Parks Harber: Hit King!
SF Giants Minor Lines, May 20, 2026
Photo Credit: Richmond Flying Squirrels
Before I plunge into last night’s thrilling — and quite successful! — events, let’s tie a bow in a couple of things. As I teased in yesterday’s post, Scott Bandura’s headed westward and upwards on Tuesday, and before yesterday’s game, his promotion to Sacramento was officially announced. That is, first and foremost, a very well-deserved and hard-earned promotion for Bandura, who returned to the Eastern League this spring and showed some dramatic improvements to his offensive game, leading the dynamic and grinding Squirrels’ offense from the leadoff position from Game 1:
Secondly, Bandura’s move should end any questions regarding an imminent promotion for Jonah Cox — at least for the time being. With Bandura now part of the River Cats’ outfield, there are no more reps in that group to be had, and the move leaves Richmond with just one active outfielder on the roster, so that team really can’t afford to lose him. As I mentioned yesterday, nobody from the Eugene squad appears to be ready to move up just yet, so I would say the outfield groups should be set for a little while now. The Giants would appear to have made their choice here, and Bandura, who has had a longer run in the Eastern League, and made more adjustments, is the guy getting the well-earned bump up.
And finally, I had planned on getting to a reader question from earlier this week regarding the whereabouts of Ryan Walker, who hadn’t appeared in Sacramento since being optioned on May 10 — but then events outstripped me as Walker did appear in last night’s River Cats game. Short answer was he had been in Scottsdale working on things (and, according to Zack Bayrouty on last night’s River Cats’ telecast, Walker had officially been optioned to the ACL for that time, though transactions had him listed as being optioned to Sacramento), but it’s great to see him back in action.
HITTER of the NIGHT: Parks Harber (Rich), 4 for 5, HR, 1 R, 2 RBI, WO
PITCHER of the NIGHT: Carson Whisenhunt (Sac), 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K
With all of that said, let’s get to the action! We’ve got a night full of strong performances, thrilling finishes, and….uh….prognosticating pooches?
We’ll see if Romeo was correct in that particular prediction in a bit, but there’s no doubting that Parks Harber had a big night in store.
