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MMN Recap: Alonso Heating Up, Rennie Strikes Out 14

By Daniel Muras

July 23, 2018 No comments

Photo by Jennifer Nieves, MMN

Las Vegas (48-53) 15, Reno (50-51) 6  Box Score

Reno’s ballpark is known for being extremely hitter-friendly and it certainly played that way in Sunday’s game, in which the 51s hit four home runs and scored 15 total runs. Alonso hasn’t picked up many hits since his promotion to Triple-A, but he’s still hitting for a ton of power. Alonso has three home runs in his last four games and five in his last nine. Over half of his hits for Vegas have gone for extra bases (14 out of 22 total hits). Borenstein is hitting ,324/.427/.647 in July and his 21 home runs are tied for 3rd in the Pacific Coast League. Dominic Smith played in his first game since his demotion and went 1-for-5 with a RBI double as the left fielder.

Jeff McNeil was 1-for-4 with two walks and three runs scored.

  • RHP Cody Martin (W, 3-3, 6.94 ERA) 6.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 4 K
  • LHP Ian Krol (1-0, 3.46 ERA) 1.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 K
  • RHP Bobby Wahl (3-2, 2.20 ERA) 1.1 IP, H, 3 K

Corey Oswalt was originally supposed to start for Las Vegas, but was called up to the majors to replace the injured Noah Syndergaard, so Martin started in his place. Krol had his second consecutive relief appearance in which he allowed three earned runs. The big blow against Krol was a two-run home run by former Met Anthony Recker. Wahl, who was acquired on Saturday in the Jeurys Familia trade, made his organizational debut and continued to strike out batters at a prodigious pace. The 26-year old righty has 68 strikeouts in 41 innings.

Trenton (54-45) 9, Binghamton (47-52) 2  Box Score

The Rumbles Ponies has plenty of baserunners in this game (16 in total), but went a poor 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and, as a result, were limited to just the two runs. Both runs came in the third inning, with doubles by Michael and Mazeika each plating a run. Michael is in the middle of an insanely hot July in which he has hit .363/.457/.538.

Jannis was coming off two consecutive quality starts for the Rumble Ponies, but two home runs resulted in him falling just short of a quality start on Sunday afternoon. Blackham had been so good since being promoted to Double-A, but he had first rocky outing as he gave up two runs in the seventh inning. Nogosek had looked like he turned a corner in his last couple of appearance, but, while he threw a scoreless eighth inning, he couldn’t make it through the ninth inning in this appearance.

Columbia (47-49) 2, Augusta (49-49) 1  Box Score

The Fireflies struggled offensively on Sunday as they had just seven players on base for the entire game. The first run of the game scored in the seventh inning when Rheams singled home Winaker with one out. Jabs scored the second run an inning later on an Edgardo Fermin sacrifice fly. Winaker has gotten on base at a very high rate in 2018, largely due to a walk rate just below 13%.

Rennie was absolutely dominant in his start against Augusta as he threw seven scoreless innings and struck out a franchise-record 14 batters. Rennie was signed out of Independent ball earlier this month and, while he’s definitely old of the level, he has completely dominated the South Atlantic league. Three of his four appearances have been scoreless and he has a 28:3 K:BB ratio in 21.2 innings pitched. O’Neil has a 1.15 ERA with 22 strikeouts over his last 10 relief appearances.

Brooklyn (19-16) 3, Lowell (20-15) 2  Box Score

The Cyclones didn’t have much offense in the first game of the doubleheader, as they scored only three runs on eight hits, all of which were singles. Meyer has 8 hits in his last 18 at bats and has struck out just five times this season.

Campusano started the first game of the doubleheader and struggled through three innings. Campusano looked dominant to start 2018, but has had a very rough July and has a 7.63 ERA for the month. Oxford hasn’t allowed an earned run since July 7 and has pitched multiple innings in 12 of his 14 relief appearances this season. Gilliam has flashed excellent strikeout stuff so far in his pro career as he has now struck out 7 batters in 4.0 innings.

Brooklyn (20-16) 4, Lowell (20-16) 0  Box Score

The Cyclones scored four runs on nine hits in the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader. Lagrange is hitting .371 over his last 10 games, although he is hitting for much less power than he did last season. Hayden Senger has a hit in 12 of his first 14 professional games and is hitting .370/.463/.522 for the season between Kingsport and Brooklyn.

Vilera continued his dominance with Brooklyn as he threw 5.2 shutout innings on Sunday afternoon. His command wasn’t at its best, as his three walks are the second most he’s given up in a start this season. Vilera hasn’t allowed a run in three straight starts and has a 20.0 inning scoreless streak.

Kingsport (16-14) 8, Bristol (13-17) 4  Box Score

The Mets had a big night offensively, scoring eight runs on ten hits, although they were also helped out by five Pirates errors. Vientos had gone three straight games without a hit, but broke out of his mini-slump with a solo home run in the second inning that got Kingsport on the board. Adon homered for the second straight night with a three run blast in the ninth inning that put the game out of reach. Top draft pick, Jarred Kelenic has cooled off after his promotion to Kingsport and is hitting just .154 over his last ten games.

Cleveland made his fifth start of the season and continued to limit runs despite walking way too many batters. Cleveland has allowed more than two earned runs in just one start this season, but has a poor 13:20 K:BB ratio on the season. Moreno had only pitched once since an electric first start of the season, but threw two hitless innings in relief. He has 12 strikeouts and just one walk in 9.0 innings.

GCL Mets (17-12) 4, GCL Cardinals (21-8) 3  Box Score

Despite recording just six hits and going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position in Sunday afternoon’s game, the Mets were still able to score four runs with some help from the Cardinals defense. Valdez has struck out just three times in 14 games this season. Mompierre hasn’t had too much success with actually hitting the ball in the first 12 games of his professional career, but his plate discipline numbers are outstanding (12:7 BB:K ratio).

Guzman started the game for the Mets and continued to pitch quite well. He now has gone eight straight appearances without allowing more than 3 earned runs. Taylor Jr. has gone 13 straight innings without allowing an earned run. Woods-Richardson, the Mets’ recent 2nd round draft pick, made his professional debut and closed out the game with a perfect ninth inning. He also reportedly hit 99 MPH multiple times during his outing.