Braves Minor League Recap: Alex Lodise homers twice

It was a slow week for Jim Jarvis at the plate against Jacksonville, but he immediately got back on track in the series opener in Charlotte and led a scoring outburst from the Stripers. Jarvis clubbed a two-run home run in the third inning to put Gwinnett on top in the game, and they never relinquished that lead. Jarvis’s home run was his fourth of the season, bringing him already within one of his career high through just 27 games, and his contributions were far from over. He added an RBI single in the sixth inning as part of Gwinnett’s six run frame which carried them in the runs column for the whole game, and capped off his evening with an eighth inning double. That sixth inning also featured a big appearance from Sean Murphy, who kept a soft liner fair down the left field line for an RBI double. Murphy has certainly not been his best during his rehab stint in the system, but tonight was a good step for him. In addition to it being his second straight game with a hit he also caught all nine innings and went 4-4 on ABS challenges behind the dish.

With the depleted starting staff the Stripers turned to a committee approach to pitching this game, and almost ran into a wall in the late innings after a strong start to the game. Javy Guerra and Anderson Pilar have been incredible for the Stripers on the mound this season so it’s no surprise that both were on their A game in this one, combining to go five innings with only one run allowed while the offense opened up a 9-1 lead. The Stripers turned it over to Daysbel Hernandez in the sixth inning, who managed to pitch a scoreless inning though it’s clear he is not yet at the top of his game. His fastball velocity is starting to work back towards normal, sitting at 96.5 mph in this game, but he still doesn’t have the same juice he did last season. The positive note was just how well he was landing his slider in this game. He had a few very bad misses, but what for the most part he was throwing both his pitches in solid locations and didn’t make significant mistakes in the inning he threw. The game was plodding along nicely until the seventh inning when Austin Pope had a blowup outing, allowing a walk, five hits, and four runs before being pulled after retiring only one hitter. Charlotte drew even closer with a run off of James Karinchak in the eighth inning and a home run off of Ian Hamilton in the ninth, and following that long ball Hamilton got into a dangerous situation with two outs. He allowed a hard single to old friend Jarred Kelenic, then a bloop hit to bring the tying run up, a hitter whom he walked to load the bases. With his back against the wall Hamilton locked in at the right time, getting three swinging strikes on his slider to retire the final hitter.

Swing and Misses

Ian Hamilton – 6

Javy Guerra – 5

(12-9) Columbus Clingstones, (9-12) Montgomery Biscuits PPD

(11-11) Rome Emperors 4, (15-7) Bowling Green Hot Rods 8

Box Score

• Isaiah Drake, DH: 2-5, 2B, .244/.316/.407
• John Gil, SS: 1-3, BB, .297/.393/.486
• Eric Hartman, CF: 0-4, .300/.371/.675
• Cam Caminiti, SP: 5 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 5.63 ERA

We like to see good games from Isaiah Drake and John Gil, and those two helped lift an underwhelming evening for Rome who didn’t really get any offense going until the game was mostly wrapped. Drake had a solid hit in the first inning that got snagged for an out, but he wasn’t done in the game and had a couple of other hits. His double in the eighth inning down the left field line kicked off the big inning for Rome, leading to three runs to make the final score look a little more respectable for them. Drake would end up scoring on an odd play, when Cody Miller beat out a tapper down the first base line that the pitcher apparently missed the tag, though he would argue otherwise. On that play John Gil, who earlier walked, was able to come all the way in to score from second base, capping another solid performance from him to further boost his numbers. Gil’s lone hit in the game came in the fourth inning when he hit a screaming liner over shortstop for a single. Then, with just a bobble from the left fielder Gil had enough time to advance to second base, showing again what an impact his speed can make on the bases. After a perfect week at the plate Eric Hartman’s hitting streak came to a quiet close with an 0-4 performance. He had a decently well-hit ball in the fourth inning on a fly out that advanced, but otherwise had a non-impactful game for the first time in awhile.

Looking at the seven hits and runs allowed it would be easy to write this off as a poor day on the mound for Cam Caminiti, but that wouldn’t feel like an entirely fair evaluation of his performance. Early on in this outing Caminiti worked quickly and efficienty, almost never falling behind in the count and forcing a combination of weak contact and swing and misses that had him through three easy innings. An error helped bring home a run and he did allow a double on a slider below the zone that the hitter scooped into left field, but all in all he looked solid even if his slider wasn’t at its best all the time. As the game progressed he started to settle in to slinging those sliders across the zone to lefty hitters, but in the fourth inning he just started bleeding singles. It was rarely poor locations or hard hits that did him in, but a series of soft singles that led to two runs to further the hole in the game for Rome. A bunt single and a roller through the right side of the infield accounted for the two hits and runs in the next inning, but he finished off the frame with his best fastball of the game. He went up above the zone for a whiff to strike out a hitter to end the inning, one of his strikeouts in the game. His worst pitch was probably the 0-2 fastball down the middle that got smacked for a single to lead off the sixth and he was pulled after walking the next hitter, but overall Caminiti’s execution in this game far outpaced his actual performance. Certainly there could have been occasions he made slightly better pitches with his slider to get whiffs late in counts, but he pitches significantly better than the line would indicate and I wouldn’t in any way put it in the same category as the struggles he had last week.

Swing and Misses

Cam Caminiti – 13

Trent Buchanan – 6

(13-9) Augusta GreenJackets 12, (6-16) Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 4

Box Score

• Tate Southisene, 2B: 1-4, BB, .269/.442/.513
• Alex Lodise, SS: 2-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI, .280/.346/.441
• Luis Guanipa, CF: 2-4, HR, BB, 2 RBI, .329/.352/.557
• Logan Forsythe, SP: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 2.70 ERA
• Aivan Cabral, RP: 4 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 3.50 ERA

April has felt like a slow wait to see when Alex Lodise would break out. The strikeout rates have been a bit concerning, but his contact quality has been there since the beginning and with three multi-hit performances last week it felt like only a matter of time before he would have a big day at the plate. That day came in the opener of the series against Kannapolis. The GreenJackets routed the Cannon Ballers thanks to five home runs in the game, and two of those came off of the bat of Lodise as he drove in five runs. Interestingly the GreenJackets didn’t do a whole lot the first time through the order against Kannapolis starter Truman Pauley, and trailed 2-0 going into the fifth inning, but Cooper McMurray woke up a sleeping giant by crushing a game-tying home run in the bottom of the fifth. A few batters late and Lodise got his first. He unloaded on one to left field for a two-run home run, and after the fifth inning Augusta held on to a 5-2 lead. That lead grew in the next inning, and Luis Guanipa had a big hand in that four run frame. He got to look at a slow breaking ball on the inning corner of the plate and had all day to get his quick hands around on the pitch, and he absolutely launched the pitch off of the apartment buildings in left field. Guanipa had a great game in his own right, starting out in the first inning with a deep fly ball that bounced off of the center field wall and allowed Guanipa to streak in to third base with a triple. Guanipa also drew a walk in the fifth inning, a hugely welcome sign for him, and in his final at bat hit a ball hard into the gap that the left fielder was positioned perfectly on to track down for a line out. Lodise added on by showing off his power with a no doubter the opposite way in the eighth inning, and two batters later Nick Montgomery got in on the action with a long home run of his own.

It took a bit of time for the pitching staff to get their bearing after the long rain delay, and Logan Forsythe was the victim of that. Forsythe’s command issues finally came around to hurt him after a decent start to the season as he walked three hitters in 1 2/3 inning and seemed to really have no idea where anything was going. He had to give way to Carter Lovasz early in the game, and Lovasz thankfully was able to settle it down quickly. He dominated with 2 1/3 innings of scoreless ball, striking out three batters. Aivan Cabral had the job of providing long relief for Augusta, and while he was just okay it was plenty for Augusta after they scored nine runs in two innings. Cabral allowed a ton of contact on his sinker and it turned into seven hits over four innings of work, but with such a solid defense behind him they were able to keep him from really getting into serious trouble. The most impressive looking of Augusta’s pitchers was Styven Paez, though his command is obviously a major problem at this stage. The Braves can hope that Paez is a late bloomer who can grow into some command, as his upper 80’s sweeper has legit major league potential and pairs well with a fastball that can really get up on hitters thanks to Paez’s low release and solid carry. It’s sort of a dime-a-dozen relief profile in the minor leagues at this point, and given the effort in Paez’s delivery it’s hard to project his command coming along too well, but it’s never a bad thing to have a few cheap guys in the system with some middle relief potential.

Swing and Misses

Aivan Cabral – 7

Carter Lovasz – 7