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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Melvin Hernandez with a good start. 2 IP, and had no serious contact with a hard hit grounder to first that got past Bitonti (camera angle did not show it, so hard to know if it was playable) and the second hit was dribbler up the 3rd base line that never crossed the foul line. A couple well hit balls right a fielders. Di Turi gets a hit tonight on a weird pop up that the wind pushed into fair territory and had the 3rd baseman fooled, as it must have moved a lot. So a couple hits for the Muddies based upon poor fielding. We will take it.

Sounds like the outfielder lost it in the sun, but Payne was on his horse and legged it out. So yes he looks healthy. And Bitonti strikes out, he is still missing too many, when he makes contact look out, but Eric has to work on contact. Pena hit it hard but right at the SS.

Yeah. He has looked good. Looked in command of his pitches today. Max velo was 94 touched 95 I think in the 1st, and still 92-93 (touching 94) in the 5th/6th. Not sure all his pitches but a breaking ball that moved and fooled hitters. Not sure if he throws a change, but something was upper 80s and seemed right down the middle but the batters could not hit. He was also efficient. 5.2 IP, 75 pitches and his last batter was the only full count he had all day long, and that was his lone walk. He had back to back hits, but it was that throw by Vargas that kept the Lugnuts from scoring. Hardin had career highs for innings pitched and strikeouts. A pretty good outing for him. Definitely a pitcher who could move seeing as how his is at high A already, and could move to AA before season is over.

After starting 3-3, who would have guessed the T-Rats would have the worst record of the affiliated teams? Biloxi looked like they could not win for a bit, but have come back to life - I still think T-Rats can/will have a better record by year's end particularly if Burke can hit and they get some reinforcements from Carolina later in the year.

Solid night for the affiliates. Nice little winning streak for Biloxi (4 wins in last 5 games) as the offense has gone from non-existent to just barely having a pulse now which is pretty good for the offensively challenged Southern league as @Ro Muellerpointed out that no team in that league has a team OPS > .694. The team is still all singles and walks. Encouraging start for Coleman Crow who goes 3 IP (2 hitters into the 4th), and went 9 up and 9 down until a single and walk ended his night. Nate Petersen with a dominant relief outing preserving the win, and 8 Ks to boot. Yes more of the please!?! I didn't watch any of the Sounds, but EMJ with a bullet hit again. Tobias Myers with a very encouraging rehab start, but all was undone with a 9th inning come back by Charlotte. As was pointed out, can't get too upset with a walk off loss when the offense only puts up 1 run, that's asking a lot of the pitching staff, and for 8 innings they were up to it. Meanwhile the Muddies keep rolling. That is a relentless offense as was commented by @wibadgers23. And that offense can roll despite who is in the line up (with the unfortunate series of banged up players missing games), or who is hitting or not. Fillipo DiTuri has been huge in the early season, but last night was not his night, but's he's got plenty of games to make up for it 😉 Don't sleep on Sam Garcia. I was impressed with is first outing, and missed his second, and caught his last 3 inning last night. Fastball looks faster due to arm angle and his size (didn't realize he's listed at 6' 4"), and he is usually in command. While the outcome was not in question when I saw him, he did step into a tie game, and then pitched 4 innings, scattering 4 base runners. In fact his only real challenge was in the 9th when after 2 quick outs and nearing 60 pitches he gave up a single, then a 4 pitch walk. And while it is not big deal with a 9 run lead, he did get the last out with a big strike out. That may be a small footnote in the box score, but giving him the chance to close out and finish his job without giving up another run could be huge in his development. Who is Sam Garcia? He was an 8th round pick last year and per our own @Spencer Michaelis here was a scouting report coming out of college (Tweet from last July):

Gorgeous breaking ball by Childers, and that’s ball game. That is your 5-8 Biloxi Shuckers who earn at least a split and have the weekend to try to earn their first Series win. Solid game for Biloxi tonight

Childers in. And gives up a lead off single. Then a fly out. Let’s go Shuckers

Alright. Ask and I did receive. Although I did ask for insurance runs(plural) to be technical 😉

Wow. The hairy mammoth, large mammal, or “Dan” comes in to relieve Petersen and goes to alternate on base and out. Barons go double, fly out. Single, strike out. Single (and run scored), and huge strikeout on a 3-2 count. That’s huge. 3-1 Biloxi on to the 9th You know what would be nice - a few insurance runs here…..