Braves 2021 Farm Report: Orlando Arcia blasts three homers for Gwinnett while Roddery Munoz turns heads for Augusta 

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It was a productive Mother’s Day Sunday for the Braves organization as not only did the big league club win its game handidly against the Phillies, but both its affiliates in the upper-minors were victorious and featured some outstanding individual performances. 

 

AAA – Gwinnett Stripers (5-1)

W, 12-9 vs. Charlotte Knights 

  • SP, K. Muller – 4 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, HR
  • DH, O. Arcia – 3 for 4, 3 HR, 4 RBI
  • RF, A. Almonte – 3 for 5, 2B, 2 RBI

Something about Gwinnett and Mother’s Day, but Stripers shortstop Orlando Arcia became the first Gwinnett hitter to slug three home runs in a game since Austin Riley did it back on Mother’s Day in 2018. In six games so far, Gwinnett has 15 long balls as a team. Wow.

Arcia put the Stripers on the board early in the 1st with this drive…

 

However, the Knights answered with three of its own in its half of the inning. In the 2nd, though, as part of a two-run inning that featured seven Gwinnett batters, Travis Snider put the Stripers within one with an RBI double, following Abraham Almonte‘s lead-off single…

https://twitter.com/GoStripers/status/1391463705871851527?s=19

 

Charlotte added another run in 3rd inning, then both teams traded zeroes in the 4th. However, the Stripers started a rally in the 5th thanks to a two-run dinger by Travis Demeritte to give Gwinnett a 5-4 lead…

https://twitter.com/GoStripers/status/1391482154790625283?s=19

 

The Stripers 6th inning was quiet, but in the Knights half of the frame, Snider showed some athleticism to get Gwinnett the first out…

 

To begin the 7th, the Stripers quickly added to its lead when Arcia went deep for homer no. 2…

https://twitter.com/GoStripers/status/1391490597442183177?s=19

 

Arcia’s third and final homer, coming in the 8th, was by far his most impressive. Following a groundout by Ender Inciarte to start the frame, Gwinnett’s shortstop absolutely destroyed this ball… and literally… NOBODY moved…

https://twitter.com/GoStripers/status/1391497808683876359?s=19

 

But nine innings wasn’t enough for this one. To start the 10th, both Casteel and Phillip Ervin walked for the Stripers, setting up a sac-fly by Arcia to give Gwinnett a 9-8 lead. Then a walk by Demeritte brought Almonte up with bases loaded, and the hot-hitting outfielder gave the Stripers the hit it needed to win handedly — a two-run double…

 

Gwinnett’s offense, as usual, stole the show on Sunday. However, everyone’s attention was on lefty Kyle Muller as he made his first career start in Triple-A. As shown by his line, Muller wasn’t exactly sharp, and he ran into some trouble from the get-go, pitching around a single, a homer, a double and a pair of walks in the opening inning. But beginning in the 2nd frame, he started to settle down. In fact, if you exclude the 1st inning, Muller finished up his outing with one run allowed from four hits to go with a walk and six strikeouts — a damn good outing for his first taste of the the top level of the minors. 

Five Stripers relievers pieced together the final six innings of the game, with Dylan Lee pitching the 5th and 6th, followed by Daysbel Hernandez, who worked a hitless 7th. 29-year-old Edgar Santana blew the save in the 9th after he allowed three runs from two hits, although thanks to Gwinnett’s offense, he wound up with a cheap win. Jesse Chavez continued his strong pitching as he worked around a hit and struck out two in the 10th. 

The Stripers enter their first off day of the 2021 season with a series win, having won five of six. 

 

 

AA – Mississippi Braves (2-4)

W, 6-2 vs. Pensacola Blue Wahoos 

  • SP, M. Withrow – 4 IP, 2 H, ER, 2 BB, 2 K, HR 
  • 3B, C. Alexander – 1 for 3, HR, 3 RBI
  • LF, J. Pearson – 1 for 3, HR, 2 RBI

Rain shorted Mississippi’s Mother’s Day series finale against Pensacola to just seven innings, but before it got too wet the M-Braves put up three runs in the opening inning. Justin Dean led off with a single to start the game, and two batters later, Trey Harris drew a walk to put runners on first and second. After Shea Langeliers flew out, CJ Alexander stepped to the plate and blasted a bomb to give Mississippi an early lead…

 

The Blue Wahoos scratched across a run in the 2nd, but the M-Braves weren’t done. A single by Wendell Rijo got a rally started in the 6th, and following a pop out by Greyson Jenista, Jacob Pearson got in on the long ball action with a homer of his own to put Mississippi up by four…

https://twitter.com/mbraves/status/1391490923620708358?s=19

 

After a quiet 5th inning for both teams, the M-Braves led off the frame by getting three-straight batters on base in the 6th. Drew Lugbauer led off with a line drive single, Rijo doubled and then Jenista knocked in Lugbauer with a sac-fly to left to make it 6-1 Mississippi. Pensacola scored one more in the 7th and final inning, but the game was called in the M-Braves half of the frame.

 

Beginning his second stint in Double-A, 27-year-old righty Matt Withrow tossed a solid 48-pitch outing on Sunday. Withrow’s day was mostly relaxing save for a 2nd inning that started off with a solo homer, but the former 6th round pick followed up that long ball by getting two-straight outs prior to allowing an innocent bases-empty single… before escaping the frame by inducing a flyout. 

 

Righty Kurt Hoekstra started the 5th inning in relief of Withrow and wound up picking up the win after tossing two scoreless innings and striking out one. Josh Graham worked the final frame, striking out the first batter and then the second, though the latter batter reached first when catcher Drew Lugbauer was unable to coral a swinging strike three (it was ruled a wild pitch). A groundout moved the runner to second, but a single by the next batter allowed the runner to score. Graham ended the inning and the game by striking out the final batter to preserve the win. 

Mississippi will end its first week of the 2021 campaign at 2-4.  

 

 

A+ – Rome Braves (4-2)

L, 5-3 vs. Winston-Salem Dash

  • SP, B. Elder – 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, ER, 2 BB, 7 K
  • 2B, R. Delgado – 3 for 4, HR, 2 RBI, SB
  • RP, T. Riley – 3 IP, H, 5 K

After Winston-Salem pushed across a run apiece in both the 1st and 2nd innings, Rome answered with a run in the 3rd thanks to hot-hitting second baseman Riley Delgado, who knocked in Kevin Josephina with an RBI ground-ball single to right. The Dash added to their lead with another run in the 5th inning, but Delgado and company started a rally for the R-Braves in the 6th. Delgado led off with a walk, stole second base and then advanced to third because of a balk by Winston-Salem’s pitcher. Following a walk by Bryce Ball, Logan Brown did what he does best this season and drove a ball to left field to score Delgado to put Rome within one run. After an inning of both teams trading zeroes, Delgado contributed again by belting a lead-off solo homer to open up the 8th and tie the ballgame at three apiece.

 

Despite Winston-Salem loading the bases, neither the Braves or the Dash could muster any runs in the final inning, meaning extra baseball. 

In the 10th, with a runner on second base, Rome brought 10 batters to the plate and still couldn’t score a run. Winston-Salem ended it rather quickly in their half of the inning, drawing a walk and then slapping a walk-off two-run single to win the game. 

Bryce Elder put together a nice outing in his start Sunday, going five innings and striking out seven. His line shows three runs from four hits, but only one of those was earned — an RBI single in the 1st inning. After that opening inning, Elder tried to settle into a groove in the 2nd, but two errors by Rome’s defense resulted in additional batters to the plate, not to mention an extra run. After a lead-off walk, Elder faced the minimum in the 3rd, before striking out the side in the 4th. Winston-Salem scored another unearned run in the 5th when a passed-ball got by catcher Logan Brown. 

23-year-old righty Trey Riley pitched the 6th, 7th and 8th innings in the loss and was sharp, needing just 35 pitches (27 strikes) to work through the minimum nine batters. Riley struck out five and allowed a hit. Zach Daniels was tagged with the loss after allowing a pair of walks and a single in the 9th, and then surrendered the aformentioned walk and single in the 10th that wound up losing Rome the game. 

Rome enters its off day Monday with a series win over the Dash and a strong 4-2 record. 

 

 

A – Augusta GreenJackets (3-3)

L, 9-4 vs. Columbia Fireflies 

  • SP, R. Munoz – 4 IP, H, BB, 7 K 
  • SS, V. Grissom – 2 for 4, RBI
  • RF, W. Carter – 2 for 4, RBI, BB

Augusta came out of the gate red hot on Sunday, scoring four runs in the first two innings, thanks to outfielder Willie Carter, who’s now up to a .538 AVG and 1.570 OPS this season. Carter singled home Stephen Paolini in the 1st and was followed up by back-to-back RBI groundouts by both Cade Bunnell and Ricardo Rodriguez. In the 2nd, shortstop Vaughn Grissom added the fourth run when he knocked in Cam Shepherd with a single to center. Unfortunately, those runs would be all the GreenJackets could muster in the game as the Fireflies went on to score nine unanswered during the next seven frames. 

Roddery Munoz got some well-deserved attention on Twitter on Sunday. The young Domincan pitcher got the start for the series finale and blew Columbia away with high-90s MPH fastballs, allowing just a single in four innings. Munoz struck out seven and walked one. Keep your eye on this kid.

 

Munoz certainly pitched well enough for the win on Sunday, but the GreenJackets bullpen imploded, allowing all nine runs (eight earned). First it was Tyler Owens, who, in the 5th and part of the 6th, allowed four runs from three hits; next was Brent Burgress, who allowed three runs (two earned) from four hits and was tagged with the loss; and the final two frames featured two runs from three hits off Kenny Wells. On Sunday, Augusta’s bullpen combined to surrender nine runs from 10 hits, including a pair of home runs. 

The two teams split their six-game series this week, and Augusta will enter its off day on Monday with a 3-3 record.

 

 

Braves MiLB slate / Tuesday, May 11

All four minor league clubs are off on Monday, but on Tuesday, each team will begin a brand new six-game series…

(1-4) Louisville @ (5-1) Gwinnett — 7:05 PM

(2-4) Mississippi @ (1-5) Biloxi — 7:35 PM

(4-2) Rome @ (3-3) Greensboro — 6:30 PM 

(3-3) Augusta @ (2-4) Myrtle Beach — 7:05 PM

 

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