Ok, I try not to overuse this power but let’s give it one more try: LET’S SEE IF WE CAN GET THIS GUY TO OREGON, PLEASE!

I’m gonna do these in order like I always do — but I’m telling you right now you probably want to skip on down past the full season affiliates...

HIGHLIGHTS: Ricardo Genoves, Alexander Canario and Sandro Fabian all homered twice; Kervin Castro struck out 8 over 5 shutout innings.

Sacramento lost at Las Vegas Aviators (A’s), 15-6

winning their series, 3-2

Sacramento snuck out of Vegas with a series win, despite suffering a punishing loss in the finale. The Aviators beat on starter Yoanys Quiala and friends to the tune of 20 hits in piling up 15 runs. Quiala gave up half of them in just three innings of work and relievers Pat Venditte and Sam Coonrod didn’t find the going any easier. Coonrod had a particularly rough night, failing to retire any of the five batters he faced.

The RiverCats did blast four home runs to try to keep pace, including a three-run shot fro Zach Green (his 15th). The other three were all solo shots however, and the team managed just three hits that didn’t leave the building.

Chris Shaw homered and walked, as well as striking out twice (TTT!). The HR was his 5th with Sacramento and 12th overall this year. He’s kept his BB rate at 11% since joining Sacramento, in 81 PA. The K rate has moved back up to 24%, but with the BB rate solid the ratio is much more acceptable than last year and his Iso is a boisterous .232.

Chris Shaw lines one out of the park for his 12th homer is year. He’s kept BB% at 11% since promotion. pic.twitter.com/jpH5tmHzze — Roger Munter (@rog61) June 25, 2019

In an interesting move yesterday, Ryan Howard was sent back to Richmond. The Squirrels have essentially been playing without a starting SS since Howard’s promotion so this may just be about coverage more than anything else, but Howard has not had the season that he was hoping for in 2019. He’s hit just .230/.280/.331 in the PCL (good for a 48 wRC+) over 40 games after getting off to just a .194 start over 28 games in Richmond.

Richmond lost to Altoona Curve (Pirates), 5-2

Jalen Miller’s throwing error on a potential double play ball opened the door to a three-run rally in the 7th inning. That broke a 2-2 tie and made a loser out of Frank Rubio, who is finding AA a rougher beast than the Cal League. The RHP allowed just 1 ER (4 total) on 20 hits in 31.1 IP while striking out 36 in San Jose. In 4.1 innings with Richmond he’s given up 7 hits and 2 earned runs (4 total) without a strikeout. His WHIP has jumped up nearly a full batter per inning.

Richmond’s most recent Indy League refugee, catcher Brett Austin (late of the White Sox system) accounted for three of the team’s 11 baserunners and had the only extra base hit for the Squirrels. Ryan Halstead, meanwhile, made his first career start for a team which is, once again, just struggling to cover the field this year.

Hey, but speaking of covering the field, SS Brandon Van Horn covered a significant portion of it on this play:

The franchise did have a couple of important things to celebrate yesterday. Before the game, the host team for the upcoming Eastern League All Star game had a nice contingent selected:

Six Flying Squirrels players have been selected for the Eastern League All-Star Game



▪️ Zach Houchins

▪️ Jacob Heyward

▪️ Jalen Miller

▪️ Jonah Arenado

▪️ Melvin Adon

▪️ Caleb Baragar



➡️ https://t.co/T82KZAHxS3 pic.twitter.com/HlQMErZRz9 — Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) June 24, 2019

And during the game, the incredibly successful franchise celebrated its 4 Millionth customer in the Squirrels 10 year history! Congratulations to a really REALLY well-run organization!

San Jose lost to Modesto Nuts (Mariners), 11-2

San Jose continued a disappointing start to their second half, getting blown out by the Nuts in a thoroughly non-competitive 11-2 demolition. It was the Giants largest margin of defeat this year. Starter Casey Meisner gave up a big inning early, and Cal League All Star Aaron Phillips gave up a big inning late.

In between, the San Jose bats weren’t doing much of their own against Mariners #7 prospect Logan Gilbert, who gave up just 1 earned run in 6 innings. San Jose shook up the lineup a bit, with Heliot Ramos moving to the leadoff spot and Joey Bart up to the third spot. It didn’t do too much good last night, though Ramos did work a walk and score a run. Bart had one of the few solid swings off Gilbert on the night:

With a 2-1 count against @Mariners Logan Gilbert (2018 #14 overall pick), @SJGiants Joey Bart smokes a 2-1 fastball to drive in a run (@JBart9GT). Bart had fouled back/whiffed on earlier FBs down the middle at 90-93, but locks in here and smokes the ball pic.twitter.com/dFBAiBChmu — Jacob Zweiback (@TheReelJZ) June 25, 2019

David Villar connected off Gilbert for his 12th double of the season, the team’s only extra base hit for the night.

David Villar nearly takes Logan Gilbert out to dead center for his 12th double of the year pic.twitter.com/jWMSkAcahB — Roger Munter (@rog61) June 25, 2019

Augusta beat Asheville Tourists (Rockies), 5-2

On a long rainy night in Augusta — that featured an hour long delay in the late innings — Jacob Gonzalez doubled twice and drove in two runs to help lead the Greenjackets to victory.

Jacob Gonzalez sneaks a double past the 3b to drive in two last night. One of two doubles for Gonzalez on the night pic.twitter.com/0Y25iV2UA9 — Roger Munter (@rog61) June 25, 2019

Augusta put near constant pressure on the Tourists, with 11 hits including four doubles in the game. Ismael Munguia opened the game with one of those doubles leading to a two-run rally to give them the early lead. Gonzalez doubled that total in the 4th and with strong pitching Augusta cruised to the win.

Salem-Keizer won at Everett AquaSox (Mariners), 13-3

winning their series, 3-1

Nice win tonight! Four batters in a row go yard for the first time in Volcanoes history! pic.twitter.com/RDbbqa6BIT — S-K Volcanoes ⚾ (@SKVolcanoes) June 25, 2019

It would be a little difficult to imagine a more thorough dismantling than the beat down that SK put on poor Everett last night. The Volcanoes opened things up by scoring 7 runs in the top of the 1st — all coming with two outs. Somewhere in the middle of that eruption (oops, I did it again) was a Ricardo Genoves three-run shot. But amazingly that was not a rally killer, as they went on to score three more times in the inning.

That certainly put starter Kervin Castro at his ease, and all he did with the pad was go out and have his best game as a pro. The 20 year old converted Catcher with the big fastball set a career high, striking out 8 batters, while holding the AquaSox to just two hits and no runs. Castro is putting his name on the list of interesting arms in the system with what’s looking like a breakout 2019. He’s allowed just two earned runs (5 total) on just 5 hits over his first three starts. He seemed a little nervous in his opening night start, walking 3 and hitting 2, but since that bit of jitters he’s allowed just 1 free baserunner. Overall that’s 17 Ks to 4 BBs in his 15 innings of work. Coming out of Extended, we heard whispers that Castro was catching eyes, and now we’re starting to see what the whispers were about.

So they gave up 7 runs in the first and got shoved by the starting pitcher, so what else could go wrong? Oh yeah, how about a little franchise history?

BACK-2-BACK-2-BACK-2-BACK#SFGiants prospects have six homers already for @SKVolcanoes. Plus, Jeff Houghtby is a 3B shy of the cycle. And it's only the fourth!



F O L L O W L I V E https://t.co/QvgEncISSt pic.twitter.com/AgIoeNpQur — Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) June 25, 2019

The Volcanoes bashed out 5 home runs in the top of the 4th, including four in a row. Give a bow to Tyler Flores, Ricardo Genoves, Franklin Labour, and Sean Roby for making a little Volcanoes history. After Jeff Houghtby opened the frame with a solo shot, Yorlis Rodriguez was Hit by a Pitch — the only batter in the first six to come to the plate who did not hit one out.

All of the 4th inning damage came off poor Everett pitcher Juan Mercedes — who on the bright side only gave up two hits in his 2.1 IP that didn’t leave the yard.

Franklin Labour and Ricardo Genoves are so far lapping the NWL in HRs. No other hitter in the league has more than 2, while Labour now has 5 and Genoves is up to 4, with three of those coming in this three-game series.

AZL Giants Orange beat the AZL Athletics Green, 9-2

AZL Giants Black beat AZL Athletics Gold, 10-2

#SFGiants prospects are flexing some in the AZL tonight:



Alexander Canario (No. 10): 2-for-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI

Sandro Fabian (No. 16): 2-for-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI



Live stats for all the @SFGiants' top prospects: https://t.co/KeSUYIsNn0 pic.twitter.com/K0TnN6ty5x — MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 25, 2019

The Giants pair of teams put a beat-down on cross-bay rival A’s rookie clubs, by a collective score of 19-4 yesterday. Lots of guys were feeling good after this night.

First and foremost, whatever Alexander Canario did to his shoulder diving back into 2b last month — it is HEALED, as he seems to be showing on a nightly basis. Canario crushed two more HRs last night, boosting the ol’ SLG up to a cool 1.040. That’s the SLG, not the OPS which stands at 1.504. He’s healthy. Let’s get this kid to a higher level — stat!

Sandro Fabian has a planned move up coming in his future as well. His rehab has been slow going but he was in the groove last night, also going deep two times — just his third and fourth hit so far in five games. Maybe another few games for Fabian to catch up to game speed (Alex can be excused now, though).

The Team Black beat down also included the first pro homer for 6th round pick Dilon Rosario and the pro debut of 7th rounder Armani Smith, who tripled among his two hits. Nineteen year old reserve OF Bryan Hernandez, the 18th round pick last year out of Puerto Rico, also had two hits including a double.

One of the more interesting arms in camp is LHP Jesus Gomez, who features real swing and miss stuff when he can find the zone. His 4 K/5 BB night was indicative of what we’re likely to see from this year, but if he can hone the mechanics there’s a good raw talent to work with there.

Rodolfo Martinez has been sent back to Scottsdale on a rehab assignment as well. The quixotic RHP burned through 2 easy innings yesterday, throwing 15 of 15 pitches for strikes and getting 4 Ks. That was his third game in Arizona and he too is probably not long for the complex league.

Whether Canario’s still with the rest of the gang or not when this piece gets published, I’m sure we’re all anticipating what Kerry Crowley has to say about Complex Kids:

Just finished up an interview with a group of #SFGiants prospects that’s giving the fan base plenty of hope. From left to right, that’s Marco Luciano, Alexander Canario, Luis Toribio and Jairo Pomares. pic.twitter.com/GA8EHwaNiH — Kerry Crowley (@KO_Crowley) June 24, 2019

DSL Giants lost to DSL Tigers2, 5-3

Jose Peralta, whose 18th birthday will be coming up on the 4th of July (Yankee Doodle Dandy), continues to reach base at an impressive rate. With a walk and two walks yesterday the middle infielder boosted his OBP for the year up to .432. He’s reached base in 7 of his last 8 games, and in 15 of his 19 games in the year.

Luis Matos broke a six-game hit streak and a 13-game on base streak with his 0-fer. It was just his third game this season (out of 17) in which he’s failed to reach base.

Victor Bericoto’s single extended his hit streak to 7 games. Bericoto has reached base in every game this season (19) with 21 hits and 22 walks.

Today Scheduled Starters:

Sacramento (Ty Blach) @ El Paso (TBD)

Richmond (Caleb Baragar) vs. Altoona (James Marvel)

San Jose (Matt Frisbee) vs. Modesto (Penn Murfee)

Augusta (Gregory Santos) vs. Asheville (Shelby Lackey)

Salem-Keizer (Jacob Lopez) vs. Hillsboro (TBD)

AZL: OFF

DSL Giants: (Rafael Martinez) vs. DSL Colorado

Well, it started off slow but that Minor Lines really picked up steam there at the end! I’m feeling like this guy! Have a great day, everybody!