Wed. 5/10: Shuckers 11:00 AM Central Matinee On Tap

[Joseph Zarr]

And INF Gregory Barrios does a nice job on an 0-2 pitch driving a line drive to deep RF and scoring the tagging Guillarte. Lara advances to 3B. 2-1 FredNats and OF Kaylan Nicasia has a chance to drive in the tying run.

[Joseph Zarr]

And, Lara scores on a wild pitch while Nicasia is in scoring position at 2B (after walking the AB prior). 2-2 ballgame!

[Joseph Zarr]

SS Vaughn Grissom hits a very hard chopper right down the 1B line into the deep RF corner and the Stripers have a two-out rbi. It's 2-0 Gwinnet here in the 3rd frame. Both runs earned and these two runs are tied for his most allowed as a member of the Sounds. 

[Joseph Zarr]

It's an evening of just missed long balls it appears. C Brian Navarreto misses a long ball by about 3' to deep left CF. He grabs the double instead and the Sounds have a runner in scoring position looking to hack away at the 2-0 Gwinnett lead.

[Joseph Zarr]

OF Monte Harrison hits a flare to RF and Navarreto advances to 3B and he quickly steals 2B. CF Blake Perkins then rips a line drive over the leaping 3B and it goes all the way to the LF wall. They've drawn even 2-2 versus highly-touted LHP Jared Shuster. Perkins quickly swipes 3B with ease and the infield is forced in. Still one down with Perkins at 3B. INF Andruw Monasterio is at the dish.

[Joseph Zarr]

Situational hitting. You love to see it. Monasterio hits the deep 2-1 Sac Fly to RF. 3-2 Sounds. And, Big Jon Singleton rips a first pitch line drive to CF that finds the grass - his on base streak reaches a ridiculous 27 games.

[Joseph Zarr]

C Brian Navarreto has thrown out 8-of-17 base stealers. That's a ridiculous league leading 47%. I do love to watch him catch a game.

[sveumrules]

Eric Brown Jr with his first A+ HR plus a Je’Von Ward three run jack have Wisco up 4-2 bottom of the third.

[Joseph Zarr]

Junk is running into trouble here in the 4th. Sounds are clinging to a 3-2 lead but he suddenly finds the bases juiced with nobody down. The deep sac fly to LF is hit scoring the tying run but Keston Hiura (playing LF again) rifles a fantastic throw to Dorrian covering 3B and he grabs the lead runner. Two down now. 3-3 game.

[Joseph Zarr]

Just now, sveumrules said:

Eric Brown Jr with his first A+ HR plus a Je’Von Ward three run jack have Wisco up 4-2 bottom of the third.

They need a 'W' so so bad. Let's hope they hold on for a victory!

[Joseph Zarr]

A two-out deep SS infield single scores the go-ahead FredNats run here off RHP Shane Smith in the top of the 6th frame. It's now 2-3 bad guys.

[sveumrules]

2 minutes ago, Joseph Zarr said:

They need a 'W' so so bad. Let's hope they hold on for a victory!

Metzinger just bombed another pair home, so now 6-2.

Just a grand slam short of the team HR cycle.

[Joseph Zarr]

5 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Eric Brown Jr with his first A+ HR plus a Je’Von Ward three run jack have Wisco up 4-2 bottom of the third.

Metzinger 2-run jack makes it 6-2. Let's go!

[Joseph Zarr]

Not to be outdone, the scorer gives INF Abraham Toro on a slightly misplayed rifle shot grounder down the 3B line and he extends his on base streak to 28 games. Gotta love it.

[Joseph Zarr]

This is RHP Stiven Cruz's second consecutive rough outing. Let's see if he can escape the 4th frame without further damage. It's suddenly 6-4 T-Rats and the Cubbies have runners on 2nd and 3rd with two down. Cruz has given up 8 hits and 2 BB in just 3 2/3 IP so far. This is his second consecutive outing with a lotta runners on the pillows.

[Joseph Zarr]

Nope. He gave up his 9th knock. It's now 6-6. This is the T-Rats way. Booooo! He only makes it 3 2/3 IP. In fairness to Cruz, it would appear he suffered from two-out throwing errors from 3B Ben Metzinger and 2B Robert Moore. So, this would also be classified as the 2023 T-Rats way. They just can't get out of their own way. Hopefully, they can find some resolve and get the lead back.

[homer]

crushed

 

 

[Joseph Zarr]

Boy, the Mudcats just gave up a key insurance run on an infield hit that may have traveled 30 mph. The slow roller slid under the charging barehanded attempt from Daniel Guilarte. Smith, backing-up the play, misfired the throw home and the runner advanced and the Fred Nats managed to grab the 4-2 lead. 

[Joseph Zarr]

RHP Jeison Pena just gave up a 3-run jack. Mudcats suddenly trail 7-2. It's all fallen apart in the 8th. Meanwhile, RHP Lucas Erceg came on and it was a dejá vu 'of late' outing for him. He walked his first batter. Then gave up a weak liner to the grass in LF. Sounds now trail 5-3. Erceg's up-and-down season continues. When he's not hitting the zone with his off-speed stuff it spells trouble. That's been his downfall of late. He can't hit the zone in his third batter with a 2-0 count missing both a change and a slider and he gives up the easy poke to RF on a heater center cut. 

[Joseph Zarr]

It's suddenly 7-3 Gwinnet. Erceg has struggled to find the zone all inning and was forced to throw directly over the plate in bad counts. He's walked two. He did suffer from an error by a charging Cam Devanney who botched the ball off his glove and now on what appeared to be an inning ending double play has been ruled catcher interference on Brian Navarreto? Yikes. They did. Holy smokes this is now officially out of hand. 8-3 Stripers. Still only one down.

[Joseph Zarr]

Oh boy. Erceg just gave up a grand slam. 12-3. This is what you call a meltdown. That was a very bad 2-2 pitch directly over the heart of the plate. The early season feel good story of Erceg's fantastic early outings has quickly vanished with his erratic outings of late. He has no consistency with his change-up or slider and it is killing him. This is a 9-run Stripers inning and there's only 1 out.😅

[Joseph Zarr]

It's going to be hard for Erceg to stay in the Nashville bullpen after that outing. He is most likely headed for a 'Development List' stint to work on his off-speed issues. Or, I would opine, he will simply be re-assigned to Biloxi. These same issues are rearing their heads too often of late and it's a problem. He looks a shadow of his early-season self - a truly unfortunate turn for the young hurler.

[Joseph Zarr]

LF Keston Hiura just ripped an rbi single down the RF line with two strikes. He laid off a high heater the pitch prior and then smoked a 101 mph dart down the line. This is the progress hitting coach Al Leboeuf spoke of in his pre-game interview with Jeff Hem today. It's a discernible change for Hiura and it's wonderful.

[Jim Goulart]

VIDEO Report:

 

[Playing Catch]

Eric Brown Jr. has really calmed down his pre-pitch set up. Wow. It looks pretty normal now.