Milwaukee Brewers Minors: Vibes Make History With First Ever Wins

Fathers’ Day weekend was full of good vibes as the new Rookie Advanced league team for the Milwaukee Brewers recorded their first ever wins. Elsewhere, three other affiliates wrapped up the first halves of their seasons and head in to their respective All Star breaks.

Triple-A

San Antoinio Missions (44-26) vs Reno Aces (29-40)

The Milwaukee Brewers Triple-A affiliate started the weekend off in dramatic fashion, tying the game in the 12th on Mauricio Dubon‘s RBI-single and then walking off on Nate Orf‘s sacrifice fly to secure a 5-4 victory. Alex Wilson gave up a run in the top of the 12th, but limited the damage to just that and earned the win.

After falling down 3-0 through three innings, David Freitas put the Missions on the board with a two-run double in the bottom of the fourth. The score stayed that way until the bottom of the ninth where with two outs, Lucas Erceg‘s fly ball that would’ve ended the game was just plain dropped by the right fielder, scoring Troy Stokes Jr. all the way from second and sending the game to extras.

Bubba Derby gave up three runs, two earned, over six innings in the no decision. Dubon had three hits on the day and Stokes had a hit, scored two runs, and stole a base.

San Antonio took a bit to get warmed up in Sunday’s game, spotting Reno a 2-0 lead after four and a half innings. But the Missions woke up big, scoring eight of the game’s final nine runs en route to a 8-3 win. Aaron Wilkerson shook off his first poor outing of the year and improved to 6-1 by giving up two runs over five innings.

Orf put the Missions on the board with an RBI-single in the fifth and later added an RBI-double in the eighth. Freitas continued a strong weekend with a three-run double in the fifth that put San Antonio on top for good. He added a solo dinger in the seventh, his fourth, for good measure. Freitas increased his hitting streak to 12 games and leads the team with a .378 batting average as a Mission.

Orf and Dubon each had 3-for-5 days at the plate with Orf picking up his seventh steal of the season. Jake Hager finished 2-for-3 and scored two runs for San Antonio.

Double-A

Biloxi Shuckers (41-29) vs Jackson Generals (39-31)

The Milwaukee Brewers Double-A affiliate rallied from a 6-1 deficit to tie the game at six and eventually go to extra innings. But unlike the Missions on the same night, Biloxi did not have a comeback in them and fell 7-6 in ten innings. Dillon Thomas had RBI-singles in the first and sixth innings to bookend the scoring for the Shuckers.

Trent Grisham reached base six times, going 2-for-2 with four walks and also adding his eighth home run of the year. Cooper Hummel had a hit, three walks and a steal, the hit being a pinch hit RBI-triple in the fourth.

Biloxi snapped their four-game losing streak in style on Sunday, holding Jackson to just two hits in a 4-0 victory that capped off the Shuckers’ first half division championship. The win avoided a series sweep at the hands of the Generals.

Bowden Francis was on fire Sunday, giving up just the two hits and striking out ten batters over seven innings of work. Marcos Diplan and Cody Ponce each threw a hitless inning of relief.

Max McDowell and Bruce Caldwell each reached on errors in the second and sixth innings, respectively, that scored the first three Biloxi runs. C.J. Hinojosa added a fourth insurance run in the seventh with a solo shot, his third homer of the year. With two hits on Sunday, Luis Aviles Jr. has hits in eight of his last nine games, batting .353 over that span.

Class A Advanced

Carolina Mudcats (39-30) vs Winston-Salem Dash (38-26)

Tristen Lutz‘s three-run double in the bottom of the eighth broke a 1-1 deadlock and the Mudcats held on in the ninth to beat the Dash 4-2 on Saturday. Christian Taugner was solid in his first start in over a month, giving up just a run and six hits in six innings of work and earning a no decision.

Ryan Aguilar knocked in the other run for the Mudcats, slapping a two-out single to left that scored Rob Henry and tied the game at one. Aguilar and Lutz’s run-scoring hits were the only two hits for Carolina on the day. Of the four runners who scored, three reached via walk and the other reached by error on a sacrifice bunt attempt.

The Milwaukee Brewers High-A affiliate had four times as many hits but only half as many runs on Sunday as they lost 6-2 to Winston-Salem and split the series 2-2. The Mudcats finish the first half of the season in third place in the Carolina League Southern division.

Clayton Andrews had three of Carolina’s eight hits on the day, finishing 3-for-5 and knocking in one of the runs with a seventh inning single. Wes Rogers and Devin Hairston scored the two Mudcat runs.

Class A

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (31-38) vs Quad City River Bandits (43-23)

There wasn’t much good that came from Wisconsin’s game on Saturday night. The Timber Rattlers had one whole hit and gave up all five runs in the first inning of a rain-shortened 5-0 loss to the River Bandits.

Scott Sunitsch lasted just 2/3 of an inning, giving up all five Quad City runs and dropping to 4-7 on the year. David Fry picked up Wisconsin’s only hit in the first, but was quickly erased by a double play on the very next pitch. Play was stopped after six innings for a rain delay and with no relief in sight, was called for good.

On Sunday, the Timber Rattlers went up 2-1 in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Brent Diaz and an RBI-triple by Yeison Coca. But the River Bandits went back on top with two runs in the seventh and that was all she wrote as Wisconsin finished the first half with a 3-2 loss and a 2-2 series split with Quad Cities. The Timber Rattlers finish the half sixth out of eight teams in the Midwest League Western division.

Chad McClanahan and Connor McVey scored the two Timber Rattlers runs. Korry Howell and Leugim Castillo had two hits apiece.

Rookie Advanced

Rocky Mountain Vibes (2-1) vs Orem Owls (1-2)

It took just two games to earn the first win in Vibes history and it took a bunch of offense to do so. After being shutout in their first game, Rocky Mountain put up double-digit runs in a 11-7 win over Orem on Saturday.

A five-run sixth inning put the Vibes up for good. 2019 fourth round pick Nick Kahle had a run-scoring double in the inning, his first professional hit. 2018 Brewers draftee Micah Bello had a strong day, finishing 3-for-5, scoring two runs, knocking in three, and stealing a base. All three RBIs came on a three-run homer in the third.

The good vibes continued on Sunday in another high-scoring affair. The Vibes came out victorious yet again, winning 13-10 over the Owls. The Milwaukee Brewers Rookie League affilaite had 15 hits – six players had two hits or more of them.

Bello followed up his Saturday performance with an even better one on Sunday, this time slugging two homers en route to a 3-for-4 day with two runs and five RBI. Antonio Pinero also finished 3-for-4 and added three RBIs while scoring three runs. 2019 16th-rounder Michael Wilson finished 2-for-5 and scored three runs while Jose Sibrian went 2-for-4 and scored twice.