Milwaukee Brewers Minors: Rattlers Celebrate All Star Selections

The Timber Rattlers celebrated the day’s All Star announcement with an extra-inning win on Thursday. Only the Shuckers would also manage to be as successful on the night. Let’s see what else happened with the Milwaukee Brewers minor league affiliates on Thursday

Triple-A

San Antonio Missions (38-23) vs Salt Lake Bees (27-32)

Every Missions player had at least one hit on Thursday. However even that wasn’t enough as San Antonio dropped the final game of their series against Salt Lake 13-7. The Milwaukee Brewers Triple-A affiliate still ended up winning the series two games to one.

The game started off well enough. A Troy Stokes Jr. RBI-single in the second and a two-run homer by Jake Hager, his fifth, in the fourth put San Antonio up 3-0. After the Bees scored twice in the bottom of the frame, Keston Hiura‘s solo homer, his 12th of the year in his second game back in Triple-A, increased the Missions’ lead to 4-2.

The Bees scored three times in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead only to have Michael O’Neill knock in Hager on a fielder’s choice to tie the game up at five. Unfortunately the Bees scored eight unanswered runs over the final innings while the Missions could only muster another two in the ninth as the rally fell short.

Hager led the team in hitting with a 3-for-4 day and also added two runs and two RBIs. Mauricio Dubon, who hit his seventh homer to account for one of the runs in the ninth, and Hiura each had two hits while the remaining starters had a hit apiece. Zack Brown was roughed up for five runs, four earned, over 5 1/3 innings. Four of the five Missions pitchers who saw action gave up at least two runs in the game.

Double-A

Biloxi Shuckers (35-25) vs Mississippi Braves (26-32)

The The Milwaukee Brewers Double-A affiliate jumped out to a 6-0 lead after five innings and then held off a ninth inning rally to narrowly pull out a 7-6 win over the Braves on Thursday. Nate Griep gave up his first earned run in well over a month, but still held on for his league-leading 13th save.

Bruce Caldwell‘s sac fly and a wild pitch that scored Cooper Hummel started the scoring and Jake Gatewood‘s two-run jack in the third pushed the lead to 4-0. Five of Gatewood’s ten hits since returning this year have been homers though his batting average sits at just .125.

Patrick Leonard‘s RBI-single and Hummel’s RBI fielder’s choice increased the lead to 6-0 through five. After Mississippi finally scored on a three-run homer in the fifth, Leonard had another run-scoring single in the seventh that proved to be the final insurance run that Biloxi needed.

Leonard ended up with three of the team’s eight hits on the night. The Shuckers also drew seven walks, led by Hummel’s three and Gatewood’s two. Bowden Francis gave up three runs over five innings for his second win. Meanwhile, Cody Ponce tossed two more scoreless innings, his third such game in a row, and lowered his ERA to 1.47 on the year.

Class A Advanced

Carolina Mudcats (33-26) vs Salem Red Sox (19-38)

Just like the Missions, the Mudcats, playing as the Micro Brews on Thursday, also had every starter record at least one hit. And just like the Missions, it didn’t end up being enough firepower for the Micro Brews either, losing their game 9-7 in the series opener against the Red Sox.

The Milwaukee Brewers High-A affiliate jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three, capped by yet another homer for Mario Feliciano, his fourth in the last three games and 13th of the year. The Sox broke through in the next inning though, scoring five runs, three unearned due to a Ryan Aguilar fielding error, to take the lead.

Carolina briefly took the lead back in the sixth on run-scoring singles by Eddie Silva and Julio Garcia. But four runs in the seventh pushed Salem back ahead for good and Aguilar’s solo homer, his fourth, was as close as the Micro Brews could get in the ninth.

There were six Carolina batters with an RBI in the game while there were also six who scored runs. Feliciano was the only player with two of each.

Class A

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (28-30) vs Kane County Cougars (31-28)

David Fry put an exclamation point on a day where he was one of six Timber Rattlers named to the Midwest League All Star Game by hitting sacrifice fly in the 12th inning to cap a come from behind 5-4 victory over the Cougars on Thursday night. Joining him will be Brice Turang, Jesus Lujano, Adam Hill, Aaron Ashby, and Logan Gillaspie.

Fry also started the scoring off for the day with an RBI-single in the first. A passed ball scored Korry Howell in the second and after Kane County scored once in the third, Kekai Rios drove in Yeison Coca with a fourth-inning single to make it 3-1.

The Cougars scored three in the bottom of that inning to take a 4-3 lead. That looked like it might hold up for a final score before Lujano decided Wisconsin wasn’t done yet. With a runner on third and down to their last out in the ninth, Lujano hit a sharp single to center to tie the game 4-4 and send it to extra innings where the Timber Rattlers would ultimately be victorious.

Chad Whitmer was the other hero of extra innings for Wisconsin, pitching all three and holding the Cougars to just one hit and no runs in picking up his second win. Coca and Gabriel Garcia led the team with two hits apiece.