Just off is usually close enough for low minors umps to call strike 3. Rodriguez strike 3 to end the top half of the 1st inning looked further off that side of the plate than the Payne ball 3.
Mudcats don't put a single ball in play in the 1st against Sykora. Payne BB then picked off, Yophery strikeout, Baez HBP, Bitonti strikeout (swung 3 times and whiffed all 3 times)
Braylon Payne draws a leadoff walk to open the bottom of the 1st. I have no clue how he wasn't rung up on the 2-2 pitch. Hard to tell with minor league camera angles but looked like a pretty good pitch to me.
The Cubs sneaking into a WC spot is extremely unlikely considering both the Braves and Mets own tiebreakers over them which means they need to be 5 games better then the Braves and 6 games better than the Mets over the final 16 games to secure the WC.
If the Cubs who are 5-5 so far in September finished a scorching hot 12-4 to end the season then the Mets would only need to go 7-9 to finish above them and the Braves 8-8. Those teams also still have 3 games against each other so that’s guaranteed wins for one of those teams.
Basically the likelihood that the Cubs go 12 and 4 and both the Braves and Mets go under .500 the rest of the year is pretty unlikely and definitely not something worth stressing over as much as you clearly are.
One of the worst defensive reps I've ever seen. Black needs to just wipe 2024 from existence once the Nashville season ends and come back ready for a fresh start in 2025
Just to once again emphasize how badly the Mudcats need to rally here in the 9th. These are Travis Sykora's numbers against the Mudcats this year - 3 starts, 16 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 20 SO.