How Avisail Garcia torched the Gwinnett Braves

In four games over the past five days, the Gwinnett Braves have done a nice job of showing the rest of the International League how not to pitch to Avisail Garcia.

Braves pitchers have fed the White Sox slugger, who’s been with the Charlotte Knights on a Major League rehab assignment since Thursday, a steady diet of fastballs away.

The philosophy being, that after four months of rehabbing a torn labrum in his left shoulder, Garcia shouldn’t have the strength -- or bat speed -- to cover the outer-half of the plate.

While there’s certainly logic behind that approach, the reality was: it didn’t work.

In Wednesday’s 12-10 Knights win in front of 9,760 at BB&T BallPark, Garcia collected two hits – each on fastballs on the outer-half of the plate – and scored two runs before being pinch-hit for in the seven inning after reaching his scheduled four at-bats.  

The two-hit night improved the 23-year-old outfielder to 8-for-15 with a home run, a double, and five runs scored against the Braves and 10-for-19 since he joined the Knights.

“I knew how they were going to try to pitch me a little bit, so I was just trying to make good contact,” Garcia had said following Tuesday’s game. “They were throwing me a lot of fastballs away, so I was ready for that.” 

News of his post-game press conference must not have made its way to the Braves’ dugout because on Wednesday Gwinnett’s “hard and away” mantra trudged onward for Garcia's first three at-bats.

After striking out on a fastball up around his chest in his first plate appearance, Garcia sent an 0-2 fastball on the outer-third of the plate right back up the box for a single in the third inning.

In what became a general theme in Wednesday’s game, Garcia trotted home two batters later on a Josh Phegley (3-for-4, HR, 2B, BB, 6 RBI) double.

In his third at-bat, Garcia took what the Braves were giving him, and laced a line drive right down the first-base line for a double.

"I felt real comfortable when I hit the double because I knew I was going to get that fastball outside because he’d thrown me a breaking pitch right before," Garcia said. 

Once again, Garcia came in to score on a Phegley extra-base hit – this time on the Knights catcher’s 18^th home run of the season, which highlighted a five-run fourth inning for Charlotte.

Seemingly learning from its mistakes, Gwinnett chose to pound the 6-foot-4-inch outfielder inside in his final at-bat, which led to the right-hander topping a ball off his left shin and an eventual groundout to short.

The win, which featured 18 Knights' hits (at least one by every starter) and a combined 378 pitches between the two teams, completed a short (in games NOT time) two-game series sweep for the Knights and evened their overall record against the Braves to 7-7 this season.

“I feel great,” said Garcia, who is slated to move from strictly designated hitting to the outfield on Thursday. “I’m just going to keep working hard everyday. I’m trying to enjoy myself and have fun and we’ll see what happens going forward.”  

Ryan Kussmaul came on to toss a scoreless ninth inning to earn his fifth save of the season and preserve the win for Knights’ starter Bobby Doran (3-1), who allowed three runs on seven hits over five innings.

The Knights will begin a four-game series at BB&T against the Pawtucket Red Sox on Thursday. It'll be interesting to see how they approach Garcia.   

Jordan Danks' eighth-inning go-ahead single leads Knights over Mud Hens

Jordan Danks delivered the clutch hit, while Eric Surkamp turned in another solid outing, baffling the Toledo Mud Hens for the second time this season.

Danks drove in the go-ahead run with a one-out single off a left-hander in the eighth after Toledo had intentionally walked Marcus Semien to get to him.

The hit knocked in the first of three runs the Knights would get in the eighth on their way to a 5-2 win on Saturday at BB&T BallPark.

Danks’ single came on the first pitch of his at-bat and scored Micah Johnson, who led off the inning with his fourth hit of the game to spark the rally. Johnson moved to second on a passed ball and took third on a Carlos Sanchez sacrifice bunt before Semien took his free pass.

“When they walk a guy to get to you, in your mind, you take it as an insult and you’re like, 'all right, I’ll just come up big right here,' and I did,” Danks said. “I saw myself doing it before I did. I got a good pitch to hit and it worked out for me.”

The win improved the Knights to 4-11 in games tied after five innings and ensured Charlotte at least a split with two games remaining in its current four-game series with Toledo.

Surkamp, who fanned a season-high 12 in his previous start against the Mud Hens this season, entered the game fresh off tossing seven scoreless innings in a win over Lehigh Valley and picked up right where he left off, punching out four of the first six batters.

He scattered five hits, struck out seven and walked just one, while utilizing a sharp curveball. 

“I couldn’t pin (my success against Toledo) on one thing or another,” said Surkamp, who has now struck out 19 Mud Hens in 13 innings this season. “They’re a good hitting team, they are aggressive. I was just trying to throw strikes."

Asked what Surkamp’s curve looked like from his point of view in center, Danks laughed.

“Not one that I’d like to see. It’s one of those pitches that I look at from the outfield that makes me glad that he’s on my team. (Surkamp’s) not overpowering, but he’s around the strike zone, changes speeds and hits his spots. That’s harder to hit sometimes than a guy throwing 98.”

Johnson had a two-out run-scoring single to get the Knights on the board in the third inning on top of his go-ahead run late. 

The four-hit game was his second in four games and improved him to 10-for-22 over his last five, with five runs scored, three knocked in and two stolen bases.

Andy Wilkins (2-for-4) also contributed with two doubles and two runs knocked in.

  

Maikel Cleto, who came on for the eighth, walked the Mud Hens’ No. 9 batter, Danny Worth, with one out and allowed him to score two batters later on a single to center by Brandon Douglas, to erase Surkamp from the decision.

The three-run eighth by Charlotte set the table for a pleasantly uneventful save by Ryan Kussmaul, his second of the season.

“I feel like a lot of those tie ballgames late are going to be ones that we start pulling out,” Danks said. “We’ve lost a lot of one-run games and that doesn’t show up in the win-loss column, but we are a tough team to beat and hopefully this gets us on a roll.”

Notes: With seven strikeouts tonight, Eric Surkamp took over first place in the International League with 84 Ks, three more than Rochester’s Trevor May.