Talking Chop

Impressive Minor League Star of the Night: In 15 games with Mississippi Jesus Sucre has 8 XBH (all doubles) and 23 total hits. In 48 games with Mississippi he had 42 hits and 14 XBH.

Charlotte 7, Gwinnett 4

• N. McLouth 1-3 K
• F. Freeman 2-4 K, .287 Avg
• C. Kimbrel 2IP 1H 0R 1BB 1K 0.84 ERA

Ryne Reynoso pretty much crapped the bed in the 3rd inning and the offense couldn't catch up. Nate McLouth started his rehab assignment but left the game at the start of the 6th. With the loss Gwinnett falls to 42-47 on the year and is 12.5 games out of first in their division.

Birmingham 4, Mississippi 6

• W. Cabrera 2-4 HR(3), 2 RBI, SB(11), .328 Avg
• J. Sucre 3-4 2B, RBI, .397 Avg
• E. Cordier 6IP 8H 2R 2BB 4K 4.22 ERA
• B. Beachy 1IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K 1.13 ERA

Get it done Willie! Jesus Sucre has been raking since his promotion to Mississippi after psoting a sub-.600 OPS for Myrtle Beach. Brandon Beachy actually appeared out of the bullpen for the first time in almost a month and I can't help but wonder if they are trying to limit his innings or if he was just holding a rotation spot for Kyle Cofield. Either way I think he is going to get another look later in the year or next season.

Myrtle Beach 2, Winston-Salem 8

• L. Sumoza 1-4 2 RBI, K, .245 Avg
• C. Miles 2-3 BB, K, .258 Avg

Matt Crim gave up 10 hits and 4 walks in 6 innings but he did get 3 double plays, so that is a plus. Luis Sumoza does have 7 RBI in his last 8 games and has been holding course but still not blowing up. Former Braves prospect Jon Gilmore went 3-5 in this game with 2 doubles and is hitting .338 on the season though without a whole lot of power and bunches of errors.

Charleston 5, Rome 6

• P. Gosselin 2-4 2B, 2 RBI, K, .327 Avg
• RSF 2-4 2B, .321 Avg
• T. Cunningham 2-4 3B, RBI, .305 Avg
• E. Salcedo 0-3 .241 Avg

Rome's offense gets the job done behind a mediocre performance from Robinson Lopez. Todd Cunningham has done an excellent job getting on base though his power has yet to show up though he probably won't develop much power. RSF has been swinging a pretty good bat recently and I would really like to see him bumped up because I think he is old for the league (and maybe the next league up) and we still don't have a good read on how he does vs age appropriate competition.

Burlington 3, Danville 4

• J. Dalfonso 3-4 RBI, K, .348 Avg
• A. Simmons 2-4 RBI, 2 SB(5), .232 Avg
• W. Kempf 5IP 1H 2R 1BB 7K 3.00 ERA

Two runs in the bottom of the 8th get Danville the win against the division leading Royals. The Braves got men to 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs and then promptly scored 2 runs on consecutive wild pitches to take the lead for good. Willie Kempf walked a man and then gave up a 2 run homer in the 1st inning and then proceeded to set down the next 13 batters for 4.1 pefect innings.

GCL Braves 5, GCL Phillies 3

• M. Lipka 2-5 RBI, SB(3), .309 Avg
• W. Beckwith 1-3 RBI, 2BB, 2K, .289 Avg
• E. Sanchez 3-5 2 RBI, K, .333 Avg
• D. Jurik 6IP 3H 0R 1BB 4K 1.29 ERA

The Braves middle of the order guys continue to find ways to get on base with Beckwith and Sanchez reaching 6 times total and driving in 3 runs. Matt Lipka also is proving himself worth the pick we used on him with him hitting .400 over his last 9 games with 3BB and just 1K. He has definitely been impressive lately and I can't wait to see what he can do against advanced competition.

DSL Braves 0, DSL Angels 1

• J. Gil 7IP 4H 1R 1BB 5K 1.76 ERA

When you only get 2 hits in the game you don't get many words out of me.