If swings and misses were a gradable trait, I'd give Eduardo Garcia a 70 grade. Really nice looking artful swings and misses. 🤭 He takes the HBP off his upper arm after a gorgeous swing and miss on a center cut breaking ball.
Well hit sac fly to deep RF. 1-1 in Norfolk. 91 mph heater on the outer corner. Well hit fly out. Nice swing. Good result for the Tides. Run never crosses if Arroyo handles the routine grounder cleanly.
COstly bobble by Arroyo. The next hitter hits what seemed to be a 50 mph squibber up the middle for a single advancing the runner to 3B. Men on the corners. 1 down. 1-0 Sounds.
Rudy gets the fly out to LF for the second out. Efficient inning so far. Let's hope it stays that way. Ump still not giving him anything on the corners.
Hudson is on for another rehab outing. With one down, he misses high and outside at 90 mph on the heater. Misses low and outside on an 82 mph sweeper. 2-2 count. 90 mph again up and in. Fouled down the 3B line. And he gets the grounder to 2B. Arroyo bobbles it going glove side. Unclean. Runner beats it out.
Perez gets 0-2. Lays off off-speed in the dirt. 1-2 count. Nice block by the catcher there. High and inside he ducks away. 2-2 count. Check swing on a high breaker. Close swing and pitch. He doesn't go. Called full. Tense. Here we go. He pops up left of the mound. Wooof. Darn.
Solid AB's from Wood and Hall. Wood advances the runner. Hall fouls a couple off and takes the free pass. Make him work. Men on the corners. Two down. Hedbert with a moment here. Come on young fella!
This homeplate ump @ Lake County pretty much stinks. Not a good look for a Championship game. He's missing some strike calls going against both pitchers.
I had dejá vu from last night not going to lie.
Meanwhile Mejía just absolutely ripped a ball over the RF fence. 98.4 mph off the bat. 37 degree launch angle.
Yophery coming out tonight like he came out last night: swinging at anything. Every pitch a ball. Strikes out at a heater outside and eye level. Almost a replica of last night's first AB. Only difference is the heater wasn't inside it was outisde.
AREINAMO leads off the 2nd with a double high off the left CF wall. Just missed a long ball. What a swing. What a result. Lead-off man in scoring position for last night's best bat in Yophery Rodriguez. He comes out swinging pitch 1 again. Slider inside. Broken bat. Foul down the 1B line.
Oh man. Two Areinamo swings. He's almost lost his pants, his helmet, his everything on both. He swings a massive hack and misses on a first pitch breaking ball in the 2nd. LOL.
No matter! Credit to Rudy. He got the K looking on a high center-in breaker. Goes down looking.
Meanwhile, Miz got a DP and an unbelievable web gem play from Zamora deep in the hole. That may be the best play he's made all season. My goodness! Just pure baseball magic.
Yeah. He absolutely blew this call. Right on the outer black. Come on Blue. That's ridiculous. This is a Championship game on the road. Gotta give the pitcher that call!
Line out to Yophery in RF. Two outs. Two fantastic sliders to get ahead 0-2. Slider misses outside doesn't get the chase. This homeplate ump is really squeezing the zone. He's missed two very very close pitches. I think he just robbed Rudy of a K looking.
Meanwhile, Miz was up 0-2. He just walked his first batter.
Headed to the bottom of the 5th @ Norfolk, the Sounds strand Hicklen at 1B after a two-out grounder made it into LF through the left side. Fly out to RF to end it.
Rudy walks the second batter on an outside off-speed pitch that just missed. Tough one.
Rudy gets a high chopper to the mound to start his evening. Fantastic. Love a soft start. Well done, Will. Like Cornielle yesterday, however, the heater is missing high and outside. Off-speed appears dialed.
Areinamo comes to the dish swinging first pitch. Swung so hard he nearly lost his helmet. LOL. Yowza. AND, just like that Adams is picked off 1B. Ugly start.
Pratt goes down swinging on a high inside heater. Not a good swing choice. Easily a ball. T-Rats bats are over-amped early. AND, who else would get things started but Luke Adams with his third HBP in two nights. That's his 44th HBP of his season. Just uncanny.
We missed Game 1's line-up card earlier @ Norfolk. Here's the Sounds Game 1 setup:
It was scoreless after 2...
It's scoreless in the top of the 4th inning. RHP Logan Henderson is having a bounce-back outing through 3 IP - 1 H, 0 BB, 1 HB, 3 K, 0 R.