Shuckers waste it. O'Rae advances Sparks to 3B on a groundout to 1B. Cargo weak shallow pop out to RF. Wilken pops out to 1B. No bueno. On to the 4th. 1-0 Shuckers.
Matt Wood has been involved in both early T-Rats runs via a 10 mph corkscrew ground out to 3B and a flailing swing and miss strike 3 on a ball in the dirt but a successful double steal during the process. 2-0 T-Rats.
Blalock getting absolutely squeezed in the top of the 3rd frame. Two darts well within the outer black. Ump stares. Calls balls. Two strikeouts? How about a K swinging instead. Two down.
Barrios has begun the series with a 6-for-7 performance. He lines a single to CF to begin the 3rd frame. Nothing hit terribly hard. BUT, everything hit in just the right places.
After the Sounds left two on in their half of the first, RHP Taylor Clarke gave up a 2-0 count, two out, 100 mph deep fly over the deep left CF wall. 1-0 Redbirds.
Kuehner gives up a two out 103 mph double to the deep LF corner. No matter, he gets his 4th K through 2 IP to end the threat. Stud. I'm telling you: stud. He's improving outing-to-outing at rapid pace.
Adams was playing around with that lead left leg after he got plunked in his first AB in the 1st frame. He was shaking that leg as he walked to 1B. He's now been pulled for Tayden Hall as his replacement. Something to monitor.
LHP Anfernny Reyes is giving us a bit of a DSL/ACL feel in his first inning of relief work. We see a runner swiping 2nd and 3rd. We see a wild pitch. He's given up one run. He has runners on 1st and 2nd. One down. Muddies trail 6-0 in a game quickly running away from them.
Blalock gets away with an absolute off-speed hanger to end the 2nd frame with a runner on 3rd. That ball was smoked. Sparks ran it down short of the warning track. BUT, that was not a good pitch. Lucky to get out unscathed.
Kuehner ends the frame with his 2nd frame. Man, his game is really really growing on me. Just knows how to pitch. Extremely deceptive off-speed (unhittable at times) and really knows how to play the upper part of the zone in favorable counts.
Holy web gem by Garcia at 3B. Just absolutely snared a ball and launched a cannon to 1B as he popped up from the dirt. Only 89 mph off the bat but it was a weird hit off the lumber.
Wood drove a run in on an end-of-the-bat whiffle flub ground out to 3B. 1-0 T-Rats on to the bottom of the first where Kuehner will look to continue his run of dominance.
We finally have a feed in Beloit. AND, the first pitch I see is Adams getting hit on the lead left leg. Bases juiced. One down, apparently. No idea how three straight men have reached. Wood to the dish.
Men on 1B and 2B. No outs. Walling had just walked. Castillo in a 3-0 count. Down 5-0...he flies out to LF on the next pitch. Can't be green lighting there. Ahhhhhh the ups and downs of Castillo at the dish.
BT Dub. That hurricane is already a Cat 5. Winds in excess of 170 mph. Possibly building to 200 mph. Expected landfall in Coastal Southern Texas/Louisiana by Sunday. Very very scary stuff.