Sunday 4/2 Action: Nashville Sees Janson Junk's Crew Debut (2:05 Central)

[Joseph Zarr]

Mejía answers the bad luck chopper with consecutive off speed punch outs - look to be sliders by the naked eye. He's hitting the zone with ease today. Fine form early. Two down and the runner still on first base. And he gets the ground out to Toro at third to end a clean frame of work. The Sounds will indeed get the opportunity for their third walk-off victory. 

[Joseph Zarr]

OF Skye Bolt leads off the Sounds ninth with a four pitch walk (Ball 3 was a pitch clock violation). Let's hope we can get him across and pull out the series sweep!

[Joseph Zarr]

And...we're on to Extras yet again. Quite the opening series. After the walk, we saw a Peyton Henry fly out to shallow right field; Eddie Alvarez struck out on a pitch low and inside; and Andruw Monasterio grounded out to SS with what appeared to be a very close call at 1B. 

[Joseph Zarr]

The loss of defense at SS with Turang elevating to the MLB level and Monasterio stepping into every day play is quite the difference here in 2023. He botches yet another play here in the 10th and it allows the ghost runner to advance to third base when he completely misses the scoop on a relatively routine grounder to his right as he was covering and holding the runner on second base. This has been his biggest issue as a Minor League player to date and it is again rearing its head in the early part of the 2023 season. I don't know if they'll call that a single or an error but it was a fairly bad mistake in a key spot. The scorer politely does not attribute an error. That play, however, was the difference in the inning.

[Joseph Zarr]

Welp, Mejía getting classically umped out of his outing here. Bases are juiced. A run apparently was walked across. One out of the exact same three pitches in the exact same locations on the outside stripe was called a strike. Not a fan of the home plate ump today.

[Joseph Zarr]

Yet another high chopper in the infield eats up the Sounds defense. It is one of those days. A short hop odd bounce chopper makes its way over the charging Singleton's glove and past the back-up in Alvarez and into right field. It's now 5-2 Bats. Still one down. Men on second and third base. I'm signing off. It's one of those outings. I am jonesing for Cam Devanney's glove and arm to return to this infield and help solidify some defense.