RiverDogs fan five in 10th, end up losing

In baseball, a player can to do precisely what he means to do and still wind up with the wrong result in the end.

"It's a humbling game for sure," said Yankees left-hander James Reeves, who learned that the hard way Thursday night.

The 22-year-old combined with a fellow reliever, righty Andrew Schwaab, to strike out five in a half-inning, but Reeves took the loss in Class A Charleston's 6-2 defeat in 10 innings at the hands of visiting Augusta. The five-punchout frame was the second in RiverDogs franchise history -- Mark Montgomery did it on July 1, 2011 -- and is believed to be the first in the Minors since Mariners prospect Andrew Kittredge accomplished the bizarre feat exactly three years later.

"It was a crazy game," Reeves said, adding that he couldn't remember being part of a five-strikeout frame ever in his life. "This was my first experience with it."

The native of nearby Summerville, South Carolina allowed three runs -- all earned -- on a hit and a walk while whiffing six over two frames, but only the free pass contributed to the runs and the loss. Reeves entered with two outs in the eighth inning and got out of that frame without issue. He fanned the first two batters of the ninth, and the third -- Kevin Beltre -- poked a single to right field, but was caught stealing to end the inning.

Coming back out with the game tied in the 10th, 2-2, Reeves struck out Giants prospects Gustavo Cabrera and Jean Angomas in succession, but Charleston catcher Radley Haddad couldn't rein in the third strike to Angomas, who raced to first safely. It was the same story two batters later -- after an uneventful punchout of Adam Sonabend -- when Manuel Geraldo got to first on Reeves' second wild pitch of the inning.

At least, wild pitches is how they appear in the box score. In fact, they did more or less what Reeves wanted to do, even though the baserunners were not part of the goal.

"Me and Radley Haddad were on the same page. We made some good pitches, but a couple of them were 59-foot sliders with serious spin," The Citadel product said. "He did everything he could do back there, but with the balls bouncing and spinning and hitting stuff every which way, it wasn't his fault.

"I don't know if you ever try to throw a pitch 59 feet, but with two-strike counts, the thought process was you want to throw a pitch that looks like it's going to be in the zone but finishes near the batter's back foot. We executed the pitches well, but they just got away back there."

Angomas, who'd stolen second during Geraldo's at-bat, moved to third on the second 59-footer. A walk to No. 12 San Francisco prospect Jalen Miller ended Reeves' night. Schwaab, 23, took over. By the time the righty fanned Dylan Davis to end the wild inning, singles by Seth Harrison and Dillon Dobson and a fielding error by RiverDogs first baseman Chris Gittens gave the GreenJackets a four-run lead. Schwaab was charged with an unearned run on two hits in one-third of an inning.

Reeves (1-1), whom the Yankees selected in 10th round of last year's Draft, was making his 17th pro appearance, and he's already struck out 42 over 36 1/3 innings in his career.

"I go in with the mentality that if the strikeouts come, they come, but I do try to get ahead early in counts," the southpaw said. "And in the late innings, you come into a lot of situations where you need to get some punchouts," he said. "I don't know if I ever approach it like I'm going for a strikeout, but especially when I see a left-hander coming up, you do think about it. I just attack the zone and see what happens. If I can get a strikeout, great."

Augusta's Tyler Cyr (1-1) fanned five and walked one over three hitless innings to earn the win.