Fri. 9/5 - Carolina Controls Playoff Qualifying Destiny, But Must Win Its Final Three Games

[Jim Goulart]

This thread will be utilized for any minor league news Friday.

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[Jim Goulart]

Carolina Controls Playoff Qualifying Destiny, But Must Win Its Final Three Games

With Fayetteville's loss Thursday, it appears that if both Fayetteville and Carolina win their final three games, with both teams leapfrogging Fredericksburg, Carolina lands one percentage point ahead of the Woodpeckers.

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]

Enjoy the full pod, and Spencer's "Minor League Sandbox" begins at the 01:29:00 hour/minute mark.

 

[Ro Mueller]

The AA Shuckers lead their home series against Pensacola 2 games to 1 and have red-hot RHP Jaron DeBerry (1.61 ERA with 29 Ks in 28 IP in last 5 games) raring to go tonight. C Matt Wood has a 1.003 OPS over his last 60 PAs. DH Hedbert Perez sees his first game action in 10 days. 

[Ro Mueller]

LHP Josh Maciejewski (4.84 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 8.5 K/9 in 61.1 AAA/AA IP) steps in to make a spot start for AAA Nashville after Carlos Rodriguez’s sudden promotion, as they aim for a 3-1 series lead at Norfolk. 25-year old 3B Raynel Delgado has a .937 OPS with 17 SBs in his last 178 PAs. 

[Ro Mueller]

LF Luis Castillo returns for his first action for High-A Wisconsin since an injury 13 days ago, with the team looking to even their series at South Bend. RHP Travis Smith had a blip in his last start (4.1 IP, 5 R, 4 Ks), but continues on a terrific 10-game run (2.25 ERA with 35 Ks in last 48 IP).

[Ro Mueller]

Facing the prospect of elimination from playoff contention at Fredericksburg, Carolina needs 19-year old RHP Miqueas Mercedes to ditch his post-promotion struggles (21 ER in 8.2 Low-A IP) and summon his prior form (2.63 ERA in his last 24 ACL IP). Can RF Jose Anderson homer for a 3rd straight day?

[Ro Mueller]

Ragsdale singled on the first pitch of the game, later scoring on an Encarnacion groundout.

Mercedes worked around an error and a walk.

Mudcats lead 1-0 after 1 inning.

[Ro Mueller]

49 pitches thru 3 innings (1 R) are the most for Maciejewski in 61 days, but he heads back out for the 4th inning.

Nashville and Norfolk exchanged sac flies in the 1st inning. Tyler Black has our only hit (a single) after 4 turns thru the order. 1-1 game.

[Ro Mueller]

Carolina and Fredericksburg exchanged infield singles (Walther) and no runs in the 2nd inning. Solid work by Mercedes (2 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks) thus far. Mudcats lead 1-0.

[biedergb]

Man the Shuckers are the Suckers tonight. No hit thru 6 😳

Perfect game even. Oh no. 

[biedergb]

Mudacts give up the lead. 1-1 game. And the most (recent) Mudcats way they have allowed runners in 2nd and 3rd via an Ortuno error.  At risk of now losing the lead and possibly the game.

[biedergb]

Handelfry. Makes the catch. Makes the throw. And it’s a fly out, throw ‘em out at home double play. 1-1 still 

[biedergb]

Big inning propelling T-Rats. Peña still hitless but a sac fly. 

[biedergb]

15 minutes ago, biedergb said:

Man the Shuckers are the Suckers tonight. No hit thru 6 😳

Perfect game even. Oh no. 

Well most won’t know this unless they careful time stamp.

it was top of 6 (Biloxi is home team)when I wrote this. So it was no hit thru 5.

But sadly the team would not force me to correct it as they are now no hit thru 6. And perfect game against is still intact. Maybe the 3rd time thru the order will yield something. 

[biedergb]

And Blake Burke obliges. Because it’s the southern league and he is the southern man. Single. No hitter over. Time to work on getting some runs.

[biedergb]

TRats win. Big. 9-2. Fischer with 2 hits. Nicasia stays hot with 3 hits.

But Made with 3 throwing errors. - will need some video of those to see what/how. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Two of RHP Patricio Aquino's last three outings are in the very interesting (in a good way) category. This includes tonight's fantastic relief performance. 

Muddies are trying to push tonight's game to extras. 1-1 bottom of the 9th. Eeeeek

[biedergb]

Shuckers get a walk to get two,runners on. But Warren Ks. Still down 5-0. But at least they have a hit and a walk right?

[biedergb]

And a a walk off grand slams ends the Mudcats playoff chase. 😩😔😥

[biedergb]

Season ends not with a thud. But a loud crushing door slamming shut.

. From the relentless Cardiac Cats of April to this. Sad end to the Mudcats. Yes two more games left but that is now it for the franchise. Zebulon you deserved better and it was so close. But that door is closed. They were always entertaining even if for wrong reasons recently.

[Joseph Zarr]

Ooooof.

After the sheer and total first half Mudcats collapse - getting swept by Lynchburg late in the season when entering the series leading the division by 1.5 G - a walk-off grand slam to lose out on a second half opportunity feels quite fitting. Metaphorical, even, for the entirety of this organizational wide full-season affiliate second half of baseball.

Man. This second half has truly been glimmers of twinkling stars at a distance. Whole lotta losses. Mudcats find new and creative ways to lose in 2025. 

 

[brewmann04]

The team pitching let them down 

[Jim Goulart]

1 hour ago, biedergb said:

And a a walk off grand slams ends the Mudcats playoff chase. 😩😔😥