
The Braves have a quartet of solid pitchers going on Thursday night, and Davis Polo topped the bunch by completing 6 2/3 innings while striking out seven batters. Polo has had a wonderful season in returning from Tommy John surgery and has been one of the best pitchers in the system for the past month and a half, and has earned a breakout status amongst prospects.
(59-57) Gwinnett Stripers 3, (41-74) Norfolk Tides 2
- Brett Wisely, SS: 2-4, BB, RBI, .275/.393/.412
- Patrick Clohisy, RF: 3-5, .413/.481/.620
- Owen Murphy, SP: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 3.52 ERA
- Rolddy Munoz, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 3.35 ERA
Owen Murphy had a solid final line against the Norfolk Tides on Thursday night, though he may have gotten away with more than better lineups in the league would have let him. Murphy’s fastball was the only reliable weapon he had throughout the game as he was scattered with all of his pitches, missing dangerously high on secondaries and finding a way to get away with it throughout the evening. The one exception was a changeup he left glove side and up to a left-handed hitter that got hit for a solo home run. For the second straight outing Murphy’s average fastball velocity was a little bit down from where it has been for most of the season, but the numbers are still within his normal range and he held velocity into the fifth inning with a drop in the sixth that was only represented by two pitches. For Murphy those secondaries up in the strike zone can work given his fastball-heavy approach, as hitters expecting fastballs may get fooled by non-fastballs dropping, and his slider did put up a good performance throughout this game. However this was a case of Murphy missing his spots with every pitch and only getting a few nice fastballs in there at the top or just above the zone. As mentioned in the last recap of Murphy’s outing he deserves some leniency for the rest of the season given how much of a jump in his workload he has faced this season, and he’s held up remarkably well to that as most pitchers have more setbacks.
Gwinnett got most of their offense out of the way early and then went quiet on the scoreboard despite scattering hits throughout the game. Patrick Clohisy was unsurprisingly a major contributor, punching a one out single the opposite way in the third inning that kicked off their biggest rally. The Stripers strung together three singles with two outs, capped by a bloop hit to score Rowdy Tellez from second base, and took an early 2-1 lead that held until Murphy coughed up that home run. Gwinnett managed 13 hits despite only getting three hard hits balls in the game, but it was one of those days that the ball was falling even if they couldn’t come through in the later innings against the bullpen. Clohisy had three hits himself all without getting a hard hit ball, though in his first two at bats against the Tides starter he showed a great approach even if he didn’t hit the ball solidly. His last matchup against the starter was much uglier as he swung at two breaking balls that bounced before chipping one the opposite way off the end of the bat for an out. Clohisy looks lost on sliders below the zone right now regardless of if it’s a lefty or righty on the mound, but is getting enough of them in the strike zone and making contact that he’s finding an avenue to success. After both sides went scoreless in the tenth inning it came down to Luke Williams for the Stripers in the 11th inning, which didn’t bode well for Gwinnett. Williams came into the at-bat with four strikeouts and nine whiffs on the day, then fell down 0-2 after swinging through two straight fastballs. Williams then somehow put this horrendous day behind him and hit a hanging slider for a single, driving home the go ahead run. Bailey Falter struck out the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the 11th, then forced a fly ball right at Clohisy to end the game.
Swing and Misses
Owen Murphy – 11
(51-55) Columbus Clingstones 6, (45-66) Birmingham Barons 7
- John Gil, SS: 2-4, BB, .294/.375/.353
- Eric Hartman, LF: 2-5, RBI, .200/.349/.229
- Owen Carey, RF: 1-4, 2B, .219/.342/.438
- Brett Sears, SP: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 3.55 ERA
It was the first game for the Clingstones that Gil, Hartman, and Carey all put it together at once, but in the end it was still not enough for the pitching staff to hold onto the lead. I say they all put it together, but it was still not a great day from Owen Carey. Carey had a great swing in the fourth inning and split the gap for a double that ended up being a huge hit in the game. Carson Taylor followed it up by driving in both runners to put Columbus on top, but that was the end of the good hitting from Carey. He struck out swinging in his other three at bats, and strikeouts have been an issue for him since being called up. Strikeouts have been a bit elevated for all three, which I supposed is to be expected for making the transition to Double-A the first time. Gil has been the best of the three in that regard which isn’t a surprise given their relative histories offensively, and he has come along nicely with six hits in his last four games. Gil hasn’t really had a signature performance but has consistently gotten on base at a high clip, with him failing to get on at least one time only once in the nine Double-A games he has played. Gil pulled a couple of line drives hard in this game, and even though he’s not elevating as well as he did in Rome he has maintained his pace of hitting a ton of line drives and giving himself chances for hits. Gil had a big one in the top of the ninth inning with Columbus trailing by four runs with two outs, and that helped set the stage for a late rally. Hartman followed that up with his best hit when he laced a single to center to score Dalton McIntyre, and Jordan Groshans delivered with the Clingstone’s biggest hit. Groshan’s reached for a slider and muscled a three-run home run out to left field, tying the game up at six runs apiece.
What was a bad final line for Brett Sears really boils down to a terrible single inning of work after four innings of slicing through the Birmingham lineup. Sears started out shaky with a walk and a hit batter to lead off the first inning, but after that he locked it down and carried momentum over the next four innings. Sears was a little bit less fine with his pitches than he was in his great stretch during July, but commanded the ball well until he didn’t anymore. Sears hit two batters and walked two others in the fifth inning, gave up a double on a slider thrown in about as bad a location as you can put one, and ended up allowing three runs in the fifth inning to give Birmingham the lead. Sears lost every bit of touch he had in an instant, and wasted a solid outing. In the tenth inning LJ McDonough had the unfortunate task of trying to strand the runner at second after the offense failed to score, and he lost it in one of the worst ways possible. McDonough got his outs and had a chance to end the game, but threw two wild pitches that let the Barons runner advance in to score and win the game.
Swing and Misses
Brett Sears – 13
Anderson Pilar – 9
Samuel Strickland – 5
(52-55) Rome Emperors 8, (37-72) Asheville Tourists 3
- Luis Guanipa, CF: 1-5, 2B, BB, 3 RBI, .186/.205/.326
- Conor Essenburg, RF: 0-4, BB, .176/.317/.294
- Alex Lodise, SS: 0-3, BB, HBP, .264/.394/.415
- Zach Royse, SP: 6 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 4.62 ERA
The Emperors faced off against an old friend in Adam Shoemaker, who reminded us of the good old days by walking five batters in two innings. He started the game off with a strikeout of Luis Guanipa, and while he did chase out of the strike zone it was a solid at-bat and Shoemaker has a great slider that is tough for any batter when he locates. Guanipa also got a called second strike in the at bat on a borderline slider down and in and probably felt he had to protect that spot. Conor Essenburg then fought a ball into right field and was robbed of a hit by a diving play and Alex Lodise drew a two-out walk. After a defensive lapse allowed Dixon Williams on base the Emperors had a chance to get a run early, but a shoestring catch on a hard hit liner from Cody Miller ended the inning. In the second inning Shoemaker ran out of charm, and walked four hitters including a free pass to Guanipa that forced home the first Rome run. Essenburg smoked a ball in the fourth inning that got tracked out for a fly out, and had a walk later in the game. So despite a hitless game Essenburg looked solid at the plate and had the contact to make a bigger contribution even if it didn’t show in the stat line. Alex Lodise didn’t have a particularly great day at the plate but had a fly out to the wall in the fifth inning and yet again no strikeouts. Lodise has had a couple of rough games in a row but continues to have infinitely more success at hitting breaking balls both in and out of the strike zone. Guanipa had one of his best days in terms of seeing the ball at the plate. He had that strikeout in the first but overall made the right decisions on when to swing and hit a ball hard off of the wall the other way for a double. But there are also at bats like in the fourth inning where I truly don’t understand what he is trying to do. A first pitch slider up in the strike zone is a great pitch to swing at, but pushing it the other way on the ground with a slow swing is not it and another example of the complaints I’ve had with him lately. Still he has had some hard hit balls the last few games which is a good sign for him, so I’m hoping this is the start of an upward trajectory for him.
Zach Royse was not quite his normal self in this game, though despite the unfriendly confines he did just enough to keep this game from being a disaster. Throughout the season Royse has made a pattern of looking good early and hitting a wall later in the game after guys get multiple looks at him, but he didn’t have much of a feel for his command early in this outing. He allowed a run and a walk in each of the first two innings, including a leadoff home run, and he never fully settled into the game. What he did was pound the strike zone after his early struggles, and even if this led to some more hits he made the Tourists batters put the ball in play and got solid work from his defense. By focusing on landing his sinker at the bottom of the strike zone he was able to get quick outs in the middle innings and extend his outing to six innings without allowing another run. It wasn’t clean and he allowed nine hits in the game, but he pitched to what he had working even when his slider wasn’t consistently getting the results he is accustomed to.
Swing and Misses
Zach Royse – 10
Jarret Whorff – 2
(58-51) Augusta GreenJackets 7, (62-49) Charleston RiverDogs 2
- Carter Beck, CF: 1-3, 2 BB, .353/.436/.353
- Junior Tilien, 2B: 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, .143/.217/.286
- Davis Polo, SP: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 3.19 ERA
Davis Polo keeps churning out great starts for Augusta, and it’s long since been time for him to move up to Rome and get a challenge. Polo really didn’t have his best stuff early, and the RiverDogs were on his changeup but couldn’t square it up. Polo was very predictable with his sequences and locations this outing, which isn’t really anything shocking at this level, and early on he had some high misses with the changeup that limited how much he was able to get whiffs on the pitch. Everything else was working, but with a heavy lefty lineup and Polo’s reliance on his changeup that made it hard for him to get ideal results early in the game. As he settled in that pitch really started to fade below the zone or off the plate arm side and he was churning through this lineup. It was some of the best command he’s shown in any start over the final four innings or so, with him able to hit the sinker at the bottom of the zone and tunnel the changeup off of that, or move the fastball high in the strike zone to get whiffs there as well. His slider didn’t feature as much, but when he did have a righty up he pitched well with it and didn’t make any mistakes up with the pitch. There’s only positives to take out of this for Polo. The sequencing thing is a coaching decision to help guys at this level develop, and in terms of execution Polo did his job.
This lineup has become an older group of guys quite quickly, which has robbed which has robbed it of the consistent intrigue it had prior to this month. The major exception is Carter beck who got on base three times and stole three bases. Beck didn’t even have to take his bat off of his shoulder for his two walks and has been dicing fastballs all across the field for his hits. Beck hasn’t looked to pull the ball in the air as much as I expected and most of his results are coming against fastballs right now, though we’re still well in small sample territory. 15th round pick Caleb Klein had a three hit game to add to a magical start to his professional career. Klein has been a bit of a whiff machine early on, but everything he has made contact with has found a hole somewhere and he has four multi-hit games in six appearances.
Swing and Misses
Davis Polo – 15
Yander Pinero – 5










