Tue. 4/15 - Morning Mudcats

[Joseph Zarr]

Birchard looked good in the third frame. Clearly I missed his worst inning in the first. Three up and three down including a K on a swopping curve. T-Rats still trail 4-0. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Cameron hits a bloop liner single into RF. Delgado crosses. Cameron tries to stretch it to two and is thrown out by Quero at 2B. 6-1 Sounds. On to the bottom of the 6th.

[Joseph Zarr]

It appears as though an Ethan Murray throwing error followed by a single has runners on the corners and nobody out against RHP Alexander Cornielle. 3-0 lead. That's a tough way to leave your pitcher hanging. 

[Joseph Zarr]

It would appear Ethan Murray has been charged with two throwing errors here in the first frame. Yikes. BUT, Cornielle works around his struggling second baseman with three K's. 3-1 Shuckers. Unearned run.

[Joseph Zarr]

Nittoli pitched a clean 1-2-3 inning of relief including a swinging K on a slider dipping low and away to complete his frame of work. Nice stuff. 6-1 Sounds on to the 7th. 

Meanwhile, with two down...Birchard just walked another batter. That was nine in a row retired. These AB's happen routinely for him in his young career, however. He suddenly just loses his heater arm side. Overcompensates and then throws it low and outside. His two out walk pattern is one of his biggest issues amongst his ongoing walk issues at large. The stuff is there. The fine-tuned mechanics remain elusive. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Birchard with a bit more loss of control to the next batter. Now in a 3-2 count after a WP in the dirt sent the runner to 2B. He gets the swinging K on a high outside heater (another ball). That's his 5th K, however. The mixed bag of his outings continue.

[Joseph Zarr]

A lead-off five pitch walk for Tayden Hall. A reach poke liner single for Jadher Areinamo. A Blake Burke sac fly to CF. It's 4-1. That's Burke's team-leading 7th RBI. And that's all. A Wood force out. A weakly hit dribbler off the bat of Baez. 

This is not your Carolina Mudcats offense. 😅

[Joseph Zarr]

More two on trouble for Cornielle in the second. Lead off single. Four pitch walk. Two men on. Nobody down. Shuckers clinging to a 3-1 lead.

[Joseph Zarr]

RHP Bayden Root may have had his best outing as a Brewer of late. He is back to old ways we've seen before: Six straight balls on in relief. Man on first. 2-0 count. Nobody down. He gives up a ground ball single up the middle on the next pitch. Two men on. Nobody down. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Root escapes. Pop out to 3B. 6-4-3 DP. Great recovery.

[Joseph Zarr]

Meanwhile, Tyler Jay has run into trouble loading the bases with a walk. One down. He gives up an RBI single to RF. He'll face the dangerous Brandon Drury next who is 2-for-3. Jay has not been sharp. He also has a HB in this frame. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Meanwhile, Alexander Cornielle pulls another Houdini. Two men on. Single. Loads the bases. He struck out the side. Again. Pitch count at 51 through two innings. Six K. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Big K looking for Jay. Inside sinker got Drury looking. Two down. Quero to the dish. 6-2 Sounds. He gets the pop out to shallow LF. Great escape. Whewwww. On to the 8th.

[Joseph Zarr]

Another walk to start Root's sixth frame (borderline) and another DP to follow suit. The 6-3 variety. He follows that with a swinging K on a slider down and away. Nice recovery. 

Meanwhile, Mona is a triple shy of the cycle. He just poked a single into RF. Heck of a night for Mona, His best of the season by a country mile.

[Joseph Zarr]

The Shuckers can't capitalize on Cooper Pratt's lead-off double to start their third frame. Wilken then walked. With two men on it went Miller fly out to LF. Adams line out to SS. EBJ strike out swinging. They remain ahead 3-1. 

Meanwhile, Tayden Hall just ripped a lead-off triple to the deepest part of the Park in a blistery windy night in Wisco. That was a 110 mph one-hopper to the 405' mark. Yowza. 

[Joseph Zarr]

I am unsure if I've seen an infield umpire make a correct call at second base in any game I'm watching. They have literally gotten every bang-bang call incorrect. It's uncanny. These are bang-bang plays. But they have, to a T, been bang-bang wrong. 😅

[Joseph Zarr]

RHP Ryan Middendorf starts his first inning of work in the 8th with a hanging slider ripped by ol' nemesis Ryan Elko for a double to the left CF wall. That was a hanger. 

[Joseph Zarr]

SO,

CORNIELLE HAS 9 K THROUGH 3 IP.

Ummmm. Yeah. WIld. 

[biedergb]

Cornielle. Looking sharp. Only 4 hits, but the errors allowed the run.  3 IP. So that’s 9 outs. And of those he has 9 K. Wow. Not dominant since they have hit it. But all outs via K. Fastball up to 94.

[Joseph Zarr]

Middendorf is running into trouble. Not sharp. Tough time getting the ball over after the opening meatball slider. He has runners on the corners (weakly hit infield single bloop). Now in a full count. Let's see if he can dig deep. Nope. Missed well inside at 95 mph. That's bases loaded. Tying run at the dish for the second time. 

[Joseph Zarr]

He gets the 6-3 DP! Huge. 6-2 and they move to the 9th. Whewwww. 

[biedergb]

Finally watched some mudacts and watched the innings of holobetz. Seems to have velo as Chris mentioned 94 and said he had issue with velocity. Seemed to struggle with command. Nice to see some of these guys actually play. I’ll watch more later. 

[Joseph Zarr]

An opening walk. A following goose snort bloop liner to RF. Two men on (first and second) to open RHP Dikember Sanchez's first inning of work here in the 7th. T-Rats trail 4-2. Nobody down. He faces a lefty. Meanwhile, the home plate ump continues to be a butcher. AND the infield ump just blew a check swing strike. This is amazing. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Loaded bases walk on an actual ball. Sanchez had a strike stolen from him in a 1-0 count there. Then the infield ump stole a strike on a check swing. Meanwhile, he falls behind 1-0 to the next batter. Tough sledding here. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Incredible first out of the inning for Sanchez is another goose snort one-hop in the infield to a charging Baez at 3B who charges and cleanly scoops and Wood snow cone hangs on to the throw. One down. Bases still juiced.