Shrimp Win Sixth Straight, Grasshoppers Move Into Tie For First

Transactions

Miami sent Wei-Yin Chen on a rehab assignment to the GCL Marlins.

LHP Daniel Schlereth was assigned to the Jumbo Shrimp from New Orleans.

LHP Jose Quijada was assigned to the Hammerheads from Jacksonville.

The Hammerheads activated SS Junior Arroyo to the seven-day DL.

The Grasshoppers sent 3B Joe Dunand to the GCL Marlins on a rehab assignment and activated 3B James Nelson from the seven-day DL.

SS Shao-Pin Ho was assigned to the GCL Marlins from Jupiter.

Triple-A

Pacific Coast League

New Orleans Baby Cakes 5, Colorado Springs Sky Sox 4 (10)

New Orleans limited the Sky Sox to just three hits over 10 innings with 9,151 in attendance at Shrine on Airline in Metairie, LA. Peter Mooney scored the game winner on a throwing error in the bottom of the 10th.

William Cuevas allowed one hit and walked five in five innings, striking out six and earning no-decision. Kelvin Marte, Javy Guerra, and Tyron Guerrero (2-2, 5.84) combined to strike out four while allowing only one hit over 4 ¹⁄₃ relief innings.

Brian Anderson (8) opened the scoring in the fourth inning with a three-run homer to left field. The Sox scored four runs in the top of the sixth for a 4-3 lead which they took into the ninth inning, when Moises Sierra crossed the plate on a David Goforth wild pitch.

Anderson, who has hit .350 since his call up to triple-A, added a single to his homer and is a prime candidate for a callup to the parent club in the next few days. Mooney collected a pair of singles.

Baby Cakes rally late to beat Sky Sox

Double-A

Southern League

Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 4, Birmingham Barons 0

Dillon Peters (6-2, 1.97) limited the Barons to four hits and two walks, pitching 6 ²⁄₃ shutout innings for the victory over the Barons. Daniel Schlereth earned his fourth save of the season by striking out the only batter he faced in the seventh inning.

All of the runs in the game were scored by the Shrimp in the third inning as they won their fifth game in a row. Austin Dean hit an RBI-single, John Norwood hit an RBI-double, K.C. Serna hit an RBI-single, and Kyle Barrett hit an RBI-groundout.

Braxton Lee, Dean, and Cleuluis Rondon each hit collected two hits.

Peters leads Jacksonville to 4-0 win over Birmingham

Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 5, Birmingham Barons 3

Joe Gunkel (5-9, 5.24) helped the Shrimp complete a six-game sweep of the Barons with 7,944 at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. They’re now three games ahead of the second place Mobile BayBears with 10 games to go for the second-half division title and a playoff berth against the first-half winning Pensacola Blue Wahoos. John Norwood hit two singles and a double with three RBI to lead Jacksonville’s offense

After the Barons scored a run in the top of the first, Norwood collected an an RBI-single in the bottom half. The Barons came back to take a 2-1 lead in the second, and the Shrimp tied it in the third on a Taylor Ard sacrifice fly.

The Barons took a 3-2 lead in the fourth, then Norwood doubled two runs home later in the inning to take the last lead the Shrimp would need. Serna added an RBI-single to make it 5-3.

Esmerling De La Rosa got his second save, allowing a walk in 1 ¹⁄₃ innings.

Shrimp beat Barons, 4-0 and 5-3, sweep six-game homestand

Advanced-A

Florida State League

Jupiter Hammerheads 0, Bradenton Marauders 0 (suspended, rain, 3)

Jupiter and Bradenton had to suspend their game in the third inning LECOM Park on Friday due to rain. Merandy Gonzalez had struck out three in three shutout innings, allowing three hits and a walk.

Single-A

South Atlantic League

Greensboro Grasshoppers 4, Rome Braves 1

The Grasshoppers grabbed a share of the second-half Northern Division lead with the Hickory Crawdads on Friday, with a 4-1 win against the Rome Braves.

Max Duval (3-0, 2.56) continued his impressive showing over the last month in front of 2,490 at State Mutual Stadium. He limited the Braves to one run in six innings, striking out five. Evan Beal pitched a perfect seventh, with a strikeout, and Michael Mertz earned his third save, striking out three in two innings of one-hit ball.

The Hoppers got in front early, when J.C. Millan hit an RBI-double in the second for their first and only lead of the game. Millan later scored on a Rony Cabrera RBI-single.

After the Braves gotten the board in the fifth, the Grasshoppers reestablished their two-run lead in the sixth on another Millan RBI-hit, a single. Brian Miller drew a bases-loaded walk in the eighth.

Millan finished with a double and two singles, and Jarett Rindfleisch hit a single and a double. Cabrera joined them as the only Greensboro players with three hits.

Millan leads Greensboro to 4-1 win over Rome

Short Season-A

New York-Penn League

Batavia Muckdogs 1, Auburn Doubledays 4

Osman Gutierrez started for Batavia and earned no-decision after six innings of quality pitching. He struck out five and allowed one run in his first Batavia appearance, with 1,553 in attendance at Falcon Park.

Colton Hock (1-2, 6.91) took the loss, surrendering three runs (two earned) in two relief innings. Sean Reynolds hit a pair of doubles for the Muckdogs, and scored Batavia’s only run on a Denis Karas fielder’s choice grounder in the seventh.

Shepard leads Auburn to 4-1 win over Batavia

Rookie-Level

Dominican Summer League

DSL Marlins 8, DSL Rays1 2

The Marlins capitalized on a seven-run third to send the DSL Rays1 home unsatisfied. The Fish also outhit the..uh...other Fish by a count of 10-to-5.

Daniel Paulino and Brhayan Campos each hit a single and a double, while Omar Lebron and Ezequiel Alfonzo each collected a pair of singles.

Juan Borges struck out four in four two-hit innings, but earned no-decision in his start. Henry Valencia (1-1, 7.20) earned the win by striking out a pair over two perfect frames. Yeremin Lara struck out two in a shutout ninth.

Gulf Coast League

GCL Marlins 2, GCL Mets 2 (suspended, rain, 8th)

Wei-Yin Chen struck out one batter in one inning, allowing two hits but no runs in a rehab assignment with GCL. Brady Puckett went 5 ²⁄₃ in relief, allowing two runs, but only one earned, on seven hits. He also struck out three.

The Marlins had been lucky in this game until it was delayed, leaving with an eighth inning 2-2 tie despite getting tripled in the hits department, nine-to-three. Joe Dunand went 1-for-3 with a double in his professional debut.

Later Today

10:00AM - The GCL Marlins will visit the GCL Astros

10:30AM - The DSL Marlins will host the DSL Rays1

6:00PM - Kolton Mahoney (6-5, 3.20) will take the hill for the Grasshoppers against the Braves.

6:30PM - Cody Poteet (3-7, 4.50) will try to rebound from his latest start with a good showing against the Bradenton Marauders.

7:00PM - The Baby Cakes will try to continue their surprising August against the Sky Sox. Keyvius Sampson (5-4, 5.85) gets the start.

7:05PM - Sean Guenther (1-2, 2.92) will make his start against the Doubledays.

7:35PM - The Shuckers will open a five-game series hosting the Jumbo Shrimp.

Birthdays

I’ve been out for the last three days, so we will play catch up here because I don’t want to miss anyone.

Grasshoppers pitching coach Mark DiFelice turned 41 on Wednesday, and Braxton Lee turned 24 with the Shrimp.

With the Muckdogs, Ricardo Cespedes turned 20 on Thursday.

History

In 1956:

Ken Guettler of the Shreveport Sports walloped his 60th home run of the season in a Texas League game against the Fort Worth Cats. Guettler became only the ninth hitter in organized baseball history to reach the 60-homer mark, and is one of just two batters to manage it while hitting under .300.

Bill Valentine, who was a young umpire in the league that year, has insisted that Guettler was accidentally robbed of another homer by a third-base umpire. And the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Guettler, who wore thick prescription eyeglasses, may have been swindled out of a few more dingers after his "coke-bottle" lenses disappeared from an opposing team's clubhouse and could not be replaced for several games.

Please vote in the poll below to rank your favorite Marlins minor leaguers. This list is updated frequently, and currently stands at 238 Marlins. Yefri Perez is listed last, just in front of Joe Gunkel. Gunner Pollman is down there too, but I don’t know why, he’s pretty good.