Sat. 4/19 - T-Rats with Two Chances to End Skid

[biedergb]

Muddies strike first. Tyler Rodriguez with his second hit as a Mudcat drives in the run. Just roped into left.

Made lines to left as well and under it enough to get to the fielder.

Hernandez with two quick outs in the 3rd, with a grounder and a nice change up to get a K.

And another K with another change up. Hernandez dialed in. His delivery seems all arm however, and I worry about that moving forward.

I'm watching on a delay - so not updating real time, but about a half inning behind right now.

[biedergb]

Payne makes sure the fielder can't get to this hit and crushed a homer (his 2nd this year) to right.

Next batter and Bitonti crushes it deep to right but still in the ballpark and a nice play against the wall by the RF, who was shaken up after the catch. So no back to back jacks. But Muddies up 2-0 in the 3rd.

[wiguy94]

6 minutes ago, biedergb said:

Payne makes sure the fielder can't get to this hit and crushed a homer (his 2nd this year) to right.

Next batter and Bitonti crushes it deep to right but still in the ballpark and a nice play against the wall by the RF, who was shaken up after the catch. So no back to back jacks. But Muddies up 2-0 in the 3rd.

110 EV on the HR off a FB that was above the belt. Payne is on cycle watch with a triple and HR through 3 innings.

[biedergb]

DiTuri is 2-2 with a pop foul that was wind aided and fell for a hit, and solid grounder up the first base line that hugged the foul line for a double.

Payne is also 2-2 with a well hit fly ball that fell for a triple and a 110 EV ball crushed for a homer.

Boxscores can fool you sometimes.

Through 4 complete innings and it's 2-0 Muddie. Melvin Hernandez only 44 pitches to get through 4. His career high was about 5.1 or 5.2 IP when I looked it up before.

[Ro Mueller]

The AA Shuckers lead their road series in Birmingham 3 games to 1 and have RHP Abdiel Mendoza (6.75 ERA, 8 Ks in 6.2 IP) ready for his 3rd start. 3B Brock Wilken is only hitting .154, but he has an 11-game on-base streak. 

[biedergb]

4 minutes ago, biedergb said:

Through 4 complete innings and it's 2-0 Muddie. Melvin Hernandez only 44 pitches to get through 4. His career high was about 5.1 or 5.2 IP when I looked it up before

OK I jinx him.  He gives up a double, then a grounder, then another double. Dangit. Struggling this inning. I hope he can get through it without more damage, as it is now 2-1, Muddies still lead.

[biedergb]

Melvin decides to take care of business himself, no strikeouts, but he fields the bunt for the squeeze play and throws home in time, and they get the runner. Then a bounce back right to him and he gets the out. He is now through 5 IP but the pitch count is 63.

[biedergb]

Made hit by pitch and is down for a bit. But gets up and runs down to first base, looks like he will stay in the game for now. Boy this is a nightly thing for this team. 

 

Also this team is so incredibly young, on the hitting side of all this they have the following teenagers born between May 2005 and May 2007 in order of oldest to youngest: Adamczewski, Alastre, Di Turi, Bitonti, T. Rodriguez, Payne, Pena and Made. Wow.

 

And Payne strikes out, but Made steals second. Looks like his leg is OK. Phew.

And man, Bitonti just got under it. His last out was a well struck ball and nice place by the RF, this was skied, just under it too much, and to center, but Made moves to third base. Let's go Muddies and bring Made home

[biedergb]

They score Made. Pena smokes it to deep center, and a great play to field it off the wall and a heckuva relay throw gets Pena trying to leg out a triple. Good try, and if not done perfectly he is safe, but they executed it really well, and the inning is over. But the RELENTLESS line up gets another run across.

[biedergb]

Hernandez is out, he had a solid 5 IP. So no career high, but a season high for sure. Nice job young man.

And the next pitcher is fellow Nicaraguan teenager Bryan Rivera.

Who gets a quick out on a liner to 2B, then a fly ball to RF. And he can't get the 1-2-3 inning as he gets a little wild and walks the next batter. And still no good, two non-competitive pitches and he's behind 2-0. Catcher to meet with him to settle things down.

[biedergb]

Rivera gets out of the inning and the Mudcats go 1-2-3, and it's on to the 7th inning.

[biedergb]

18 minutes ago, biedergb said:

but Made steals second. Looks like his leg is OK. Phew.

Welp Made is taken out of the game - hopefully just for precaution but the streak of players exited continues.

The good news is Adamczewski enters the game.

[Ro Mueller]

@Joseph Zarr I think the Nashville outfield is fixed now! Daz Cameron and Jared Oliva are a problem for other teams: 4-for-4 with 2 HRs, a double, 6 RBIs and a stolen base through 2 innings today!

Sounds lead 6-1. 

 

[BallFour]

Funny how much hate the Braylon Payne pick got and now he will have a ton of helium if he keeps this up

 

[biedergb]

RELENTLESS.

After 2 outs, Di Turi draws a walks, steals a base. Walling walks.

Then Alastre lines it to left for a double that scores 2. Now 5-2 Mudcats on to the top of 9

Hodges is back on to close this out I hope

[biedergb]

Hodges strikes out 3 of the 4 batters he faces.

And it's a Mudcat win AGAIN. 12-2 which is incredible.

What a great afternoon so far. T-Rats almost claw back in the make up game before Hardin's gem, which ends the losing streak with a rare 2 days off for them. That has to feel good.

Muddies Take a 5-2 lead: winning streak continues, timely hitting continues, and a hitter leaving the game with injury streak continues.  Well two of those things are good. And a very solid outing by Melvin Hernandez, and Hodges closes it out. After his debut where he struggled a bit - that is now 4 scoreless innings over 4 games for Garrett Hodges, with 7 K, no walks and no hits in those 4 games.

Hopefully the magic wasn't all used up in the afternoon, and we get some evening/night heroics, please.

[biedergb]

31 minutes ago, Ro Mueller said:

Sounds lead 6-1.

And somehow in all the TRats/Mudcats excitement I slept on the Sounds - I have really been snoozing on them this year. But I will need to pay attention. Big lead for them. But technically it's an afternoon/evening game for them, but I will take it. Let's hope the rest of the evening/night is as entertaining for the club affiliates.

[biedergb]

Well hello. Garret Spain starts the Shuckers night off with a home run and just like that it is 1-0.

Then Lara reaches, steals second and advances on Pratt's grounder. Then Wilken with a hard hit chopper for a single to left and it's 2-0. 

And then Adams draws a walk.  EBJ with a very sweet stroke and a 2-out gapper to left center and it is now 4-0.  Oh my is this the Southern League still??

They load the bases, but alas, after batting around, Spain grounds out to end the innings.

So that's 10 batters up, 1 home run, two singles and a 2-run double as well as a few walks, and a 4 run lead. In ONE INNING!?!? That is sometimes a half of a week output for the Shuckers.

Up to Abdiel Mendoza now.

[biedergb]

Mendoza works around two hits. And no runs scored, but he gets 2 strike outs.

Crazy stat of the 108 outs the Barons have made so far in the series, 56 were strike outs. That is insane and over 50%. And if the Barons never strike out again it will be 56 K out of ~150-160 or so outs (depending on outcomes and extras for example), which will be still be >1/3 outs being via the strike out, and that is IF no more outs are recorded via the K.

[biedergb]

Grrrrr.

After a decent 1st inning, Mendoza walks the bases loaded.

Then a grounder back to him and he airmails it to the catcher, and 2 runs score. Then a bunt scores a run, Mendoza almost throws that away. 1 out finally. Runner on 3rd, and it is 4-3.

Gonna need some of that magic for the Shuckers tonight.

[jay87shot]

1 hour ago, Ro Mueller said:

@Joseph Zarr I think the Nashville outfield is fixed now! Daz Cameron and Jared Oliva are a problem for other teams: 4-for-4 with 2 HRs, a double, 6 RBIs and a stolen base through 2 innings today!

Sounds lead 6-1. 

 

Wow, to bad the big league roster doesn't need OF help. Good to see though, the depth just keep getting more impressive. 

1 hour ago, BallFour said:

Funny how much hate the Braylon Payne pick got and now he will have a ton of helium if he keeps this up

 

I don't think to many people had a problem with Payne himself. For me it was a strategy worry. I thought we should have taken Payne with the comp. pick since he was like the #60 prospect and it was unlikely he would have been taken in the next 10 picks or so. 

[biedergb]

Boy I step away for a bit and miss …. Well nothing. I think the shuckers had one walk since the 2nd inning.  Still 4-3. But they had a weekend of offense on the first, and taking the rest of the weekend off now.

[biedergb]

Whoops. Must have been a game day glitch. As it froze up I guess. It’s 6-4 Barons after an 3 run inning, and as I type all that Ethan Murray homers. 6-5 Barons still.  Shuckers offense needs a little more magic.

[biedergb]

Shuckers try. Spain walks, Lara singles and only 1 out. Then Pratt strikes out trying to check his swing on a ball in the dirt. Ball got away and runners advance but Pratt is out. Wilken big swing and hits it into deep center, just under it enough and to the deepest part that it’s a routine out. And they still trail 6-5.  Only 3 more innings for Biloxi to try to tie or take the lead back.

[Joseph Zarr]

All the action tonight and RHP Garrett Hodges stacking success is my favorite development. I said after his last outing and I'll say it again: when you can sit 95-96mph and casually drop a string change-up in there with natural ease you have a chance to in the least carve out a set up role and advance levels. We definitely may have something here. I'm excite.