Atlanta Braves Minor Leauge Weekend Wrap: April 11th

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MississippiBraves /

AA Mississippi Braves (1-3)

Thursday

Lucas Sims got the ball for the opener at home against Pensacola, and he didn’t disappoint, going 5 innings and allowing 1 run on 1 hit, striking out 9, though he did walk 3. The issue is the Mississippi offense simply couldn’t put hits together in spite of putting on 11 base runners to Pensacola’s 9 on the day. No M-Brave got multiple hits on the day, though Jake Schrader, Carlos Fanco, and Matt Lipka each had a single and a walk. Dustin Peterson hit a double. Connor Lien and Johan Camargo each stole a base, though Lien ended up leaving the game due to injury and ended up on the disabled list.

Friday

Chris Ellis got the support that the team didn’t give to Sims on the previous day, albeit not much more, as Mississippi won 2-0. Ellis sparkled in his Braves debut, going 6 scoreless innings, allowing only 4 hits and striking out 8. Ozzie Albies had a big game offensively, going 3-4. Dustin Peterson had a double and a walk, and Matt Lipka had a triple as those three players represented the entire offensive output of Mississippi as the team collected only those 5 hits.

Saturday

When you have a game that gets to the point of goofy, you almost expect to have the extreme and rare decide the outcome. Such was the case on Saturday for Mississippi as they fell to Pensacola 5-4 in 13 innings. Sean Newcomb had a solid start and pitched well, going 5 innings, allowing 1 run on 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5. Andrew Thurman came in to replace him, and though he gave up the tying run, he still provided a solid relief effort, going 3 innings and striking out 3. Bradley Roney came in and struck out the side in his inning of relief and Hunter Cervenka threw 2 scoreless innings before Jason Hursh blew up for the second time on the season in the 12th inning, giving up 2 runs. The Braves came back in the bottom of the 12th to tie the game again, and then the weird happened. Stephen Janas, who had 3 wild pitches in over 100 innings pitched in 2015, uncorked a wild pitch, bringing a runner into scoring position, and then Dustin Peterson, one of the most sure-handed defensive outfielders in the Braves’ system mishandles a routine ball and Pensacola scores the winning run. Mississippi threatened in the bottom of the 13th, but they couldn’t push the run across and lost the game.

The Braves had 21 base runners, so there were plenty of noteworthy offensive performances. Dustin Peterson had 3 singles and a walk. Matt Lipka had 3 hits, one of them a double. Ozzie Albies and Steve Rodriguez also had 3 hits apiece. Emerson Landoni and Johan Camargo each had two singles and a walk. Interestingly, Jordy Lara and Levi Hyams combined to go 2 for 11, but they collected 3 of the team’s 4 runs batted in.

Sunday

Rob Whalen took the mound for the M-Braves on Sunday, and his control wasn’t where he would like for sure, walking 3 and allowing 5 hits. Still, he was able to have the only damage on the scoreboard be a mistake to new Reds prospect Eric Jagielo, who hit the mistake out for a 2-run home run. Whalen’s final line was 4 innings, 5 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts. The Braves relievers also pitched fairly well as well, though they did give up two runs over 5 innings. The problem was that the offense simply couldn’t push across any runs, and the final was 4-2 Pensacola. Willians Astudillo had his first big game with the bat for Mississippi, collecting two hits, including a double, and knocking in both runs. Matt Lipka had two singles.

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Atlanta Braves Minor League Weekend Wrap: April 11th

By Benjamin Chase | Apr 11, 2016