Week 13 Farm Report, Part 1: Ian Anderson and Jeremy Walker toss a no-no

It was an all-around great week for the Atlanta Braves organization.

There are lots to dive in to from Week 13. The Atlanta Braves weren’t the only team to win several ballgames this past week, as the minor league clubs picked up more wins than usual over the past seven days.

This week’s report is broke up into two parts. Let’s get started with Part 1 first…

Previois editions: Week 1 — Week 2 — Week 3 — Week 4 — Week 5 — Week 6 — Week 7 — Week 8 — Week 9 —Week 10 — Week 11 — Week 12

(46-35) Gwinnett Stripers (AAA)

INT South Standings

Week 13 Scores

Week 13 Notes

The Stripers absolutely rout the weak Tides of Norfolk on Monday:  Wow, save some offense for the rest of the week!

Final score: Gwinnett 13, Norfolk 4

Adam Duvall had a fantastic game on Monday, but literally every Stripers’ batter had a field day at the plate:

• (RF) A. Duvall: 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R, K
• (CF) R. Ortega: 1-4, HR (GS), 4 RBI, BB
• (LF) T. Demeritte: 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI, 3 R,
• (1B) P. Florimon: 2-5, 3B, 2 RBI, R, 2 K

Gwinnett broke out for 16 hits as a team, as every batter in the lineup recorded a hit, except for catcher Jonathan Morales — 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.

After Duvall’s RBI double in the 4th to put the Braves down 2-1, Travis Demeritte slugged a two-run homer — scoring two of four runs for the Stripers in that inning.

https://twitter.com/GoStripers/status/1143317972225789952?s=19

Rafael Ortega pushed across four runs with just one swing of the bat in the 8th, which is always super duper exciting.

It was just a great offensive showing by Gwinnett, all the way around. As a team, the Stripers were 8-for-12 with RISP, seemingly scoring at every opportunity.

Atlanta Braves No. 23 prospect, Patrick Weigel, got the start, and really all he needed to do was just take it easy and throw strikes. He actually wound up pitching a decent game: 5 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, HR

Weigel only threw 39 strikes, but his 75 pitches was a season-high for the recovering Tommy John patient. He’s just about there, in terms of being his pitch-count restrictions being removed.

Also, the Stripers had two outfield assists in the game, both at the plate! Rafael Ortega and Travis Demeritte both threw out runners at the plate. I’ve scoured the interwebz for video, but no such luck.

Another note from Monday: Jack Lopez won International League Batter of the Week for last week’s performance.

The Stripers hit four HRs on Thursday, but still lose:  If you’ve followed Gwinnett any this season than you probably already know that this team basically lives and dies with the long ball, illustrated by their 122 home runs after Thursday night’s game.

But in Thursday’s 8-5 loss to Charlotte, the Stripers got cheated, as they hit several homers but lost. Catcher Alex Jackson, former Atlanta Braves outfielder Adam Duvall, and shortstop Luis Marte all went deep, with Jackson going bridge twice.

To add to the weirdness of it all, Gwinnett went with an opener in the loss, deploying 2018 Atlanta Braves reliever Shane Carle in the first inning. Note to self — do not do that again!

Carle commenced to give up a two-run homer to the third batter he faced Alcides Escobar (former Kansas City Royals infielder) and wound up allowing three runs from just seven total pitches.

Altogether, the Knights tallied 12 hits, while also slugging four homers.

It was Adam Duvall’s turn to go yard twice Friday night:  The Stripers got an outstanding game from veteran Adam Duvall and young prospect Kyle Wright, in their 8-1 win over Indianapolis.

• Duvall: 2-for-3, 2 HR, (GS) 6 RBI, BB, K
• Wright: 7.2 IP, 3 H, ER, BB, 8 K

Perhaps Duvall felt left out when Alex Jackson went off on Thursday night.

Speaking of Jackson, he also had a solid game, going 1-for-4 with a home run of his own (his 15th of the season) and knocking in two runs.

Back to Kyle Wright:

Wright’s 12th start this season was a dandy. The Atlanta Braves No. 4 prospect threw 96 pitches (63 strikes), and when he wasn’t striking out batters, he was keeping the ball on the ground and in the infield — generating eight groundouts.

His fantastic start lowered his ERA to 5.43 and improved his record to 5-4.

Mike Foltynewicz provides a solid start on Saturday:  With the kind of year Foltynewicz has had this season, sometimes you just have to appreciate the little things and take it one step at a time.

Folty worked a strong 7.2 innings, throwing 105 pitches (71 strikes) in Gwinnett’s 5-2 win against Indianapolis Saturday. It was finally a Folty Outing that ended on a positive note.

Of course one quality-start doesn’t mean that all is well with him, but given how bad he’s been this season — things could be much worse.

Travis Demeritte and Ben Rowen headed to El Paso on July 10th:  Both Demeritte and Rowen will represent Gwinnett and join the International League All-Star team when they face the Pacific Coast League team in El Paso, TX on July 10, home of the El Paso Chihuahuas.

The 32nd Triple-A All-Star game will air on MLB Network on Wednesday, July 10 at 9:00 p.m. (EST).

Kolby Allard puts up solid outing on Sunday:  With Adam Duvall and Travis Demeritte getting the day off (well sort of), Gwinnett’s offense didn’t hit their usual four homers on Sunday, but they did receive a nice start from Allard, in their 5-3 win and three-game sweep over Indianapolis.

The Atlanta Braves prospect pitcher didn’t have his best stuff — 91 pitches (55 strikes) in five innings — but limited the Indians to six hits and just one run, while striking out six. He also walked three.

His only mistake was an RBI double in the 4th. Although, Allard did get tagged with an interesting unearned run in the 5th, as he successfully picked off a runner trying to steal home, but catcher Alex Jackson missed the throw to the plate, allowing the run to score. Jackson was charged with the error.

The Stripers played small-ball on Sunday, moving runners with timely hits by Luis Marte to open up the scoring for Gwinnett in the 3rd, and an RBI single by Jack Lopez in the same inning.

Lopez plated another run in the 7th, hitting into a double-play that scored Marte.

Duvall ended up pinch-hitting in the 7th, singling to left field and scoring Connor Lien in his one at-bat. The Stripers finished with 10 hits, one shy of Indianapolis’ total of 11.

Four more pitchers came into the game after Allard:

• Shane Carle: 2 IP, 2 H, K
• Ben Rowen: IP, 3 H, ER
• Jose Rafael De Paula: 0.2 IP
• Jason Creasy: 0.1 IP

Carle picked up the win, Rowen and De Paula a hold, and Creasy the easy one-out save.

Allard’s down to a 3.64 ERA in 16 starts (89 innings-pitched) this season, along with 74 strikeouts and 32 walks.

Players of the Week

(OF) Adam Duvall

6 games, 9-for-23, .391 BA, 4 HR, double, 13 RBI

It was a heck of a week for Duvall, as he had three multi-hit games:

• Monday: 3-for-5
• Tuesday: 2-for-4
• Friday: 2-for-3

He also had that monster game on Friday where he hit two homers and knocked in six runs, basically providing half his RBI total for the week in just one game.

With another week in the books, the veteran outfielder has completed 71 games for Gwinnett (zero for the Atlanta Braves). Here’s how his stats rank amongst all International League hitters:

• .952 OPS (9th)
• .602 SLG (3rd)
• 159 total bases (2nd)
• 24 homer runs (t-1st)
• 64 RBI (1st)

*stats above are entering Sunday

(SP) Mike Foltynewicz 

1 start, 1-0, 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, BB, 8 K

You know it’s been a rough season when your ERA in Triple-A is even bad. Folty hasn’t been great for the Atlanta Braves or Gwinnett — 6.37 ERA in MLB, 4.97 ERA in Triple-A — but he was great on Saturday.

Roster Moves & IL List

Roster Notes:  Monday (6/24) the Braves optioned pitcher Grant Dayton back to Gwinnett — he had been recalled to the big league ‘pen on June 17.

Tuesday (6/25) reliever Chad Sobotka was optioned back to Gwinnett.

Interestingly, the Braves decided to go with Bryse Wilson on Thursday versus the Cubs, even after recalling Kyle Wright on Monday, from the Stripers. On Thursday, Wright was optioned back to Gwinnett.

A lot of Braves fans, including myself, have wondered when Luiz Gohara will be back. I can just about guarantee that it will most definitely not be in 2019. All I have is an old interview (April 2019) from Snitker.