will have to develop if he’s to find his way to the top of the development path.

Diego Rincones jerks a hanging changeup out for just his 2nd HR of the year. Two more hits last night has avg up to .299 pic.twitter.com/LVd3OhdAMB — Roger Munter (@rog61) July 16, 2019

Salem-Keizer lost at Hillsboro Hopes (Diamondbacks), 4-3

“Villains!” I shrieked! Dissemble no more! tear up the planks, here, here. It is the beating of these hideous HOPS!!!!!”

The 19-12 Volcanoes let 1st place slip from their grasp thanks to back to back losses in Hillsboro. Salem-Keizer applied constant offensive pressure last night — they put 15 runners on base and stole six bases in the game. But they struggled to get the timely hit, going just 3 for 16 with runners in scoring position while piling up 14 Ks. The cruelest opportunity of all came in the 7th inning when Simon Whiteman led off the inning with a triple, but the Volcanoes were unable to chase the tying run home, as Sean Roby and Franklin Labour both struck out, and Ricardo Genoves hit the classic 2 out fly ball that would have been enough to score him earlier in the inning. Roby had earlier gotten thrown out at home trying to score on a wild pitch that ended a 5th inning opportunity.

One of many scoring opportunities that came to naught in tough last night for ⁦@SKVolcanoes⁩ as Sean Roby thrown out at home to end 5th pic.twitter.com/chW1QkNJK7 — Roger Munter (@rog61) July 16, 2019

Ricardo Genoves continued to show a powerful new swing, as he doubled home Labour in the first. It’s really notable how much bigger and stronger he is this season, and how much more authority there is in his swing. Genoves is SLG .585 this year after just a .311 SLG with the Volcanoes in 2018.

20 yr old Ricardo Genoves has really been swinging bat with authority this year. Big physical development over last year or so has brought increased power. Slugging .585 in second season w SK pic.twitter.com/b0Z9v0WVcg — Roger Munter (@rog61) July 16, 2019

You can see the tremendous physical development that has taken place for Genoves, particularly in the lower half, as compared to say this clip from two years ago in the AZL:

Starter Kervin Castro was mostly solid in the game but two big swings really hurt him. A triple in the 2nd keyed a 2-run rally. And then in in the 5th the Hops greeted him with three consecutive hits, including a two-run double that brought in the eventual winning run. With 6 Ks and 0 BBs Castro improved his season ratio to 32 to 7 in 36 IP.

The Volcanoes badly need a win tonight to avoid the sweep at the hands of the damned Hops and pull themselves back into a tie for 1st with less than a week to go in the first half.

AZL Giants Orange beat AZL Cubs1, 13-3

AZL Giants Black lost to AZL Angels, 8-6

Hunter Bishop headed up the parade for Team Orange, as he drew five of a somewhat amazing 12 walks for the game. That helped the Orangemen tally up 13 runs despite a pedestrian 9 hit game. Marco Luciano had two hits and a walk, and also stole his 5th bag of the year (though he also has 4 CS). Luis Toribio didn’t have any hits, but he also added two walks to the total.

Apparently, Kevin is taking credit for Bishop’s big day — works every time!

This is likely because I pointed out more than half of his at-bats ended in strikeouts so far this season.



(It’s still true) — Kevin J. Cunningham - SF Giants Lunatic (@sflunaticfringe) July 16, 2019

PJ Hilson is still searching for balance and contact at the plate, but he showed off the collection of impressive physical tools that excite scouts yesterday with a triple, a SB, and an OF assist.

The big win put the AZL Orange team on the precipice of a post-season appearance, breaking the organization’s futility streak from last year. Orange’s magic number is now down to 1.

Over at Team Black, 6th round pick Dilan Rosario continued to flash some surprising pop in the rookie league. With two doubles and a triple, the 18 year old out of Puerto Rico now has 12 extra base hits out of 18 overall leading to a rather extraordinary .328 Iso for the young SS. His season line is now up to .269/.296/.597. Pretty impressive for a raw youngster who came with a defense-oriented reputation.

DSL Giants lost to DSL Mariners, 4-3

Reliever Cristian Acosta couldn’t hang on to a 3-2 lead, surrendering two runs and the game in the bottom of the 8th. Acosta has actually blown every save opportunity he’s had this year, and he’s allowed 10 earned runs (15 total) in 19.2 innings this year. But he does have 21 strikeouts against just 4 unintentional walks, so there’s some signs of hope in his season (standard DSL pitching stats caveat*, of course).

Seventeen year old Catcher Ronaldo Flores had three hits to lead the Giants. Interestingly, Flores has had more multi-hit games (12) than single-hit games (7) this year.

All Star Luis Matos did NOT collect two hits in this game, but he made up for the lapse by stealing two bags. His 10 SB are second on the team behind Adolfo Valdez’ 11.

Victor Bericoto, who had such a hot start to the season, is hitting just 7 for 41 in July with just one extra base hit.

*they don’t really mean anything

Today’s Scheduled Starters:

Sacramento (Yoanys Quiala) @ Salt Lake (Dillon Peters) Gm 1

Sacramento (Enderson Franco) @ Salt Lake (JC Ramirez) Gm 2

Richmond (Alfred Gutierrez) @ Hartford (Ty Culbreth)

Augusta (TBD) vs. Charleston (TBD)

San Jose: OFF

Salem-Keizer (Jacob Lopez) @ Hillsboro (Michel Gelabert)

AZL Giants Teams: OFF

DSL Giants @ DSL Mariners (TBD)

Come up big Jacob Lopez! Need a win in Hillsboro tonight!