Box Scores
AAA: Round Rock 5, at Salt Lake (LAA) 4
Round Rock: 5 hits, 9 walks, 5 strikeouts
Opponent: 9 hits, 7 walks, 9 strikeouts
Record: 36-31, 7 GB, 67-75 overall, elimination number 1
SP Dalton Pence: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 5 SO, 78 P / 46 S, 1.82 ERA
3B Josh Jung: 0-3, HBP
DH Kyle Higashioka: 1-5, 2B
1B Alejandro Osuna: 1-3, 2 BB, SB (10), .281/.382/.376
A weird if effective day at the office for Dalton Pence. A 28-pitch 1st including three walks. Zero missed bats on 15 swings at the four-seamer, his money pitch in college. Five misses on six swings at his curve, a pitch he typically employs as a first-pitch strike-grabber or different look. Three Ks ending with that curve compared to three in his previous 29.2 AAA innings. (And Statcast is finally classifying his curve correctly instead of calling every bendy pitch a slider!) I love to see good results with the tail-end of his repertoire. His profile is looking like a back-end starter or a platoon-indifferent long reliever. He hasn’t been especially effective against lefties, so he’s questionable as lefty specialist.
Josh Jung was hit by another pitch because he’s Josh Jung. Obviously yesterday’s wasn’t a health issue, as I’d hoped, and this one was a slippery slider that caught him in the back. 
AA: Frisco 14, at Wichita (MIN) 2
Frisco: 15 hits, 5 walks, 8 strikeouts
Opponent: 3 hits, 5 walks, 7 strikeouts
Record: 33-34, 72-63 overall, first-half champion
SP Jonathan Brand: 2.2 IP, 1 H (1 HR), 1 R, 1 BB, 2 SO, 43 P / 27 S, 5.34 ERA
RP Brock Porter: 4 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 4 SO, 4.67 ERA
DH Sebastian Walcott: 3-6, 2 SB (11), .322/.399/.591
RF Dylan Dreiling: 3-6, SB (14), .313/.381/.518
1B Arturo Disla: 2-5, HR (17), BB, SB (3), .284/.359/.504
3B Rafe Perich: 3-5, HR (16), BB, .321/.405/.576
Ah, the kind of offensive day Frisco that would come in handy next week against Amarillo. Rafe Perich hit a grand slam. Arturo Disla hit a solo. Sebastian Walcott had a three-hit day, although two and potentially all three could have been converted to outs with better defense. 
Lo-A Semifinals: Hickory 6, at Charleston (TAM) 7
Hickory: 7 hits, 8 walks, 12 strikeouts
Opponent: 5 hits, 7 walks, 11 strikeouts
Charleston wins series 2-1
SP Josh Owens: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO, 35 P / 21 S
RP Louis Marinaro: 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO
SS Yolfran Castillo: 2-3, 2B, BB
CF Marco Argudin: 1-3, 2 BB
DH Deward Tovar: 1-3, 2B, BB
3B Curley Martha: 2-4
I feel I have a better understanding of the randomness of minor league playoffs than just about anybody, but this one stings.
The Crawdads opened by loading the bases, but a popup and two strikeouts resulted in nothing. They also lost a runner on the bases in the 2nd and 3rd. Hickory did score the first run when Marco Argudin raced home from third on a Paulino Santana sac fly, but failing to take better advantage in the early frames would come back to haunt them.
Josh Owens received the start over Moises Morales and plowed through two innings, mainly relying on a tailing mid-90s fastball that was too much for Charleston hitters. Morales was warming in the pen when rain halted the contest in the middle of the 3rd, and play didn’t resume for an hour and 40 minutes. Absent news of injury, I assume the decision was not to reboot his warmup process after such a long delay. While we can’t presume an effective outing from Morales, his absence would prove devastating. When the bottom of the 3rd commenced at about 9:45 local time, reliever Cole Fehrman walked three on 13 pitches and was hastily replaced. Geury Rodriguez promptly surrendered a grand slam to center from Cooper Flemming.
Hickory responded by again loading the bases with no out, and this time they converted, scoring two on a Sebastian Baquera walk and Yolfran Castillo sac fly. In the 5th, a Santana walk and Deward Tovar double tied the game. Like Tuesday, Hickory quickly and fully recovered from a multi-run deficit.
And like other Hickory relievers in the series, Michael Trausch just didn’t have it last night. Replacing Rodriguez after a leadoff walk, Trausch surrendered a single and two walks, the last of which plated the go-ahead run. Trausch doesn’t have great control but had issued just one bases-loaded walk all season. Louis Marinaro induced a double-play grounder. One run was going to score regardless, but 1B Kaden Carpenter’s mishandling of the throw from short brought in another. 7-4 Dogs. Marinaro would pitch an effective and season-high 2.2 innings.
Hickory scored once in the 6th and opened the 9th with two walks. After a strikeout, a wild pitch and Carpenter groundout plated one. Seong-Jun Kim pinch-hit for Jay McQueen but grounded to third, stranding Marco Argudin at third as the RiverDogs celebrated. Hickory did score six runs, but five came on outs, and the Dads were 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
Hickory had the league’s best bullpen during the regular season, allowing 4.2 runs per nine and an opposing line of .213/.322/.339 (83 OPS+). The results in the semifinals are dumbfounding: 18 innings, 43 (!) baserunners, 18 runs (12 earned). Those 18 runs were the most allowed in any three consecutive games all season. Charleston batted .347/.455/.486. Using starters limited to two innings at best in two of three games placed a heavy burden on the relief corps, but they’d been effectively dealing with similar situations for a while. Hickory’s defense, also the league’s best, had several critical miscues. Unfortunately, the team rarely resembled the one I covered in the playoff preview.
Lest this comes across as Hickory giving away the series, let’s give agency to the RiverDogs, who always had an immediate answer to whatever Hickory accomplished. Every at-bat was tenacious, every crunch-time pitch up to the task. Even had the Crawdads prevailed, they never had a comfortable moment in any game. Charleston is a deserving finalist.
Today’s Starters
AAA: Davalillo
AA: McCarty
Five Years Ago Yesterday
From Frisco’s 7-4 win over San Antonio: “Early on, the Riders couldn’t generate much against MacKenzie Gore, a top prospect whose year has been derailed by wildness. After early trouble in El Paso, Gore disappeared for a while and has been working his way up from rookie ball. Last night was his first AA appearance. Gore’s control faltered in the 4th, but Frisco couldn’t take advantage of two walks. Gore then walked the bases loaded with none out and was pulled in the 6th, but Frisco plated just one.”
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