There have been a lot of rough outings for the Atlanta Braves 2023 first round pick, but on this day Hurston Waldrep was the clear best player in the system as he shut down the Pensacola lineup in a win. Up in Gwinnett Dylan Dodd went for the Stripers, displaying his improved fastball velocity that we’ve seen this year but not having the same success as Waldrep.
(13-16) Gwinnett Stripers 5, (12-18) Durham Bulls 8
- JP Martinez, CF: 2-5, .284/.360/.441
- Dylan Dodd, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 4.32 ERA
- Daysbel Hernandez, RP: 1 IP. 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
- Ken Giles, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Dylan Dodd was not missing any Durham barrels, as they were able to put up hard contact against him throughout the game and finally broke loose in the fifth inning. Dodd had largely avoided any issues through the fourth inning of the game, despite the Bulls being able to put everything into play as batted balls found gloves and Dodd got through the fourth scoreless. The constant contact finally came back to bit him in the fifth though as a soft single led off the inning, and ultimately a three run home run put a gash in the scoreboard and left Gwinnett trailing. Dodd faced and failed to retire two batters in the sixth inning, and his replacement wasn’t much better and allowed both inherited runners to score along with two more runs of his own.
While the pitching takes the brunt of the blame for this result, the offense continues to be abysmal and for much of the game the story was the same. A handful of softly hit singles came together to force a run home in the third inning and stretch a Gwinnett lead to 2-0, but after a first inning lineout from Leury Garcia the Stripers didn’t have another hard hit ball until the 8th inning. This just so happened to be an important hard hit ball as Andrew Velazquez snuck a three run home run over the wall in right field, but the overall lack of any hard contact has been brutal to see. There were some notable strong outings out of the bullpen, with Brooks Wilson being a bright spot. WIlson was burned by soft contact and allowed a run, but his splitter was dancing all over the place and he struck out three batters while getting seven whiffs on the splitter. Daysbel Hernandez also had a scoreless inning in relief and has five straight scoreless innings.
(8-16) Mississippi Braves 6, (13-11) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 1
- Nacho Alvarez, SS: 0-4, .282/.395/.321
- Drake Baldwin, C: 1-3, BB, RBI, .247/.321/.329
- Hurston Waldrep, SP: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 4.38 ERA
Mississippi’s offensive production mostly came from the bottom of the order in this game, and they strung together one of their best offensive showings with a twelve hit night. That production didn’t extend over to Nacho Alvarez, who had a tough night at the plate. Alvarez struck out in the first inning on a questionable nip of the outside corner by a fastball, then put up soft contact in his final three plate appearances to end the day 0-4. Drake Baldwin reached twice in the game, though also not with great quality contact. His fifth inning single wasn’t hit great and likely wouldn’t have gotten past the infield had they not been playing in to try to cut down Cody Milligan from third base.
While the offense was producing regularly Hurston Waldrep held it down on the mound, producing a much better outing than his prior one. Waldrep looked much more comfortable out there on the mound, notably with his command being a step above last week. Still not great command, but Waldrep made competitive pitches regularly and showed that his raw stuff is good enough to succeed even without pinpoint location. Despite the limited number of splitters that Waldrep is throwing right now it was still often his put away pitch for his five strikeouts, and ending at bats with his fastball and slider is still a work in progress for him. Still he produced 16 whiffs in the game and only allowed one run over 5 2⁄3 innings.
(12-10) Rome Emperors 8, (9-14) Hickory Crawdads 4
- Kevin Kilpatrick Jr., CF: 0-3, 2 BB, .286/.340/.451
- Sabin Ceballos, DH: 1-4, BB, .231/.337/.282
- Cory Wall, SP: 2.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 5.56 ERA
- Landon Harper, RP: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 0.00 ERA
Rome exploded in the first half of this game, and the bullpen for both sides held the game in check late as the Emperors cruised to a win down the stretch. Cory Wall overall had an unimpressive outing, allowing six Hickory hits across 2 2⁄3 innings as he has struggled to find his footing while stretching out to throw more pitches. Despite this he got 13 whiffs on 59 total pitches, despite not having great location with his slider. Some of this swing-and-miss can be chalked up to overly aggressive High-A hitters, there were quite a few bad chases that upper level hitters not named Javier Baez just wouldn’t make, but his fastball was especially impressive when he was able to locate it. Still, he is working off of a two pitch mix so I’m not sure how long he can survive as a starter without having better slider location.
Much of Rome’s offensive success in the game came from just waiting out the Hickory pitching staff, as they drew nine walks in the game with four of those coming in their four-run fifth inning. Life has been tough at the top of the order for Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. who got off to a blazing start to the season but is 0-11 this series taking a huge chunk out of his numbers. That top of the order overall has cooled off, but one played who has played fairly well is Ambioris Tavarez. There are still moments of frustration where Tavarez looks completely out of sorts at the plate, and even still it is far too often these happen for me to feel confidence in saying he’s improved. However Tavarez has put up another chunk of at bats that have looked promising, and he has really jumped all over fastballs this season and been hitting the ball much harder. His production is bolstered by a .455 BABIP, but that BABIP is also helped by him hitting the ball hard and making line drive contact when he can get the bat to the ball.
(11-13) Augusta GreenJackets 3, (10-13) Charleston RiverDogs 4
- Drew Compton, DH: 0-5, .348/.458/.507
- Robert Gonzalez, CF: 1-4, RBI, .246/.280/.348
- Didier Fuentes, SP: 4 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 2.65 ERA
Drew Compton went 0-4 for the GreenJackets on opening day, then in his next 18 games reached safely at least once (usually multiple times). Last night marked the end of his on base streak, as in five chances he couldn’t get a hit to fall and he saw his on base percentage plummet all the way down to a miserable .458. Compton was a piece of a pretty dreadful offensive attack for the GreenJackets, with the worst of these being unfortunately Diego Benitez who struck out in all four of his at bats. The bottom of the Augusta order did all of the damage for the team, with the lone run in the first nine innings coming from Will Verdung. Verdung got a fastball belt high on the inner half and didn’t miss it at all, easily clearing the left center field wall for his first home run in what has been a miserable start to 2024. Augusta had two runs to respond to in the bottom of the 10th inning, and Verdung got the ball started by drawing a hard fought walk to put the tying run on. Robert Gonzalez then cut the deficit in half, turning on a fastball and lacing a line drive at 111 mph into right field for an RBI single.
After Gonzalez stole second base Jacob Godman then came tantalizingly close to walking the game off, lining one into left field. Verdung scored easily from third, but a great throw to home nabbed Gonzalez as he pulled up at the end and failed to slide into home. Charleston would get a run on a wild pitch in the 11th inning, and that run would loom large as Augusta failed to respond. The reason this game even got this far was the phenomenal work of Augusta’s pitching, and that all started with Didier Fuentes. Fuentes has struggled in the first inning this season, but there was none of that in this game as he dominated with two strikeouts and a foul pop out for a perfect first. Fuentes still struggled with command throughout his start though, and ultimately Charleston got a few pitches left in the zone in the fourth inning and had two doubles to take an early lead. His low walk games still tend to be like that, where he fills the zone more so than locates, though he didn’t have near the number of bad misses as in previous starts.
