Australian Baseball League - 2023/2024

[Jim Goulart]

You can see two of Gardner's three K's at the 01:22 minute mark here.

 

[Jim Goulart]

Box: Brisbane falls 4-2, to move to 6-5 on the season. 

1B Tayden Hall (stats thru 38 AB's) 1-for-4 (double), one K. 

Wonderful start for LHP Brian Fitzpatrick (visit the same stat page) 

"Bandits starter and reigning ABL Pitcher of the Week Brian Fitzpatrick held his own for the visitors. The Aces were within striking distance in the first couple innings, with men on third and only one out. But Fitzpatrick played the escape artist and worked huge strikeouts of Greg Bird in the 1st and George Callil in the 2nd, getting out of the innings unscathed. Fitzpatrick gave up four hits on the night, but managed to toss four shutout innings (zero walks, one HBP, three K's), leaving the door open for his team to get some runs." - from the full game report

The line from Fitzpatrick's two most recent starts: 9 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 11 K

[Ro Mueller]

Brisbane held on for a 3-2 victory over Melbourne on Sunday morning, with 1B Tayden Hall (1-for-4; batting cleanup but still hitting just .190) contributing a double and a run scored. Box score.

They should be back in action starting Thursday, hosting 4 games over 3 days against Canberra.

[Jim Goulart]

Exciting 6-5 walkoff win for Brisbane, but 1B Tayden Hall was 0-for-5 (one K).

Box

Hall's Stats (.170/.264/.255  - .519 OPS in 47 AB's)

[Jim Goulart]

Box: Brisbane wins, 11-4, to move to 8-5 on the season, 8-2 in their last ten games.

1B Tayden Hall (stats thru 51 AB's) had a welcome nice game - on base three times (double, single, HBP, two RBI). 2-for-4, one K. Perhaps dropping him down in the order from the cleanup spot to 7th helped.

The insane pace of RH reliever Sam Gardner (visit the same stat page) continues.

Gardner, the Murray State product who was an indy ball signing of the Crew in June, finished the game with three scoreless, retiring all nine men he faced, eight by strikeout.

Gardner turns 27 on January 4th, and the Australian League has been comped to a level between High-A and AA in the past, but it doesn't matter if one is putting up this line on the moon, it's nonsensical. Gardner has eliminated the control issues he had despite otherwise fine numbers in his 2023 season with the Timber Rattlers.

Gardner has now allowed just three baserunners over 10.1 scoreless IP (five appearances, one hit, two walks) while 26 of his 31 outs recorded have been via the strikeout.

[Jim Goulart]

Watch the strike three pitches on two of Sam Gardner’s K’s at the 01:40 minute mark.

 

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

BOX: Tayden Hall 3-for-3 in the 7-inning 6-2 Brisbane win, including the blast above.

First game of a twinbill, LHP Brian Fitzpatrick will start Game Two.

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

BOX: 3-0 win for the Bandits in a six-inning nightcap. In addition to the Fitzpatrick mound effort, Tayden Hall (0-for-1) drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, and also walked.

[Jim Goulart]

You’ll see Hall’s sac fly to center in the highlight reel:

 

[Joseph Zarr]

RHP Sam Gardner starring in 2024's "Next Stop: Biloxi", a Southern League production.

 

 

[Jim Goulart]

Hey, we recognize these guys!

 

[Harold Hutchison]

On 12/8/2023 at 6:45 AM, Mass Haas said:

Box: Brisbane wins, 11-4, to move to 8-5 on the season, 8-2 in their last ten games.

1B Tayden Hall (stats thru 51 AB's) had a welcome nice game - on base three times (double, single, HBP, two RBI). 2-for-4, one K. Perhaps dropping him down in the order from the cleanup spot to 7th helped.

The insane pace of RH reliever Sam Gardner (visit the same stat page) continues.

Gardner, the Murray State product who was an indy ball signing of the Crew in June, finished the game with three scoreless, retiring all nine men he faced, eight by strikeout.

Gardner turns 27 on January 4th, and the Australian League has been comped to a level between High-A and AA in the past, but it doesn't matter if one is putting up this line on the moon, it's nonsensical. Gardner has eliminated the control issues he had despite otherwise fine numbers in his 2023 season with the Timber Rattlers.

Gardner has now allowed just three baserunners over 10.1 scoreless IP (five appearances, one hit, two walks) while 26 of his 31 outs recorded have been via the strikeout.

James Meeker had a similar breakout in Brisbane last year,

[Joseph Zarr]

6 hours ago, clancyphile said:

James Meeker had a similar breakout in Brisbane last year,

Meeker did indeed win Relief Pitcher of the Year and he was fantastic in 2022. What Gardner is doing striking out hitters is on a completely different level. He's struck out the same number of hitters in roughly 47% of Meeker's total innings. Gardner is essentially striking out the side, at this current rate, every outing. 

[Ro Mueller]

On Friday, 1B Tayden Hall hit 3 ground balls, two of which resulted in singles: 2-for-4. Unfortunately, Brisbane fell 3-0 to Perth. Box score. 

[Jim Goulart]

Saturday doubleheader - thus far, Game One is in the books.

Brisbane fell to Perth, 5-1. (yes, old friend Alex Hall, released this fall by the Brewers, is playing for his hometown Perth club).

First baseman Tayden Hall (no relation to Alex) doubled, singled and walked and drove in the lone Bandits run. Hall had two of Brisbane's three hits. He committed his first error of the season, which led to one unearned Heat run.

The 20-year-old Florida native Hall is now sporting a more-than-solid .274/.352/.419 line through 62 AB's (.771 OPS).

Box Score

Hall singles at the :22 second mark (5th inning breaks up a no-hitter) and doubles in the run at the :56 second mark - VIDEO LINK says "Game Two" but that means Game Two of the series.

Hall is moved back into the cleanup spot for the nightcap, a game in which both starting LHP Brian Fitzpatrick and reliever Sam Gardner are appearing.

Details on that game later today.

[Jim Goulart]

Saturday Game Two - Box Score

Brisbane wins 6-2, and the detailed game wrap-up mentions all three Brewers (this is actually a doubleheader wrap-up including the post above).

Tayden Hall singled and scored a run, 1-for-5.

LHP Brian Fitzpatrick and RHP Sam Gardner combined to walk five in six innings, while fanning eight, but allowed only two runs, both charged to Fitzpatrick. Gardner entered immediately after Fitzpatrick allowed a leadoff triple in the 5th, and the run did score. However, Gardner otherwise pitched two scoreless, fanning three. Gardner's ERA remains 0.00 through six appearances and 12.1 innings. He has K'd 29 (!) in those 12.1 frames.

Go to the 40-second mark here for two K's for Fitzpatrick, and the 01:20 mark for a K by Gardner.

 

 

[Jim Goulart]

Sunday's game - Brisbane loses, 6-4 (Game Wrap, just one Tayden Hall mention early on).

But there is video of that Hall RBI knock:

No full box score available as of yet.

[wiguy94]

Gardner with 3 strikeouts in 2 innings...wow he's fallen off.

[Joseph Zarr]

9 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Gardner with 3 strikeouts in 2 innings...wow he's fallen off.

Get back to the training cages, Mr. Gardner! You're suddenly really slacking on the hill!

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Ro Mueller]

In yesterday’s doubleheader, 1B Tayden Hall combined to go 2-for-6 with a double and 2 RBIs. Brisbane took the opener 9-4, then dropped the second game to Melbourne 9-1.

The clubs have another doubleheader today. All of these are 7-inning games.