Sun. 4/6 - Afternoon Delights (Hopefully)

[Joseph Zarr]

402 footer. 102 mph off the lumber. HE IS HIM. Wake up Brewers. We have an absolute STUD on our hands. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Bitonti misses a back-to-back dart down the same RF line by about 6'. Whewwwww. That ball was absolutely ripped. He lays off an inside heater and takes a free pass. You love to see that type of AB. A two down mini rally. Let's go. Come on Di Turi. Give me an AB to get excited about, please. I don't need the result. But I'd like to see some swings of note.

[Joseph Zarr]

AND, in a 2-2 count Di Turi doesn't get the chance. He takes the high outside ball. Bitonti is picked off 2B in a bang-bang steal attempt. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Tunes into Wisconsin broadcast. Watches Yophery get absolutely eaten up by a deep fly ball into the winds of CF. Completely eaten up and misjudged the very routine catch. That may be the worst play I've ever seen him make in CF - a very good defensive outfielder. Right off the bat we have a man on 3B. 

[Joseph Zarr]

RHP Chandler Welch has a very dangerous slider. That is a zesty pitch.

[Joseph Zarr]

(I am zeroed in today on Wisco and Carolina, if you can't tell)

MAN Welch is a player. He just induced a weak come backer with the same slider and savvily caught the runner too far up the 3B line. Man, that was awesome. Two down.

[Joseph Zarr]

Meanwhile, Di Turi greets the new arm over the LF wall baby! Well done, young man! THAT is what we're talking about. Huge poke. I love to see it. Prove me wrong, young fella. Get that bat working in the zone.

( @wiguy94: 2:15:36 on the replay. Beautiful swing. I know you'll want to see it)

[Joseph Zarr]

2-2 hanger from Welch is smoked to the LF wall. Runner from 1B scores. 1-0 Cedar Rapids. That was a middle middle hanging heater. That ball was crushed at 109 mph. 

[Joseph Zarr]

This ump in Zebulon has extended the inner half of the zone by 6". Interesting zone. Nicasia works a walk. Two down. Man aboard. 3-3 in the fourth. Meanwhile, T-Rats trail 2-0. On to the 5th frame.

[Joseph Zarr]

Yophery comes back after the botched catch and rips a sky high triple down the RF corner. 

Meanwhile, in Zebulon the wind just ate up Nicasia. A lazy sky high fly ball ended up sailing about 30 feet behind where he thought that ball would land. He laid out in full and missed it by a good foot. These winds are swirling so that isn't all that surprising. It's an adventure. 

AREINAMO two-run 105 mph high heater BOMB over the LF wall. Wheww baby. 3-2. 

Meanwhile, Garcia just took a come backer off his throwing arm elbow. He is writhing in pain. Good gracious. Good signs. I think it may have been a funny bone. Whewwwwww. Perhaps dodged a bullet.  

[biedergb]

Thanks for the updates @Joseph Zarr

Haven't watch anything yet - but looks like our pitchers today are not having a great day.

Welch 2 runs in the 1st

Hunt is really struggling given up 3 runs with a balk and WP. I'll have to watch but none of this sounds like the KC Hunt I watched dominate last year.

And T. Smith gave up 4 hits and 2 runs in 2 IP.

Looks like the TRats offense is finally going however. And the Muddies keep putting up runs too.

And KC Hunt is out in the 1st inning what an absolutely disappointing start to the season for him.

[Joseph Zarr]

LHP Bjorn Johnson will debut here to spell the plunked Garcia. Man, I hope Garcia is ok. It looked like he dodged a bullet and that may have just been a funny bone liner. Man on 2B. One down. Supremely bad luck that inning for Garcia who showed even in his low workload he obviously really knows how to pitch.

[Joseph Zarr]

Welch's issue is he is hanging his heater dead center. He just gave up a smoked 2nd double off the RF wall this time. The ball is also flying in these winds - as demonstrated by Yophery's massive misplay in the first frame. OF work in Zebulon and Fox Cities looks extremely challenging today.

[Joseph Zarr]

LHP Bjorn Johnson absolutely has a breaking ball. That thing dips a good bit. First time seeing him pitch. Meanwhile, the winds are swirling the dirt surrounding home plate. Man brutal conditions in Zebulon today.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin 1B Blake Burke just made a beautiful diving catch fly out down the 1B/RF line for Welch's second out. Big out and catch there. This after his RBI single the inning before to plate Yophery.

[MudcatsfaninBrunsCO]

3 minutes ago, Joseph Zarr said:

LHP Bjorn Johnson absolutely has a breaking ball. That thing dips a good bit. First time seeing him pitch. Meanwhile, the winds are swirling the dirt surrounding home plate. Man brutal conditions in Zebulon today.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin 1B Blake Burke just made a beautiful diving catch fly out down the 1B/RF line for Welch's second out. Big out and catch there. This after his RBI single the inning before to plate Yophery.

It's windy, dry, and sticky here in NC today. I'm not there but was in attendance Friday I was sweating by the 3rd inning. We have some rain coming tonight and tmrw according to WRAL News in Raleigh.

[Joseph Zarr]

Another sitting dead center heater from Welch is poked to CF. Poor pitch in a pitcher's count. His heater is sitting and it is getting tagged. Has to fine tune that location to see better results. Men on the corners, 1 down. 3-2 T-Rats clinging to their lead. Need better execution from Welch.

[Joseph Zarr]

Welch is having trouble executing with two strike counts with danger on the basepaths. The tying run crossed on a jam shot bloop single into shallow CF. Not a bad pitch. More bad luck than anything. The issue has been locating the heater in other counts.

Meanwhile the Shuckers, trailing 3-0, had two runners on and two down. EBJ worked a really good AB but then does what EBJ has been doing for a season or so - misfired on a hittable pitch. Got just under a low heater and popped up to 2B. Better batting approach early in 2025 but he is still struggling to find any type of meaningful results early. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Payne walks to open the 5th trailing 4-3. Pena rips a double to the right CF gap. Line drive was poked perfectly where the ball was pitched. AND that brings up HOF'er Josh Adamczewski with runners in RISP. Nobody down. Lefty-on-lefty here. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Josh goes down looking on a really nice outer black heater after only off-speed early. Really nice sequencing there by the Nats lefty, Beeker.

[Joseph Zarr]

Bitoni rips an RBI ground out down the 1B line. 4-4. Pena moves to 3B. Nice productive lefty-lefty AB there.

[Joseph Zarr]

Di Turi hits a reach shallow pop out to CF. 4-4 and we head to the sixth. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Yophery is getting absolutely eaten up by deep CF. He's misreading balls off bats. He's not playing bounces. He's being turned around routinely. He's costing base runners. This is the worst defensive outing I've seen from him to date in what has otherwise been a very illustrious early defensive career. He just misplayed another deep ball to CF. Not reading it off the bat he chased the ball to the wall but found himself a mere couple feet from the wall when he let up. The ball caromed off the base of the wall and flew well past him. That cost a base. Runner again on 3B. No outs.

[Joseph Zarr]

I should add: the winds today in Zebulon and Fox Cities are brutal. So this should definitely be taken into consideration. Lots of sky high balls are swirling and causing massive troubles. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Biloxi has tied the game 3-3.

[Joseph Zarr]

Yophery follows his 1 AB 3B with a 2nd AB 2B to RF. He is paying in with misplayed fly balls for XBH's.