It's a 3-up, 3-down Mudcats bottom of the 8th. They'll bring that 5-4 lead into the 9th and hope to pull it out.
Meanwhile C Darrien Miller continues to showcase his sub-par defense as a catcher. He allows the tying run to cross on a very poor piece of defensive catching on a slider away. He has to learn how to move his body and glove. I'll be very curious to see how they score that - he seems to get the benefit of the doubt. It was a lazy piece of fielding. 1-1 game.
Frustrating night for Bitonti at the dish. Just getting under some balls. Nothing hit hard into fair play. Unfortunate.
Meanwhile Nick Gordon just poked a change-up as a looping two RBI flare. 5-1 Jumbo Shrimp.
He gets the inning ending 6-4-3 DP. Whewwwww. Big time pitch to get that ground out - inside breaking ball. 5-4 to the bottom of the 8th. Let's hope they can add some insurance.
A squibber grounder makes it to the shallow RF grass. Runners on the corners now. One down. 5-4 game. Seeing eye hits. One out. Gonna have to dig deep.
Baez has made some really nice fundamental plays at 3B tonight. I again opine: extremely underrated at the hot corner. he has a really good arm and is quite adept at the bare-handed gather and throw. Bitonti, as well, with some very adept glove work at first.
I am watching, yes. THO, they are in a prolonged timeout after their starter took that line drive off his face. That was a scary moment. Since they cut away, they've been in a prolonged commercial loop.
LHP Anthony Flores has such a nice bender. He can absolutely paint that inner corner with such beauty to lefty bats. That's 3 consecutive K's as he grabs the first out in his second inning of work. His off-speed stuff is really filthy. I would love to see him develop a cutter.
AND, for the second consecutive outing he's allowed runs in the first inning. That batter rips a 2-2 oppo single into RF. 1-0 Jump Shrimp. Men on 1st and 2nd. Still one down. This is two consecutive outings with an elevated pitch count in the first frame and the opponent putting multiple runners aboard. Let's hope he can limit the damage.
T-Rats have runners on 1st and 2nd and we are going to an extended Timeout here. That was a scary moment. Let's hope he's ok!
Meanwhile, in Nashville Patrick has runners on first and 2nd with 1 down (swinging foul tip K). He has his fourth batter in a 2-2 count. Pitch count at 20.
Corniel has really buckled down through 4 IP - pitch count at 71 despite his 31 pitch first frame. Hasn't allowed a single run since the two in the first frame. Just worked around a one out single and WP to get a ground out to 2B and a pop up to SS. Mudcats to the dish. They lead 3-2.