Tue. 7/4 - Hopefully the Good Kind of Fireworks; DSL Clubs Faceoff

[Joseph Zarr]

Meanwhile, OF Kaylan Nicasia just smashed a two-out three-run jack over the LF wall to make it 7-0 Mudcats. We're in the 1st inning baby. Let's go!

[Joseph Zarr]

Wow. Junk with his worst outing by a country mile. He goes 1/3 an inning. He gives up 7 earned runs. RHP Luis Contreras comes on and gives up a single and Junk's 8th earned run in his first batter faced. It's 8-0 Clippers. Still one down. Junk gives up 3 2B, 1 3B, and a 3-run HR. And, for good measure, he sprinkles in 3 walks. YIKES.

[Joseph Zarr]

Another month. AND, another HR surrendered by struggling RHP Robbie Baker. It's uncanny. He is giving up long balls at a very very generous rate. His season has turned South in a hurry. That's a no doubter 3-run jack over the LF wall. How bad is it for Baker at present? It's bad:

He has now given up 1 or MORE HR's in 6-of-8 relief outings dating back to May 31st. 

Uncanny bad streak for Baker.

[Ro Mueller]

Junk exits after retiring 1 of 10 batters to start the game, giving up 5 extra base hits and 9 earned runs. And Luis Contreras then gave up singles to the first 2 batters he faced.

But I won't fret too much over Junk - he pitched 14 solid innings over his last two starts, throwing 98 pitches 5 days ago.

This is the 4th time this year he's been asked to pitch on 4 days' rest:

• April 7 - solid - 0 runs, 2 hits in 5 IP
• April 12 - rough MLB debut - 5 runs, 7 hits in 4 2/3 IP
• May 28 - rough time - 5 runs, 6 hits in 6 IP
• July 5 - disaster - 9 runs, 6 hits in 0.1 IP

[Joseph Zarr]

AND, if I'm going to challenge INF Freddy Zamora's defensive reputation I'm certainly going to praise him when he rises up. What a play to grab a crucial second out after the 3-run Pensacola HR. He ranges deep into the grass behind the 2B bag and ice cream cone scoops and corrals the grounder and rifles a spinning throw to a stretching Warren at 1B to grab the key 2nd out. LHP Luis Amaya is trying to close things out.

[Joseph Zarr]

Shuckers pull it out 8-5. Phew. Thank you Mr. Amaya. The squad deserved that win.

[Ro Mueller]

Surprising fact: INF Luis Urias is the 3rd youngest position player on the Nashville Sounds, only bested by Sal Frelick and Payton Henry. And Henry and Urias were born just 3 weeks apart. 14 other Sounds' position players (including rehabbing Tyrone Taylor) are older than Urias.

[Joseph Zarr]

24 minutes ago, damuelle said:

Surprising fact: INF Luis Urias is the 3rd youngest position player on the Nashville Sounds, only bested by Sal Frelick and Payton Henry. And Henry and Urias were born just 3 weeks apart. 14 other Sounds' position players (including rehabbing Tyrone Taylor) are older than Urias.

[Joseph Zarr]

BTW, INF Gregory Barrios left the game early. Unknown reason for departure. But, he was pulled from the game in I believe the top of the 2nd frame. OK, it looks to me like (at this juncture) it was a precautionary pull after he took a heater well inside directly to his lower quad - just above (wait for it) his left kneecap. I mean, come on now. This is now at ludicrous speed. He did manage to walk to first base. Stay in and score a run at a pretty full sprint. He wasn't running with a limp. I'm going to go with a precautionary pull to give one of their infielding stalwarts of 2023 a break.

[Joseph Zarr]

OF Joe Gray Jr. struggled to start the Quad Cities series - I'm sure he'd admit the same. But he closed it with a 3 hit outing and he now has a 2-bagger and a single in his first two trips here at Home versus the Sky Carp. T-Rats lead 1-0. Bottom of the 3rd.

[Joseph Zarr]

This is the best RHP Alexander Cornielle has looked all season long. He's attacking in and around the Zone. 5 K now through 3 2/3 IP as he tries to work around a one out double to the deep left center gap. Two down. 1-0 T-Rats. You love to see Cornielle discover some success!

[Joseph Zarr]

LHP Karlos Morales has scuffled the past couple months after a very good start to 2023. However, I'd like to point out: he has inherited 15 runners on the season and he hasn't allowed a single one to score. His damage is his own doing. He is definitely doing what he can to help his pitching staff. He strands 2 runners to help Cornielle preserve an unblemished outing.

[Joseph Zarr]

HR for DH Darrien Miller! He just squeaks it fair on his 5th long ball of 2023 just inside the RF foul pole. He's been in a bit of a slide lately (1-for-16 @ Quad Cities) so you love to see that key insurance run. 2-0 T-Rats in the bottom of the 4th. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Let's hope this 12-0 rain delay in the bottom of the 4th extends to a cancelled game for the Sounds. Yeah, that's it. Just call it already. 😅

[Joseph Zarr]

Morales gives up a double with one down here in the 6th frame. He then gets a K. Two down. He then walks the next two batters after 2-2 counts where he can't find the outer half and misses by quite a bit. RHP Tanner Shears is on to try and end this frame and strand three runners.

[Joseph Zarr]

5th 3-hit game of Joe Gray Jr's 2023 season. 17th game with multiple hits. 

[Joseph Zarr]

RHP Tanner Shears continues to be phenomenal. He has such a wildly violent but controlled (oddly) delivery. I can only imagine that is not a fun display to try and locate the baseball. He goes more scoreless innings tonight. RHP Shane Smith loses the shutout by giving up a massive long ball out of the ballpark over the bullpen in deep right CF. He gets an incredible web gem charging barehanded scoop and toss to 1B to the next batter. Two outs. Smith walks the next batter on 4 pitches. Tying run to the plate. 3-1 T-Rats.

[Joseph Zarr]

Not to be lost tonight: INF Robert Moore extended his on base streak to 22 games with a triple

 

[Joseph Zarr]

UNOFFICIAL injury updates per Chris Mehring from tonight's postgame podcast:

• OF Edquarqui Fernandez: Chris bumped into him today and it appears he is extremely close. He has a couple days because he's on the 7-Day IL but there shouldn't be any delays there.
• LHP Justin King has thrown a bullpen session and is raring to go
• INF Eric Brown Jr. is still entirely a 'wait and see' ordeal. In my interpretation: they are waiting for test results. We hope for the best here but there is definitely reason for concern.😕

 

[Jake McKibbin]

Tyrone Taylor's second rehab stint looks to be going a whole lot better than his first

[Jim Goulart]

8 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

BTW, INF Gregory Barrios left the game early. Unknown reason for departure. But, he was pulled from the game in I believe the top of the 2nd frame. OK, it looks to me like (at this juncture) it was a precautionary pull after he took a heater well inside directly to his lower quad - just above (wait for it) his left kneecap. I mean, come on now. This is now at ludicrous speed. He did manage to walk to first base. Stay in and score a run at a pretty full sprint. He wasn't running with a limp. I'm going to go with a precautionary pull to give one of their infielding stalwarts of 2023 a break.

AUDIO: Included within the Carolina game summary is Manager Victor Estevez’ postgame interview. Barrios has a bruise and will miss just one game, he’ll be back on Thursday.