Talking Chop

Columbus 12, Gwinnett 9

Matt Young had a great day, hitting a double, a homer, and stealing a base. It was the 19th homer of his career, so he's one shy of a big milestone. Freddie Freeman continues his impressive season and has proven the Braves right for having the confidence to start him in AAA. Tim Gustafson has another poor start, in fact, the only really good performance he's had all year was his last game, where he pitched 6 scoreless relief innings. You have to wonder how much longer it will be until one of Mississippi's dominant lefties, Mike Minor and Scott Diamond, takes his spot in the rotation.

Mississippi 6, West Tennessee 5

After Mauro Gomez, walk, Cody Johnson, single, and Orlando Mercado, walk, loaded the bases, Juan Gonzalez, no, not that Juan Gonzalez, hit a walk-off single for the M-Braves win. Brandon Beachy continues his outstanding work, throwing 2 scoreless innings. Lefty Lee Hyde got the blown save for giving up an unearned run, caused by an error by Gonzalez, but also picked up the save when Gonzalez hit his walk-off.

Myrtle Beach 5, Winston-Salem 0, game 1

Randall Delgado has been on a roll, after blanking the Dash tonight for 7 frames, he's now given up just 4 earned runs in his last 23.2 innings, good for a 1.52 ERA in that span, along with a 0.93 WHIP. He's really making a name for himself, and my guess is the national prospect media will take notice come this off-season.

Myrtle Beach 3, Winston-Salem 4, 20 innings, game 2

How do you finish off a double header? Well, you play 20 innings in the second game of course. Even with the extra, extra innings, the offense couldn't do much, collecting just 11 hits. How often does that statement make sense. Mike Daniel had a very rough night, going hit-less in 9 at bats. Julio Teheran made his Carolina League debut and was as masterful as he had been in the Sally League, fanning an astounding 12 in 7 innings, allowing just 1 run on a home run to Kyle Shelton, who's nearly 5 years older than the right hander. A pair of other players who started the year with Rome, Paul Clemens and Ty'Relle Harris, were equally impressive, combining to shut down the Dash for 8 innings while striking out 12 of their own. On the night, the Pelicans struck out 29. With all the impressive pitching it's hard to believe they lost.

Rome 12, Charleston 5

This is the kind of output we all thought this prospect laden team would be capable of from the start of the season. Robby Hefflinger spends more time at second base than some second basemen. Jake Hanson is less impressive as a prospect now that he doesn't play third base, but his 6 hits in his 2 games with Rome, including 3 doubles, are very impressive. David Hale has his best performance of the season, and I don't think it's a coincidence that it came in relief. (Note: when I had Hale pitching 2 innings of relief in Monday's game, I was unintentionally wrong. It was actually Tom Berryhill, who milb.com must think is Hale.)