There was some terrific baseball played on the Atlanta Braves farm system on Saturday night. David McCabe had another awesome couple of games with plenty of hard hit balls, JR Ritchie gave up no earned runs and very few hard hit balls, and Hayden Harris and Elison Joseph had insanely dominant relief outings. John Gil also returned from the injured list with a first inning triple, and, oh, the DSL Braves scored 15 runs in the first inning.

(40-61) Gwinnett Stripers 3, (53-46) Memphis Redbirds 4

Box Score

Statcast

• Nacho Alvarez Jr., 2B: 1-4, BB, .350/.519/.500
• Luke Waddell, SS: 2-4, BB, RBI, .288/.407/.349
• JR Ritchie, SP: 5.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 2.38 ERA
• Hayden Harris, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 0.71 ERA

JR Ritchie seems to be settling into Gwinnett nicely, and despite only managing two strikeouts in this outing he had a solid game at missing bats and was able to control the game until the very end of his start. Like his last outing Ritchie was able to do a great job of hitting the strike zone, but in this one he had particular success locating his fastball and changeup well and those proved pivotal in the outcome for him. While he wasn’t getting many whiffs with his changeup he was keeping them on the edge of the strike zone, and Redbirds hitters could not square the pitch up throughout the game. None of the seven batted balls against his changeup were hard hit, which is a great sign given how much emphasis the Braves have put on Ritchie developing his changeup this season. His pitch count was limited to 73, and the Braves seem to be at a point with some of their pitchers recovering from injury that they’re starting to limit pitch and inning counts, but he was able to maintain his velocity to the final pitch in the sixth inning. In that sixth inning he gave out a one out double on a cutter that he left over the plate, then pulled a fastball and hit the next batter, which was the only time in the outing that two straight batters reached. Nathan Wiles couldn’t protect the shutout and issued a walk to load the bases, then on a tapper back to the mound that should have been an easy play at the plate he booted it to allow the only run charged to Ritchie to score.

Nacho Alvarez contributed to Gwinnett with a walk and a hit in his first game back with the Stripers, but it was still a rough showing at the plate. The medium hit line drive single in the sixth inning accounted for his only hit, but in none of his at bats did he make solid contact even though he had pitches out over the plate to hit. Jarred Kelenic on the other hand had a couple of well-struck balls, but only came up with one hard-hit single. In the fourth Kelenic smoked a slider to straight away center field that chased the defender all the way back to the wall, but Kelenic came up just short of a big fly and didn’t do much the rest of the game. Hayden Harris had a dominant showing out of the bullpen, getting seven whiffs on just ten swings, with four of those coming on his sweeper. The sweeper was a major reason Harris was left down in Double-A to start the season, and it’s been a focus for him all season, and so far he has had mixed but improved success with it in 2025. This was a great game for him commanding that pitch on the glove side and he kept his fastball off of bats to put out a dominant outing.

Swing and Misses

JR Ritchie – 9

Hayden Harris – 7

Nathan Wiles – 1

(37-54) Columbus Clingstones 3, (51-39) Chattanooga Lookouts 4

Box Score

• Geraldo Quintero, LF: 1-3, 2B, BB, .233/.345/.422
• David McCabe, 3B: 1-3, BB, RBI, .283/.373/.398
• Ian Mejia, SP: 5.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2.37 ERA

(38-54) Columbus Clingstones 5, (51-40) Chattanooga Lookouts 3

Box Score

• Geraldo Quintero, LF: 2-3, 3B, .233/.345/.422
• David McCabe, 3B: 2-3, RBI, .283/.373/.398
• Drue Hackenberg, SP: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 7.07 ERA
• Elison Joseph, RP: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 2.83 ERA

Columbus finally got back into the win column with a victory in game two of the double header, but first they fell painfully short of an impressive comeback win in the opener. Ian Mejia struggled and was left in just a bit too long, and Chattanooga put up two runs in the sixth inning to double their lead and put the quiet Clingstones lineup in a 4-0 hole. This would typically spell doom for this team, but they suddenly awoke with quiet fury in the bottom of the sixth. Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. led off the inning with a hard hit single and Geraldo Quintero followed with a double, bringing up the exact man they would want in that spot with David McCabe. McCabe rocketed a ball over to the right side, but a fantastic pick at first base robbed him off a two RBI single, yet the Clingstones weren’t done fighting. Ethan Workinger broke up the shutout with a base hit and Drew Compton cut the deficit to two runs with a sacrifice fly, and in the bottom of the seventh inning opportunity knocked again. A walk and another hit from Kilpatrick put the tying run on base with one out, bringing up Quintero and the top of the lineup with two opportunities to tie the game. Quintero flew out weakly to left field, and the game came down to McCabe, who immediately cracked another hard line drive this time clearing the infield for a single. This scored a run and put the tying run over at third base, the winning run on first, and brought Ethan Workinger to the plate in a clutch spot. Workinger worked back from 0-2 to run the count full, threatening to draw a walk to load the bases, but got out in front of a slider and hit it off of the end of the bat, hitting a weak pop to right field that the defender tracked down to end the game.

With the frustration of game one fresh in their minds the Clingstones were not playing around in game two, immediately putting up a first inning rally. Yet again it was David McCabe who hit a laser for a single, and after advancing on a balk he was able to score the first run of the game on a single from Drew Compton. Chattanooga managed a run to tie the game up, but the Clingstones put the pedal to the metal in the second. A two run home run from Cade Bunnell broke the game open and gave Columbus a multi-run lead, and the Quintero-McCabe duo got right back into action later on. Quintero kept the inning alive with a two-out triple, and McCabe once again put out terrific contact. On a fading change that hung up just in the zone he was able to stay on it and drive a sinking liner into right field, his fourth hard-hit ball in a row, third hit in four at bats, and an RBI to extend the lead to 4-1. The game stayed solidly in control of Columbus until the top of the sixth inning, when Amos Willingham coughed up a two-run home run that made the game a save situation in a hurry. This awoke Elison Joseph, who dispatched the Lookouts without breaking a sweat. Joseph struck out all four batters he faced, all swinging, and got seven whiffs on ten swings with three foul balls. Joseph has seemingly immediately turned it around with the calendar flipping to January. He has 12 strikeouts, no hits or runs allowed, and only two walks allowed in six innings. If he is throwing strikes again the rest of the Southern League is in trouble.

Swing and Misses

Ian Mejia – 13

Amos Willingham – 10

Zach Thompson – 9

Elison Joseph – 7

Blayne Abeyta – 2

(39-53) Rome Emperors 1, (56-36) Hudson Valley Renegades 5

Box Score

• Patrick Clohisy, LF-CF: 3-4, 3B, RBI, .244/.337/.329
• Justin Janas, RF: 1-4, .266/.333/.367
• Cedric De Grandpre, SP: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, 2.43 ERA

If you love good baseball you’ll love Patrick Clohisy’s performance on Saturday evening, and you probably won’t like much else that the Emperors did this game. Clohisy struck out in his first plate appearance, then was the only player the rest of the game who seemed like he had showed up. He tripled and was stranded his next time up, then in the sixth and ninth innings had base hits to run his evening up to three hits. He has four games this month of three or more hits, though he has been notably inconsistent with not much production outside of those four games. The biggest news from this game for the offense was bad news, in the form of a scary injury. Lizandro Espinoza was clotheslined on a collision between him and Justin Janas in shallow right field and had to be removed from the game. Fortunately he walked off fully under his own power, so it doesn’t seem to be a significant injury and he can hopefully get back on the field soon.

Cedric De Grandpre has been terrific for Rome this season, but this was not a great outing for him. Throughout this season since coming back from Tommy John surgery he has been prone to bouts of wildness, and for the second straight outing he didn’t really have a great feel of any of his pitches. De Grandpre also allowed his first home run of the season, but all things considered got away with pretty limited damage only allowing two runs. De Grandpre has done a great job avoiding barrels this season and had six ground ball outs this game, and even with his control problems he has been effective at finishing at bats and making quality two strike pitches. He was able to finish off hitters efficiently to run up seven strikeouts despite mediocre whiff numbers, and his walk rates really aren’t a major long term concern and seem to be more indicative of a guy still trying to find his feel after returning from a long absence.

Swing and Misses

Cedric De Grandpre – 8

Logan Samuels – 5

(47-46) Augusta GreenJackets 1, (52-42) Hickory Crawdads 4

Box Score

• John Gil, SS: 2-4, 3B, .229/.323/.300
• Isaiah Drake, LF: 3-4, 2B, .256/.340/.354
• Rayven Antonio, SP: 4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 3.39 ERA

John Gil is back from the injured list, and he had an immediate impact on this GreenJackets lineup. He liked the first pitch he saw and jumped on it, driving one to the base of the wall in right center field where he used his speed to motor in for a triple. He then made an astounding baserunning mistake and got back-picked at third base for the second out of the inning. Gil at least made up for it in the fourth inning, slicing a single over to right field for a base hit and coming around to score after stealing a base, advancing on an error, and then scoring on a wild pitch. That first inning pickoff was made all the more painful when Isaiah Drake followed with a base hit, and Drake would finish the day with a team-leading three hits. The best of these came in the sixth inning when he ripped a ball into the gap in right center field and hustled into second base with a double, though Augusta would fail to score him. Gil hit a bit of a power slump in late June, but has slowly been inching his isolated power back towards .100 on the season and is currently sitting at .098. This isn’t a particularly impressive number, but given how slow he started the season from a power perspective, how bad his production was last season (.085 ISO), the fact that Augusta’s home park is tough on lefties, and the league-median ISO is .092, he is doing fairly well. His swing changes have been the most notable of any Braves prospect this season, and him making wholesale changes to his swing and approach and putting up a 108 wRC+ as a 19 year old is impressive.

Rayven Antonio has had two bad games in a row now after not struggling at all for the first three and a half months, and this was the first time all season he has had more walks than strikeouts in an outing. Antonio’s command these past two outings has been far short of the expectations he set for himself coming into this month, but it may be the point in the season where regardless of his results down the stretch it is hard to find fault in him. He is nearly 30 innings past his career high already and his status as a breakout prospect is solidified for us going into next year even if he does hit some late season slumps. Antonio held it together until the fifth inning and Hickory wasn’t hitting him hard, but he was replaced by Seth Keller who hit a batter and then allowed a home run to score an inherited runner (who reached on an infield single) and give Hickory a three run lead.

Swing and Misses

Rayven Antonio – 7

Seth Keller – 6

(16-21) DSL Braves 17, (20-17) DSL Pirates Black 3

Box Score

• Angel Carmona, SS: 1-5, 3B, BB, RBI .167/.259/.444
• Yassel Garcia, 3B: 2-5, 2B, 2 BB, RBI, .213/.426/.287
• Juan Espinal, CF: 2-5, HR, BB, 4 RBI, .237/.431/.433

Yassel Garcia drew two walks and a had a double for the DSL Braves in the first inning. That sentence is basically everything you need to know about this game. They put a 15 spot on the Pirates in the top of the first inning, including a triple from Angel Carmona, a two run home run from Juan Espinal, and seven walks. I would pay good money to see the insanity of this first inning, and if you want to go check out the box score to see the play-by-play I encourage it. Every single Brave scored at least once in the inning, every single Brave had at least one hit, and eight of the nine had at least one RBI.