SF Giants High-A affiliate becomes 1st minors team in 2024 to achieve rare accomplishment

A couple of days ago, I wrote down a congratulatory and a breakdown post of Mason Black and Dylan Carmouche for winning the Pitchers of the Week for the PCL and the Cal League, respectively. Both posted no-hit performances, with Black going five innings without allowing a single hit while Carmouche went four innings. However, an SF Giants minor league team is in the news yet again. This time, it is for throwing a combined no-hitter.

SF Giants High-A affiliate becomes 1st minors team to achieve impressive accomplishment in 2024

Who would have thought that the Eugene Emeralds decided to add the two and pitch a complete-game no-hitter in just their tenth game of the young 2024 season? That's exactly what they did as the trio of Dylan Cumming, Nick Sinacola, and Seth Corry teamed up to no-hit the Vancouver Canadians in the opening game of their six-game series last Wednesday in a 5-0 win.

Offensively, Scott Bandura and Matt Higgins hit their first home runs of the season as all nine Emeralds hitters reached base at least once. It proved to be more than enough for the win as the pitching was exceptional.

Enough of the hitting and let's talk about the pitching. Cumming started the game and was dominant out of the gates, retiring the first eight batters that he faced before issuing a walk to Canadians catcher Jommer Hernandez.

The lineup turned back to their leadoff hitter Dasan Brown where he hit a soft liner to shortstop Diego Velasquez to end the third and final inning for Cumming. His performance was so dominant that his innuendo-inducing surname was a fitting description.

His sweeping slider is plain unhittable against High-A competition and when paired with his very lively low-90s sinker from a low 3/4 arm slot, it is proving to be a dominant combination. In 11 innings that Cumming pitched, he has only allowed four hits and three walks, resulting in an astounding 0.64 WHIP alongside a 0.82 ERA and 13 strikeouts.

Sinacola picked up where Cumming left off and follow suit with three hitless innings in the middle of the game. He did not look as dominant as Cumming but he certainly did the part with four strikeouts and only allowing two walks.

Sinacola's fastball was only hovering around 90 mph in the early parts of the 2024 season as he's pushed to a middle relief role but the strikeout stuff is still there with nine innings of work while only having allowed just one run so far.

Corry was tasked to finish off the game where the crowd was aware of something special brewing at PK Park on a beautiful Wednesday night. He looked a bit scrappy in the early going where he hit second baseman Jeffrey Wehler and threw a wild pitch to move him to scoring position but got out of the seventh inning unscathed.

The eighth inning was even more nail-biting as Jommer Hernandez earned his second walk of the game, advanced to second base on a wild pitch, and batter Dasan Brown reached first base on balls. It prompted a mound visit by the pitching coach that got Corry settled down to continue walking down the history book. The ninth inning was as clean as it gets with Bandura catching the fairly shallow fly ball to cap off the feat.

It was the first Emeralds' no-hitter since the Fourth of July last year when the quartet of Hayden Birdsong, Mat Olsen, William Kempner, and Sam Delaplane managed the feat.

As a result, Eugene continued to stay red-hot, winning nine of their first ten games under manager Jeremiah Knackstedt who has looked to continue to prove himself as one of the best young managers in the Minor Leagues. They will look to continue the pace as they set their sights on yet another Northwest League championship in 2024.