San Francisco Giants Minor League Major Performers: Bart Does it Again

The San Francisco Giants are back under .500 again, but at least their farm system had a pretty productive day of baseball on Friday.

The Giants continued to be not very good at baseball on Friday, losing again to drop back under .500. The good news is that the farm system showed that they can win a little bit, going 5-4 on the night. AAA Sacramento lost, but AA Richmond, high-A San Jose, single-A Augusta, and short-season A Salem-Keizer all own. Both AZL teams lost, and the DSL Giants split a doubleheader.

Richmond walked off in the ninth inning, getting a bases loaded hit by pitch to end things. John Polonius was plunked to drive in the run, and he was responsible for both RBI on the night. In Augusta, Heliot Ramos delivered a walkoff single in the 10th inning.

In rehab news, Joe Panik continued his assignment with the River Cats. Again playing second base and hitting second, Panik went 1-3 with a single and a walk. He played seven innings, and should play the full nine on Saturday.

Getting down to business:

Strong Starters

There were a bunch of excellent efforts from starting pitchers on Friday. Richmond, Augusta, AZL Black, and the DSL Giants all enjoyed great starting pitching, leading to wins for three of the four teams.

Lefty Conner Menez continued his hot streak for Richmond. He threw 5.2-shutout innings, allowing four hits and a walk while striking out 10. He didn’t factor into the decision, but the Squirrels were able to walk off as winners in the ninth. In his last four starts with Richmond, the 2016 14th-round pick has pitched to a 1.73 ERA and .808 WHIP, piling up 31 strikeouts in 26 innings. This was his second 10+ strikeout game of the season.

The GreenJackets also walked off for a win, and Caleb Baragar’s dominant effort allowed them to do so. He pitched seven scoreless innings with just two hits against his record. He struck out nine and didn’t allow a walk. This was the longest shutout start of the southpaw’s career, and he matched his personal best with nine strikeouts, the third time he’s reached that mark. He’s currently riding a 13-inning shutout streak.

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2017 34th-round pick Conner Nurse tossed a great game for the AZL Black team, pitching five innings of shutout ball. The Angels team collected two hits and a walk against Nurse, who struck out four. This marked his first career game without allowing a run. His bullpen didn’t fare so well, allowing nine runs over the last four innings.

17-year-old Sonny Vargas cruised in the second game of the DSL Giants’ doubleheader on Friday, hurling five shutout innings, allowing just two hits and striking out three without walking a batter. Vargas, also a southpaw, has shut out his opponents in three of his last four starts in his debut season.

Joey Bart

The Giants’ most recent first-round draft pick, Joey Bart, continued his domination of the Northwest League. He hit a pair of home runs among his three hits, driving in four runs as the Volcanoes erupted for a 14-1 over the Everett AquaSox.

Bart got the party started in the first inning, hitting a sac fly to open the scoring. After a single in the fifth, Bart launched his first home run to center field as part of a five-run seventh inning. In the eighth, Bart crushed another one, sending it 447 feet away to left-center field.

The newly-minted Giants’ top prospect on MLB Pipeline, Bart has powered through the short-season A circuit in 18 games. He’s hitting .338/.383/.784 with six doubles and nine home runs, which ranks second in the league to Curtis Terry, who has played twice as many games as Bart. Friday was Bart’s second two home run game in Salem-Keizer.

Next. Minor League Major Performers: 7-26-18. dark

Others of Note:

Chris Shaw (SAC): 1-3, HR 921), 2 RBI (58), R, BB
Matt Winn (SJ): 2-3, HR (9), 2 RBI (34), R, BB
Nico Giarratano (SK): 1-1, HR (3), 4 RBI (17)
Solomon Bates (SK): 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K

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