Cannonballs coming: J.T. Brubaker throws eight shutout innings

By WTM Aug 4, 2018, 10:03pm EDT

Minor Transactions

by Brian Cartwright

2018-08-04 GCL Pirates released C Yair Babilonia.
2018-08-04 Altoona Curve placed RHP Austin Coley on the 7-day disabled list.
2018-08-04 West Virginia Power activated 3B Ben Bengtson from the 7-day disabled list. He had been out since July 26.
2018-08-04 West Virginia Power activated C Deon Stafford from the 7-day disabled list. He had been out since July 26.
2018-08-04 1B Jhoan Herrera assigned to West Virginia Black Bears from West Virginia Power.
2018-08-04 2B Raul Siri assigned to Bradenton Marauders from West Virginia Power.

Babilonia, age 20, had spent two years in the DSL and appeared in 5 games for the GCL team this summer, with no hits in 8 ABs. He had a career line of 230/321/266.

P2 reports that Bradenton has released OF Garrett Brown, but it hasn’t shown up in my MLB feed yet (which is typically a day behind as I check in the very early AM)

Games

— J.T. Brubaker (pictured) threw eight strong innings as Indianapolis (62-50) blanked Toledo, 2-0. Brubaker gave up three hits, walked none and fanned six. He threw 96 pitches, 63 for strikes. Michael Feliz got the save, allowing one hit in the ninth. Max Moroff doubled in one run and finished 2-4 with two doubles. Jason Martin, who went 1-4, brought in the other run with his third AAA home run. Kevin Newman was 1-4 and Kevin Kramer 2-4.

— Altoona (58-50) lost to Akron, 9-8. The Curve loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but Cole Tucker struck out and Ke’Bryan Hayes flied out. Tucker finished 0-4 with two walks and is 1-for-19 in his last five games. Hayes went 1-5 with a walk. Jordan George and Christian Kelley had big days. George went 2-5 with his third and fourth home runs and three RBIs. Kelley was 4-5 with a double. Stephen Alemais was 2-3 with a double, two walks and three RBIs. Luis Escobar started and couldn’t throw strikes. He walked five in four and a third innings. He was charged with five runs on three hits, and he struck out four.

Bryan Reynolds: 0-5
Will Craig: 1-3, 3B, BB

— Bradenton (49-55) fell victim to a two-hit, 1-0 shutout against Clearwater. Evan Piechota had a good start, giving up the one run on three hits and a walk over seven innings. Blake Weiman threw two perfect innings, striking out one. The only hits were singles by Jared Oliva, who was 1-4, and Jason Delay, who was 1-2 with a walk.

— West Virginia (56-51) beat Augusta, 8-2. Fabricio Macias went 2-4 with his first pro home run and four RBIs. Deon Stafford, who’s been out for a bit under the concussion protocol, went 1-4 with his sixth home run. Cal Mitchell went 2-3 with a walk and Lolo Sanchez 0-4. Oneil Cruz went 1-2 with a double, then left the game for no obvious reason. Domingo Robles started and threw five shutout innings, allowing four hits and a walk, and striking out three.

— The 2018 draftees continued to struggle as Morgantown (17-31) lost the first game of its doubleheader with Williamsport, 5-2. Mike LoPresti gave up three runs on eight hits in four innings. Travis Swaggerty was 1-2 with a double and a walk. The other draftees in the lineup — Daniel Amaral, Mike Gretler, Brett Kinneman, Zack Kone and Luke Mangieri — combined to go 2-for-15.

The Black Bears also dropped the second game, this time 1-0. Francis Del Orbe got a spot start and pitched well, giving up a run in four innings. He allowed two hits and a walk, and struck out four. Conner Loeprich threw two scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk, and striking out three. Morgantown had just four hits. The draftees — in this game, Amaral, Mangieri, Kone, Grant Koch and Zac Susi — went 2-for-10. Morgantown had runners on first and third with two outs in the seventh, but for some reason let non-prospect Melvin Jimenez, who has a .531 OPS, bat instead of sending, say, Swaggerty up to pinch hit. The result was predictable.

— Bristol (18-24) gave up ten runs in the third inning, got a few late runs mostly on errors, and lost to Kingsport, 14-6. Will Kobos and Argenis Romano each gave up seven runs. Jonah Davis went 1-5 with three strikeouts, Conner Uselton 1-4, Mason Martin 0-3 with two walks, and Sherten Apostel 0-4.

— The GCL Pirates (18-19) beat the Blue Jays, 5-2. Noe Toribio gave up two runs in four and a third innings, allowing five hits and four walks while striking out six. Kleiner Machado got the win with three scoreless innings. Nick Patten went 2-3 with his third home run. Jack Herman was 2-4 with a double and a walk. Samuel Inoa was 0-4 and Ji-Hwan Bae 1-5.

— The DSL Pirates1 (21-25) got only two hits in a 5-1 loss to the Indians/Brewers. Yoyner Fajardo (19) had both the hits in four at-bats. Juan Pie (17) was 0-4.

— The DSL Pirates2 (21-33) took an early 7-1 lead and held on to beat the Tigers2, 10-7. Eduar Ramirez (17) drove in four runs with a single and a triple in his first two ABs, but came out of the game in the third inning. Edgar Barrios (18) was 3-4 with a walk and Mario Jerez (17) was 3-5. Angel Basabe (17) went 1-4 with a walk. Yeison Santos (17) got the win by allowing a run in four innings of relief. He has an ERA of 1.42 in a dozen relief outings.

Disabled List

Triple-A Indianapolis

2018-06-27 3B Jung Ho Kang, left wrist sprain (underwent possible season ending surgery)
2018-07-14 RHP Bo Schultz, right forearm strain
OF Daniel Nava

Double-A Altoona

2018-05-29 RHP Dario Agrazal, right shoulder strain (rehab 7-23)
2018-08-04 RHP Austin Coley, right shoulder strain
C Jin-De Jhang (on rehab at Morgantown)

Single-A West Virginia

2018-04-16 RHP Dylan Prohoroff
2018-05-03 LHP Braeden Ogle, sore shoulder
2018-05-21 3B Dylan Busby
2018-07-19 LF Chris Sharpe
2018-07-20 RHP Cody Bolton
2018-07-29 2B Rodolfo Castro
RHP Will Reed
LHP Angel Martinez

Rookie Bristol

2018-08-02 RHP Leandro Pina (60 day)

Rookie GCL

2018-06-18 RHP Luis Gonzalez (60 day)
CF Emison Soto (60 day)