San Francisco Giants Minor League Major Performers: Walk-Off Wednesday
The San Francisco Giants continued their arduous dance with the .500 mark, losing another one-run game, this time to the Seattle Mariners. On the farm, all eight of their affiliates were in action, putting together a 4-5 record.
AAA Sacramento lost, while AA Richmond split their doubleheader to make up for Tuesday’s rainout. High-A San Jose won, but single-A Augusta and short-season A Salem-Keizer both lost. The AZL Black and Orange teams played each other, with the Black squad getting the best of their fellow Giants’ prospects. The DSL Giants also won.
On a suspicious note, River Cats’ starter Shaun Anderson was originally listed as Sacramento’s starter on Wednesday, but he didn’t pitch. Both Henry Schulman and the River Cats’ twitter account have said he will pitch tomorrow, but it’s trade deadline season. Maybe he’s part of a trade, or maybe he was sick, or maybe he just got stuck in an elevator and didn’t get out until after the game started. Either way, he didn’t pitch when he was supposed to, sooooo….
Anyway, the big things from within the system Wednesday.
Walk-off Winners
The San Jose Giants and DSL Giants both needed some heroics in the late-innings of their Wednesday affairs, and they got them. The DSL team entered the eighth trailing then the ninth tied, while San Jose was down a run entering the bottom of the ninth. Both teams walked off to get their wins.
In San Jose, the Giants trailed the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 7-6 heading into the last of the ninth. Wander Franco (the eldest Wander Franco brother) wasted no time tying the game, launching the second pitch of the inning for a game-tying solo home run, his fourth of the year. After a Sandro Fabian single and Jacob Heyward walk, Heath Quinn played hero, sending a ball down the left field line to bring home Fabian and send the fans home happy.
Franco went 2-4 on the night, hitting his team-leading 28th double and driving in three runs. Along with the walk-off hit, Quinn hit a home run in the fifth inning, a two-run shot to give him 10 on the year. Quinn is hitting .304/.375/.502 in 63 games this year.
More from Golden Gate Sports
- Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
- 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
- Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
- 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
- 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve
In the Dominican Summer League, the Giants were looking up at the Tigers 2 entering the eighth. Andrew Caraballo tied things up at two, grounding out with the bases loaded. A little later, Samuel Jorge made his impact, beating out an infield single to bring home pinch-runner Jose Hernandez from third in the ninth, scoring the game-winning run.
Another 2018 draftee had a strong night for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, this time coming from right-handed pitcher Jake Wong. The 21-year-old threw three stellar innings, racking up three strikeouts while not allowing a hit or walk.
Wong started his evening with a clean inning in the first, getting a pair of groundballs and a flyout to retire the side. He was perfect in the second again, picking up his first two strikeouts of the night sandwiched around a comebacker. The lone baserunner he allowed came with two outs in the third when he hit a batter, who then advanced to third on a stolen base and a throwing error. Wong neutralized the threat with another groundball to close out his three-inning effort.
Wong was the Giants’ third-round pick, 80th overall, in this year’s draft out of Grand Canyon University. After a strong junior year (2.81 ERA, 89 strikeouts in 89.2 innings), he became the school’s highest draft pick since Tim Salmon (third round, 69th overall) in 1989.
He had a fairly long layoff between his final college game on May 20th and his pro debut on July 4th, so the Giants have been pretty careful with his pitch counts. Wednesday was his longest start (three innings, 40 pitches), and by all accounts his best as a pro yet.
Ben Madison, another 2018 draft pick, also had the best evening of his infantile career. Pitching for the AZL Orange team and facing his AZL Black counterparts, the 6’3” righty hurled two perfect innings, striking out four batters along the way. He struck out two in the first then added two more in the second, retiring the other two batters he faced with groundballs to the left side of his infield.
Madison was the Giants’ ninth-round pick out of Central Baptist College in Arkansas. He was a two-way player in college, also playing outfield, but has exclusively been a pitcher since being drafted. In college, Madison racked up 172 strikeouts in 96.2 innings to go with a 2.70 ERA, earning NAIA All-American honors and co-Pitcher of the Year in his conference.
Live Feed
FanSided
Wednesday was only Madison’s fourth outing as a pro, but certainly his best so far. It was his first shutout start, his first start without a walk allowed, and he struck out a personal best four batters.
One of the Giants’ most exciting young prospects had his best night of the season for the AZL Black team. He beat up his AZL Orange counterparts by collecting three hits in four at-bats, hitting two home runs for the first time in his career. He drove in two runs, scored three times, and stole a base.
Canario was the first of the aforementioned Madison’s four strikeout victims, watching strike three go by in the first inning, but it would be all uphill from there. He led off the fourth inning with a single, then stole second base for his team-leading eighth steal of the season before scoring. Canario’s next two at-bats ended with him trotting around the bases, both times depositing a home run over the wall in left field.
Canario was signed as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2016, and is still just 18 years old. He’s the Giants’ 11th-ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline’s top-30 list, and is number nine on Baseball America’s newly-released midseason list. MLB Pipeline lists Canario’s “electric bat speed” and “knack for making consistent hard contact” as two of his best traits, while also pointing out his patience to draw walks, which isn’t a common trait for someone his age.
This is his first year playing stateside, and the tools are starting to shine through after a tough start. He hit .143/.268/.143 with no extra-base hits in eight June games, but is all the way up to .368/.486/.596 with six extra-base hits in 14 games in July. In that same stretch, he’s cut way down on the strikeouts. His K rate was 34.2% in June, but is down to just 16.9% since the calendar flipped.
Minor League Major Performers: 7-24-18. dark. Next
Others of Note:
Orlando Calixte (SAC): 2-3, 2B (12), RBI (40), SF
Tyler Rogers (SAC): 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Luigi Rodriguez (RICH): 2-7, HR (11), 3 RBI (38), R
Nolan Riggs (SJ): 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K
Tyler Schimpf (AUG): 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
Aaron Bond (SK): 2-4, 3B (2), RBI (10)
Abdiel Layer (AZL B): 1-4, 3B (1), 3 RBI (12)
Johan Herrera (AZL B): 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 2 K
Beicker Mendoza (AZL O): 2-4, 3 SB (5)