San Francisco Giants Minor League Major Performers: The Tangled Webb We Weave
The San Francisco Giants won on Friday night, but their affiliates went 2-3 with hard-fought battles up and down the system.
As the San Francisco Giants opened the Bay Bridge Series with a victory, five of their minor league teams took the field as well. While all the rookie league teams (AZL Orange, AZL Black, DSL Giants) had the day off, all the upper level teams played. AAA Sacramento lost, but AA RIchmond and High-A San Jose came away winners. Single-A Augusta and short-season A Salem-Keizer both lost as well.
Some of the day’s best performers:
The Flying Squirrels and Trenton Thunder played a great ballgame on Friday night. After Richmond jumped out to a lead, Trenton came thundering back in the eighth inning to tie it, forcing extra innings. Richmond leaped ahead again in the 10th with three runs, and Trenton nearly came back again. All along the way, left fielder and cleanup hitter Dylan Davis was helping things along. Davis came away with three hits on Friday, and drove in a pair of runs.
Davis started his day with a single to lead off the second, but didn’t score. He extended Richmond’s early lead in the sixth inning, lining his 20th double of the season into left field to bring home a run, making it 3-1. Trenton would eventually tie it up, forcing the 10th.
After Richmond scored the all important first run of extras, Davis provided the all important second run, extending the lead with his third hit of the day. That hit also moved a runner over third, and that runner, Ryan Howard, would score the third run of the frame. That third run proved to be the biggest, as Trenton pushed across a pair in the bottom half to nearly come back again.
Davis, the Giants’ third-round pick back in 2014 out of Oregon State, is playing in his second year with Richmond. His best year in the organization came back in 2016, when he slashed .283/.356/.521 with 27 doubles and 26 home runs between San Jose and Augusta. He spent most of his early career as a right fielder, but has almost exclusively played left field this year.
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This wasn’t Logan Webb’s best start, statistically. He went 4.2 innings for San Jose, allowed three hits and three walks that led to a couple runs, and struck out five. But it was a big start for Webb in another sense. For the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery in June of 2016, he pitched into the fifth inning. Since returning in June 2017, he had made six starts that went exactly four innings, but had never taken the mound for the fifth time. That changed Friday night.
The first four innings went well for Webb. The only run he allowed in those innings came on a solo home run in the fourth, and Webb had pitched well enough, and efficiently enough, to get the fifth. He retired the first two batters, including picking up his fifth strikeout of the evening, but then ran into trouble. A walk, a stolen base, and a single brought home the second run, and Webb issued another before being pulled. Reliever Sandro Cabrera picked him up, retiring the final batter to prevent any more runs being put on Webb’s line.
Not only did Webb pitch into the fifth for the first time since surgery, his 74 pitches on Friday night were 10 more than he’d thrown in a game post-surgery. Even though things nearly got away from him late in his day, Webb still allowed two or fewer runs for the 15th time in 18 appearances this year. His ERA sits at a tidy 1.96 on the season.
On a team with some of the Giants’ best prospects, including the top two picks from last season’s draft, one of the team’s biggest offensive performers this season has been their shortstop, Manuel Geraldo. He continued his fine season on Friday, going 3-4 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored.
He made his only out in the bottom of the first, but had a perfect day after that. He led off the fourth with his first hit, then came around to score Augusta’s first run to make it a 3-1 game. He cut deeper into that lead in the fifth, driving in the second run with another single to turn it into a one-run game. With one out in the eighth inning, Geraldo picked up his third hit with a double, then moved to third on a passed ball. He represented the tying run, but his teammates couldn’t bring him home to tie it up.
Geraldo was signed by the Giants back in 2013, and now at 21 years old, has made his way slowly but surely through the system. He spent some time in Augusta in each of the previous two seasons, struggling to a .163 average, but has had great success in his first full season in the Sally League. He’s hitting .291/.341/.402 and leads the team in average, and is second with 44 RBI and 19 stolen bases. His 95 hits are tied for fourth in the league. After being named an All-Star in Salem-Keizer last season, Geraldo was an All-Star again this year.
Next: Minor League Major Performers 7-12-18
Others of Note:
Mac Williamson (SAC): 1-4, 2B (5), 3 RBI (30)
Ryder Jones (SAC): 2-4, HR (9), RBI (41), R
Jalen Miller (SJ): 2-5, 2B (25), HR (11), 2 RBI (48), 2 R
Wander Franco (SJ): 2-5, HR (2), 2 RBI (26), R
JJ Santa Cruz (AUG): 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K
David Villar (SK): 1-4, 2B (5), RBI (12)
Gregory Santos (SK): 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R (1 ER), 3 BB, 7 K