Ryne Reynoso finished his minor league baseball season for the Class AA Mississippi Braves Aug. 31 and got a well-deserved promotion.
The Bellevue, Wood River High School and Boston College product was called up with several of his teammates to the Triple A Gwinnett Braves of the International League. That is one step below the Atlanta Braves' major league club.
And then the former Wood River pitching and hitting star got a rude introduction to Triple A batters during his starting assignment Saturday, Sept. 5 against the Charlotte Knights at the Gwinnett home field in Lawrenceville, Ga.
Righthanded pitcher Reynoso, 24, retired the Knights 1-2-3 in the first inning but ran into trouble in the second, yielding six quick runs in front of the 9,385 fans.
He stayed in the game and settled down nicely, blanking Charlotte in the third, fourth and fifth frames. Reynoso (5 IP, 7 hits, 6 ER, 2 BB, 85 pitches/48 strikes and 12 ground ball outs) ended up being the losing pitcher in Charlotte's 10-1 win.
The outcome didn't affect Gwinnett's standing in the 14-team International League. The Braves top-tier minor league franchise has clinched the wild-card berth in the four-team Governors' Cup Playoffs along with Durham (N.C.), Louisville (Ky.) and Scranton/Wilkes Barre (Pa.).
Gwinnett opens the best-of-five first playoff round at home for two games today, Wednesday, Sept. 9 and Thursday, Sept. 10 against the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees.
In Mississippi Reynoso finished as the team leader in innings pitched (148), games started (24) and ERA (3.47) among pitchers with more than 90 innings pitched. It was his first full minor league season as a starting pitcher. His stats included a 7-9 record, 89 K, 59 BB and 12 HR.
Reynoso won his final game for Mississippi Aug. 31 with seven strong innings in a 2-1 home victory over the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx before 2,091 fans at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss. It was his first win since July 22. He allowed only two hits, walked five, whiffed two and threw 101 pitches, 55 for strikes.
