Joseph Zarr

Avina charged a liner into LF and trips and falls and the ball sails past himn to the wall. It turns into a triple. Yikes. Gophers! Gophers! AND, in Wisconsin Mendez hits the third warm burner liner of the T-Rats 1st inning and it falls. 2-1 Kernels. Bases still juiced. Nobody out. Robert Moore hits into a questionable DP (I thought he was safe) and scores Lara. 2-2.

Wilken works an 0-2 count full and walks laying off a high and inside 95 mph heater. Bases are juiced. Nobody down. Meanwhile, in Salem Sibrian is doing Sibrian things. Stabbing pitches in the dirt. He just saved Rivero a wild pitch sliding to his right and the runner at 1B thought it went to the backstop. He calmly pops and rips a dart to 2B and nabs the runner. Two down now. Another full count. 2-0 Mudcats bottom 3rd.

EBJ muscles an oppo liner bloop single to RF on the first pitch and Lara follows with a liner bloop to LF on his first pitch. Dueling balloon tosses! Woot woot! LOL. It's a tale of two innings: The Kernels were ripping every ball. The T-Rats are throwing them into the OF grass underhanded by all appearances.😅

He absolutely hangs another off-speed but luckily it was lined out hard directly to EBJ who calmly fires the DP throw to 1B from his knees. What an athlete. 0-2 Kernels lead. Peterson not sharp early.

And, now Peterson walks the next batter on 5 pitches. Ugly start early. He's not finding the zone consistently and when he is it is absolute 'meat'. Let's tweak it and move on and get into the outing.

Here's an idea Mr. Peterson: Don't hang a dead-center slider to Rosario. Yikes. He absolutely rips a laser-shot over the LF wall. That ball was crushed. 2-0 Kernels. Yuck pitch. The scouting report might read: "Leads the Midwest League in RBI. 19 HR. Don't give him anything to hit."

Meanwhile, LHP Nate Peterson just delivered a lead-off K on a gorgeous hook that left the batter staring in wonder. One down. 0-0. Top of the 1st. He is not so lucky in his second batter faced. He conceded a roped triple to the right CF gap. Runner was safe by 6 feet. The Kernels have a +131 Run Differential and have out-homered the T-Rats (head-to-head) 19-10.

Dylan O'Rae is just a young man you want on your team. He is just solid in nearly every facet (outside the obvious lack of power at present). He covers so much ground in the infield and outfield. He plays fundamentally sound no matter where you put him. Meanwhile, Rivero is going to have to stop hanging these breaking balls over the inner half. Two meatballs to lefties have seen a hard hit DP line out to 1B and a ball die at the deep RF warning track (likely out of the ballpark in any other Carolina League stadium. Two down in the 2nd inning. Rivero is not sharp but he is currently effective. He gets the third out on a weak hit grounder on his best off-speed delivery of his outing. we are on to the 3rd inning. 2-0 Mudcats.

The wind is blowing in pretty fiercely out to LF at Fox Cities Stadium. That's a pretty formidable breeze. It's going to be quite the challenge to send anything out over the RF wall. They are singing the National Anthem.

Hey now! Two consecutive wild pitches bring Baez across Home plate. That run had the distinct feel of a DSL tilt. 2-0 Mudcats. An error and two wild pitches send Baez across the dish. Otherwise, we saw a weak check swing pop to 3B from Castillo, a Nicasia ground out to 3B, and a weak pop fly to mid-CF by Gregory Barrios.

I can tell you: the Salem broadcast duo does not sit comfy in pronouncing Latin American names. 😅

Salem came into tonight's game having set franchise records for errors in a season. On a weak chopper to the 1B side, the 1B fields the ball running toward the mound and underhand tosses the ball a good 3 feet above their pitcher covering the bag. Baez heads to 2B and we have a lead-off runner in scoring position for the second inning in a row.

Back-to-back one out singles to RF by the Sox. Men on 1st and 2nd. One down. Rivero is searching for consistency as he so often does. He's falling behind in most counts here and is forcing himself to find the zone. This is his ongoing Achilles' heel. 2-0 to the next batter. The breaking ball appears to be his current challenge. AND, he absolutely luckily leaves the inning in a line-out DP. He hung a breaking ball. It was lined hard right to Chirinos standing off the bag. Whewwww. On to the 2nd.

First pitch from RHP Jesus Rivero nearly hits the Salem batter in the mid-section. Felt uber-appropriate for the talented and wild right-handed hurler.😅 He gets to a 1-2 count. Then a 2-2 count not getting the batter to chase a high heater just outside the zone. And Nicasia wildly chases down a reach foul ball bloop into the RF foul territory. You may have heard me say this before but it's worth repeating: Nicasia is absolutely one of the most underrated OF defenders in the system. He's really really good. AND, he has an arm. One down. River is 2-1 to the next batter.

With the bases juiced OF Jace Avina ripped a hard hit grounder right to the SS sitting in the hole on a low and inside slider. Salem turns their 76th DP of their season and the Mudcats exit the first with only one run. Hopefully, that doesn't come back to bite them!

Chirinos patiently lays off an outside slider to work the count 3-2. The pay-off pitch is in the dirt and Chirinos walks. Kelly hit his pitch limit and only goes 1/3 innings. Fantastic patient stuff from the Mudcats! Men on the corners. One down. The out was a hard hit grounder from O'Rae that got the first run across. The Red Sox 18th Rdr (a U Conn Lefty) is now on the hill for just his second Low-A appearance.

RBI ground-out off the Red Sox's rehabbing Zack Kelly. 1-0 Mudcats. Beautiful baseball from the young Mudcats off a rehabbing Major Leaguer. AND, just like that Areinamo just ripped a deep triple high off the RF wall - 96 mph off the bat. Whewww.

And Barrios steals 3rd. Yowza. Just like that. We have a runner 90 feet away. Nobody out. 3-1 count to O'Rae.

Barrios leads off with a four-pitch walk. Noice. Pitch four likely a low strike but, tonight, who cares? We take the base! AND, Barrios steals 2nd on a pitch one off-speed and outside to Dylan O'Rae.

The Mudcats MAGIC Number is '4'. Four wins? 2 wins and 2 Lynchburg losses. You get the picture. FOUR. That's our number. Hold it close y'all.

I agree with you 100%. (I might be biased. MIGHT)

Shook was really very good last week aside from a mistake hanger 3-run HR offering early. I am eager to see how his change-up plays tonight - it was sublime (and under-used in my humble opinion!) at Tennessee last week. Hoping he has his 'A' Game. When he's on he is zesty. It's all right there for him - the tools and the Mix - we just need to see it come together. Patience is the word. Patience. Big Game 1 tonight!

Before the Sounds were further troubled by the Durham Bulls this past week, we were legitimately looking at Playoff surges amongst every Brewers team. The Mudcats currently lead their divisional second half birth by 3.0 G - this could end a 13 year drought (!!) with six road games at Salem to play. The Shuckers, with two series remaining (including a head-to-head at Home vs Montgomery), trail the Montgomery Biscuits by 0.5 G - that half game is largely due to a cancelled rain out (no make-up). The T-Rats have won 8 straight and if it weren't for the red hot second half of the Peoria Chiefs would be looking smack dab at a playoff birth - they still have a mathematical chance sitting 3.0 GB (albeit unlikely) of Peoria with 6 G remaining. The Sounds have way too many teams ahead of them in an uber-tight International League second half push - with 18 regular season games remaining they remain 5.5 GB with 9 teams between them and first place Durham and Lehigh Valley. Mathematically possible? Sure. Even more unlikely than Wisconsin's chances by my eyes. Anyhow, I share all this to say that with the Brewers still in 1st Place (though, last night's debacle of a Game Thread would have led you to believe the team was already eliminated 🤭) it is important to see the greening of the forest for the trees: the quality of the baseball within the organization remains in uncannily good health and standing across the board. We are absurdly lucky at present. I encourage you all to not lose sight of this. For us lifers, we have already endured decades of the gruelingly challenged dog days of summer. We are absolutely blessed as Brewers fans at present. Let's root the teams on for successful closes to their long and challenging seasons. And, sheesh, I almost forgot: the Brewers already took home the ACL Championship. This is a historic season. I'm here for it and enjoying every step of the way.

Regarding Avina's August Player of the Month: Wonderful to see him rewarded for a tireless season of consistent availability and effort. A true pleasure to watch in the Mudcats uniform.

The T-Rats face RHP Andrew Morris in his 7th start since his promotion to High-A (Twins 2022 4th Rd pick). By the looks of the raw numbers, never having seen him pitch, it would appear Morris has been adept at working around runners on base. 32 IP, 38 H, 0.295 BAA. The 25:5 K:BB ration obviously helps. The 10 ER and 2.81 ERA feels misleading. Hopefully, the Rattlers can break open the flood gates.