Tue. 4/11: Home Openers Abound

[wiguy94]

Xavier Warren having a rough day in the field. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Sloppy sloppy defense is a repeating theme tonight, unfortunately. The home plate umpire blew a strike three call on a gorgeous high heater from RHP Justin Yeager and he induces a weak grounder to Zamora at SS (not going to lie, I was holding my breath) with a gorgeous slider. Well, Zamora (as he is wont to do since 2022) threw it just short of Warren at 1B and, well, he failed to scoop it up. This was probably just as much on Warren as it was on Zamora but these are issues that have reared their heads with Zamora since his injury. AND, now Yeager has left the game on a 2-1 count injured. Sheeeesh this inning just gets worse. Give me a beer!

[wiguy94]

Disastrous inning in Biloxi. They blow a 4-1 lead in the 7th and Yeager left with some type of injury after coming in to relieve Middendorf. 

[Joseph Zarr]

2 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Xavier Warren having a rough day in the field. 

Yeah, that scoop was rough but I didn't really like the throw from Zamora either. He had plenty of time but his arm looked weak and the throw was short-hopped, no? I know he's charging that ball but I personally wanted a more accurate throw. Maybe I'm judging him to harshly because of all the errors I witnessed in 2022?

[Joseph Zarr]

Just now, wiguy94 said:

Disastrous inning in Biloxi. They blow a 4-1 lead in the 7th and Yeager left with some type of injury after coming in to relieve Middendorf. 

Yeah, this is what we truly call a 'disastrous inning'. Just rough all the way around. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Yeager injury is at the 2 hr 44 min 12 sec mark for any MiLB.TV viewers. It appeared to happen pretty quickly within that last pitch. Let's hope it's minor. There was a debate amongst Yeager and the staff so it could be (crosses fingers) minor.

[wiguy94]

4 minutes ago, Joseph Zarr said:

Yeah, that scoop was rough but I didn't really like the throw from Zamora either. He had plenty of time but his arm looked weak and the throw was short-hopped, no? I know he's charging that ball but I personally wanted a more accurate throw. Maybe I'm judging him to harshly because of all the errors I witnessed in 2022?

I do think it was a tough play with him coming in and throwing on the move. 

I'm probably just more concerned with Warren because I have no clue what his position is defensively. I think he’s kind of a butcher everywhere. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Chourio back to the dish facing another lefty with men on the corners and nobody down....let's see if he can rise again! Struck out swinging - strike two on a gorgeous change-up and strike three swinging on a sweeping inside slider off the plate.

[Joseph Zarr]

Can confirm @wiguy94: LHP Russ Smith definitely looks svelte and trim from 2022. Nice to see it. I honestly wouldn't doubt he was carrying some young 'dad' weight last year as he has a very young one in the house.

[Joseph Zarr]

Zavier Warren may have botched the tying grounder (?) but he also threw out the runner at home plate to prevent the go-ahead run. Is this a win? Hard to say. What a roller coaster in Biloxi. It's never easy.

[Joseph Zarr]

On to extras in Biloxi. If they can't pull this out, this is definitely what you would classify as a bad loss. And, hats off to Pensacola. They didn't make the mistakes. The Shuckers absolutely did.

[Joseph Zarr]

After a grounder moved the Manfred Man to 3B the Wahoo's followed with a sacrifice fly to right field (Rodriguez's throw airmailed to the backstop). Shook gets the final out on a fly to Campbell in left field and it's suddenly 6-5 Wahoos as the Shuckers will look for some magic in their half of the 10th frame.

[Joseph Zarr]

HE DID IT AGAIN FOR THE WALK OFFFFFFF!Q!!

[wiguy94]

Chourio with an absolute bomb to dead CF to walk off the game!! Incredible HR!

[Joseph Zarr]

8 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Chourio with an absolute bomb to dead CF to walk off the game!! Incredible HR!

He is truly SO special. My goodness. That was NOT a meatball. It was another mistake high and to the outside though. Whewwwwww. Unreal moment. I shared it with my 5 yo daughter. It was amazing. 😅

[wiguy94]

1 minute ago, Joseph Zarr said:

He is truly SO special. My goodness. That was NOT a meatball. It was another mistake high and to the outside though. Whewwwwww. Unreal moment. I shared it with my 5 yo daughter. It was amazing. 😅

Nobody is going to be throwing him FB anymore which is honestly a good thing. Let Chourio see 20 breaking balls a game. 

[Joseph Zarr]

1 minute ago, wiguy94 said:

Nobody is going to be throwing him FB anymore which is honestly a good thing. Let Chourio see 20 breaking balls a game. 

Absolutely. I would love if he was gifted repeated practice on everything off-speed. That would be incredible. He struck out on a change-up to slider combo in his 3rd AB. He needs the work in a game setting😅

[Joseph Zarr]

All this Chourio madness and I missed the Sounds comeback?!? My word. More to watch! What. A. Night. 

[Joseph Zarr]

The Sounds bullpen is the clear early season Nashville MVP. They've been unreal and they've been called on early and often. Tonight? 8 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 14 K. Unreal performance. 

[Joseph Zarr]

My word Jon Singleton hit a no doubter 105 mph 419 foot jack over the right field fence. This appeared to get things going versus the Norfolk bullpen. Previous to that rocket, the Sounds were being outhit 11-3.

 

[Joseph Zarr]

Not to be outdone, 2 batters later, OF Tyler Naquin ripped a two-run 461' jack to center right. Do you think the Sounds were happy to see the Norfolk bullpen?

 

[wiguy94]

44 minutes ago, Joseph Zarr said:

The Sounds bullpen is the clear early season Nashville MVP. They've been unreal and they've been called on early and often. Tonight? 8 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 14 K. Unreal performance. 

Incredible bullpen performance tonight. Especially Cousins (thought he looked much better), Erceg, and Andrews. Erceg and Andrews didn't allow any runs in their inning in the extras.

[Joseph Zarr]

11 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Incredible bullpen performance tonight. Especially Cousins (thought he looked much better), Erceg, and Andrews. Erceg and Andrews didn't allow any runs in their inning in the extras.

This is easily the best and most confident we've seen Lucas Erceg. You can tell he's starting to own his role as a reliever - let us remember this was his first actual off-season as a pitcher (which is insane if we consider what we're seeing). He hasn't allowed a single hit in 7 IP. 9 K, 5 BB, 0.55 WHIP. Shut down the 9th and 10th tonight in a tie game. He's still routinely hitting 96-98 mph. His change-up which was probably his best pitch late in 2022 is even better in 2023. But, the big difference we're seeing in 2023 is he also has confidence in and impact with his slider - something we almost never saw in 2022. It's a big deal.

[Joseph Zarr]

14 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Incredible bullpen performance tonight. Especially Cousins (thought he looked much better), Erceg, and Andrews. Erceg and Andrews didn't allow any runs in their inning in the extras.

Cousins definitely looked better. Still getting the classic K with his slider but his sinker wasn't hitting the backstop. That helps. He wasn't perfect by any measure but he was certainly impactful and more dialed for sure. 

[wiguy94]

2 minutes ago, Joseph Zarr said:

Cousins definitely looked better. Still getting the classic K with his slider but his sinker wasn't hitting the backstop. That helps. He wasn't perfect by any measure but he was certainly impactful and more dialed for sure. 

I've been so impressed with Andrews so far. I honestly think he will be in the Brewers bullpen at some point this season if he keeps this up. I think he has 3 pitches that could work at the MLB level.