Astros Prospect Report: Games of May 4, 2016 ("May The Fourth" Edition)

Tired of the Star Wars memes floating around the internet yesterday?  Me neither.  Here's a Star Wars-themed Minor League Recap for you from your "May The Fourth" action.

Oh, cut me some slack.  It's like Christmas for Nerds.

AAA Fresno Grizzlies: WON 2-0 over the Reno Aces (ARI)

Brady Rodgers brought balance to the force at Chukchansi Park this night.  Rumors held that Rodgers waved his glove while releasing each pitch, muttering "You want to make weak contact."

Rodgers was incredible in this game, to put the shtick on hold briefly and spout bald truths.  Only six balls left the infield all night, three of which were fly ball outs.  The other three were each singles, and were accompanied by a desperation bunt single in the eighth inning by Sean Jamieson to comprise the only four Reno hitters to reach base.  All told, Rodgers recorded nine of his outs via strike out, three outs via very weak infield pop up, the three outfield fly balls, and twelve outs on the ground.  Just a truly dominating, shocking performance - and this from a writer who is not down on Rodgers at all.  It's only one start, and it lowered Rodgers' ERA to 3.60 for the season so far, but it's not like the Aces lineup is full of non-hitters.

The scoring opened after Matt Duffy laced his only hit of the day, a double that surely had to feel like a breath of fresh midi-chlorians after such a tough spell for him since his demotion back to Triple-A, and Tony Kemp followed two outs later with an RBI single to score Duffy from third.  Jake Marisnick followed with a double to force (okay, that one's a stretch) his Triple-A slash line to .185/.214/.259 before being pulled in the fifth inning and (presumably) being informed he was being recalled to Houston by the Astros for the series against the Mariners.

A.J. Reed destroyed another baseball in this game, tattooing (Tatooine? You're welcome) a 3-2 fastball from Matt Buschmann far, far beyond the 51 Fifty sign in right center field to lead off the fourth inning and complete the scoring for the afternoon.

Houston fans might note the approximate location of the home run ball and begin salivating at the idea of eating on the patio in center field in Houston and staying alert for home run balls in the near future.

All in all, it was nearly as feel-good a win as one could hope for from a team that's scuffled, much like their parent club, out the gate this season.  Colin Moran was noticeably absent a day after notching two more singles.  Max Stassi played his first game back with the club and went 0-3 with a strike out and 0-1 in caught stealing attempts, allowing a stolen base to Reno lead off hitter Jason Bourgeois.

Back to Rodgers briefly...his complete game shut out was the first of his professional career tonight, and he was the first Fresno starting pitcher this year to pitch into the eighth inning, much less the entire game.  Even more remarkable, Rodgers threw his complete game gem on just 86 pitches - a full seventy of which were strikes.  That's just sixteen balls spread out over 27 outs.  A flatly absurd number.  He drew praise in bunches on the Twitterverse, but you can imagine this would be the main praise he was interested in, which was spotted after the Grizzlies twitter page retweeted it:

Y'all, my husband just threw a complete game shut out!!!! So proud of y'all! @Rodg_20 @MaxStassi10 @FresnoGrizzlies pic.twitter.com/PIVCj02IbJ

— Virginia Rodgers (@vrodgers24) May 5, 2016

Mrs. Rodgers:  "I love you."

Mr. Rodgers: "I know."

Oh and, of course, the Grizzlies announced this on May the Fourth:

Check out STAR WARS WEEKEND June 10-12! #LaserLightShow #ForceForTheCure #StarWars Tix: https://t.co/MJmIdewOf8 pic.twitter.com/5HYh1jkJTd

— Fresno Grizzlies (@FresnoGrizzlies) May 4, 2016

Box Score:

Chase McDonald, a Wookie of a man, drew a two out walk in the fifth inning before J.D. Davis logged on for his first Double-A home run:

Davis also had a single, his fifth double of the season, and added a walk to his night to bring his times on base to four out of his five plate appearances and his number of total bases to seven.  Teoscar Hernandez also had a solo home run.

A moment to highlight a guy who doesn't, in this writer's estimation, get quite enough love for his production: Chase McDonald.  The Wookie reached base all five times he came to the plate tonight with a double, his eighth home run of the season, and three walks.  Some of his peripherals track a little less favorably so far than Chris Carter's did to this point in his career, and his numbers (including thirty High-A home runs) in 2015 are widely considered a bit of a Lancaster mirage, so it's important not to get too overly excited, but consider this so far in 2016 for him:

McDonald hit his 8th HR in 73 AB, or a home run in 10.9% of his AB for a rough 400 AB pace of 43 HR. He's now hit a home run in three straight games.  He's also got a .978 OPS in AA, in the Texas League. Worth noting that he's still striking out 25.3% of the time coming into tonight's game, but that's down a bit from last year despite playing in a much more pitching-friendly league this year.  He's also walking significantly better, 12% this season coming into tonight after three straight years as a pro in the 10% range. His .382 wOBA and 142 wRC+ are both very solid, and a BABIP of .227 is skewing his slash line some.  So, a bit of a shout out to the Wookie.  Well done, sir.  Kick back and have a break tonight...you've earned it.

Box Score:

High A Lancaster: WON 6-1 over the Inland Empire 66ers (LAA)

Ramon Laureano force-pushed the ball three times to right field for hits, one of them a double, and Nick Tanielu let the force flow through him and blasted a 3-0 Womp Rat of a pitch from his T16 for a two run home run to left field in the third inning.

Bobby Boyd stole his twelfth and thirteenth bases (on his fourteenth and fifteenth attempts, in just seventeen games, which seems downright obscene) after singling to lead off the game.  He'd ultimately score on an error to open the scoring immediately in the Jethawks' favor.

Bryan Muniz posted a two run single in the second, and then Tanielu worked his Womp Rat magic in the third.  The final run of the game for the 'Hawks came in the seventh inning on a wild pitch.

Joshua James pitched exceedingly well, allowing only five hits and a walk while striking out six and recording four ground ball outs in five innings pitched.  He ran into a spot of trouble in the first by allowing two doubles (but somehow no runs, as the first batter ended up on third on the second double) and a hit batsman to load the bases, but was able to work his way out of a jam by inducing a ground out to end the inning.  James recovered to roll through his next four innings, scattering the occasional hit or walk.

Eric Peterson allowed the only 66ers run of the game in the bottom of the 8th on a ground out but was otherwise very effective in his two and two-thirds innings of work.  Angel Heredia closed the game out with an inning and a third of relief, allowing two hits and a walk and striking out three of the four hitters he retired.

Box Score: