San Francisco Giants Minor League Major Performers: Great GreenJackets
The San Francisco Giants had another off-day, but seven of their minor league affiliates were in action for eight games on Monday.
The San Francisco Giants were off again on Monday, but their affiliates made up for their absence with eight games. The AAA River Cats were off as well, but the DSL Giants played a doubleheader in their stead, making up the July 10th rainout. They split the two games against the Rockies.
AA Richmond and high-A San Jose both lost, but single-A Augusta and short-season A Salem-Keizer both won. The AZL Orange team couldn’t come away with a win, but their AZL Black counterparts did come through with a victory.
Here are Monday’s big performers:
It was pretty much a two-man show in Augusta. While third baseman and ninth hitter Shane Matheny provided the offense for the GreenJackets, right-hander Jose Marte handled things on the mound. Matheny drove in both runs in Augusta’s 2-1 win, and Marte threw six shutout innings to make those runs hold up.
Matheny opened the scoring in the third, pulling a solo home run to right field to start the scoring and give Augusta a 1-0 lead. He added on to that in the eighth, sending Orlando Garcia home after a leadoff double with his second hit. That proved to be a big run, as Charleston would score in the eighth, but the lead would hold.
It would hold in part because of a stellar effort from Marte. He held the RiverDogs off the board for six innings, throwing the longest shutout start of his young career. He went 1-2-3 in the first, then struck out the side in the second. A one-out single in the third was erased with a groundball double play, then Marte threw another 1-2-3 inning in the fourth. He finished with a clean sixth inning, striking out two to bring his total on the night to seven K.
Matheny was the Giants 23rd-round pick in 2017 out of Wazzu , but has struggled in his first stint with Augusta. He’s hitting just .197/.299/.288 in 66 games, and is down to .155 since June started. The home run on monday was his first since June 17th, and it was only his second multi-RBI game since May 7th.
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Marte was signed as an international free agent in 2015 out of Santiago, Dominican Republic, and has steadily risen through the system since. The 22-year-old is in Augusta for the first time this year, and has pitched well. He started the year extremely strong, pitching to a 2.75 ERA and 1.275 WHIP in his first 11 starts, but fell on some hard times in late June and early July. He’s pitching better recently, and Monday was his best start of the year, and possibly his career.
For the Giants AZL Orange team, 21-year-old right-hander Israel Cruz enjoyed one of his best nights of the year. He threw five innings of one-run ball, limiting the White Sox to four hits while striking out seven.
Cruz started rather shaky, allowing a walk and a double that led to a run to tie the game in the first. He settled in after that, striking out the side in the second then working a 1-2-3 frame in the fourth. He stranded a two-out bloop single in the fifth before handing it over to his bullpen. His efforts gave the offense time to work, with the Giants eventually taking a 4-1 lead before Cruz departed.
Cruz was acquired in the Matt Moore trade this past offseason, along with Sam Wolff (who is currently in AA). He’s struggled a bit in six appearances (five starts), pitching to a 5.70 ERA and 1.567 WHIP, but has shown the ability to get strikeouts (32 in 30 innings).
As the DSL Giants split the doubleheader with the Rockies, third baseman Samuel Jorge had a big game in the latter half. He was hitless in three at-bats in game one (the team only mustered one hit), but had a perfect day in game two, picking up hits in all four at-bats while driving in three runs and scoring twice.
The 18-year-old corner infielder got the scoring started in the first inning, lining a single to center field to drive in the first run of the game. He added a one-out single in the third, then scored after another single in the fifth inning. His day was capped off with a two-run homer, his first of the season, in the seventh inning that made it 7-0.
Jorge was brought to the organization as an international free agent back in 2016, and is playing in his second year with the DSL team. He’s hitting .278/.361/.380 in 31 games, and leads the team with eight doubles.
Next: Minor League Major Performers 7-20-18
Others of Note:
Patrick Ruotolo (RICH): 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K
Jalen Miller (SJ): 1-3, 2B (27), RBI (54), BB
Joey Bart (SK): 2-3, 2B (6), 2 R, BB
Wander Franco (SK): 2-4, 2B (9), 3 RBI (13), 2 R
Sean Roby (AZL B): 3-5, HR (2), RBI (13), R
Ghordy Santos (DSL): 2-4, 2 2B (3), 2 RBI (8), R, BB, SB (13)