Future Redbirds

We’ve got a log jam of marginal outfielders between Memphis and the bigs. Encarnacion doesn’t seem ready to come back from his rehab. Ludwick seems like he can hit major league pitchers. JRod is heating up. Wilson is on the DL. Keep an eye out to see what happens when Juan’s rehab is supposed to end in the near future.

Memphis 9, Salt Lake 8 (11 innings)

• I sat down to start my report tonight (o and by the way, now that school is over and I’m back home for the summer, dial-up sucks.), and saw a tie game in the 8th. Then Memphis scored 2 in the tenth and I thought good, I can finish up. Then Salt Lake scored 2 in the tenth and I thought ^%%^#. Then Memphis scored 2 in the 11th and I thought, hold on to win this, please. Then Salt Lake scored 1 in the 11th stranding a base runner and I thought I was watching Izzy in 2006. But Memphis takes the win in this game.
• Chris Narveson left after retiring 2 batters. One word to sum this up: crap. I like Narvie. I bought into his rebound from surgery. I thought he could be a servicable 5th starter in the majors. And now he’s hurt. Let’s hope it’s not serious.
• Chris Lambert gets the call (probably because he’s still stretched out as a starter) to come in for Narvie. He has an good box score throwing 4.1 innings, scattering 7 hits and striking out 4 while allowing just 1 run. Can’t ask for much more when your starter implodes in the first.
• Several relievers come in to blow saves and throw some innings in middle relief accumulating some boring box score lines. Dennis Dove eventually picks up the win with Matt Ginter getting the save.
• John “I’m better than Skip Schumaker” Rodriguez went 3-for-5 with a HBP, double and a homerun. Ludwick is free, how many nicknames do I need for JRod before he gets his callup.
• Rick Ankiel went 3-for-6 with a triple. He also got caught stealing and had 2 fielding errors. (Rick, please take some walks. I’d like a better walk rate before I hop on the back of this bandwagon. Sincerely, azruavatar.)
• Tagg Bozied goes 3-for-6 with a double and a HR.
• Nick Stavinoha continues to struggle going 1-for-5.
• Former cardinal farmhand Terry Evans went 3-for-5 for Salt Lake. He’s got a .810 OPS so far this season.

Springfield 3, Wichita 5

• Jaime Garcia is the Cardinals best starting prospect in the minors. He’s a lefthander with high groundball rates and strikes out a ton of guys. Tonight was not his best outing. 5.1 innings allowing 5ER on (my pet peeve) 4 BBs, 3Ks and a wild pitch — sounds like an elusive strike zone for Jaime tonight. He also allowed a HR. He’s allowed 5 HR this season in 32 innings compared to 4 HR in 155 innings last season. That being said he’s 20 in AA and holding his own. Tonight just wasn’t his best work. Matthew Scherer and Ryan Meaux finished off the game but the damage was done.
• Bryan Anderson went 1-for-4 but allowed his 4th passed ball of the season.
• Juan Encarnacion went 0-for-4. His rehab assignment ends soon. He’ll either come down with a phantom injury and return to the DL or be called up to the big leagues.
• 2B Jarrett Hoffpauir went deep for his second homerun in three days.
• Tyler Greene went 2-for-3 with a doubl, but also got caught stealing.

Palm Beach 9, Dunedin 6

• Another wishy-washy start from Trey Hearne. He didn’t get blown away but he didn’t excel either. 6IP, 5ER on 8 hits, 3 BBs, 5 Ks. He was homer prone tonight allowing 2 longballs. And reason number 20,123,586,892 why pitcher wins don’t count — Trey gets the win to even his record at 2W and 2L despite the 5ER. He has a 5.27 ERA on the season.
• Jon Mikrut allowed a run in the 9th creating a save opportunity and Luke Gregerson swooped in to retire 1 batter and get the save. Gregerson is quietly having an excellent season — 20.2 innings he’s allowed 9 hits and 3 ER combined with a 26:8 K:BB ratio and a stellar 2.27 groundball-flyball ratio.
• Mark Hamilton had a big hitting 2 homers in 5 at bats.
• Allen Craig went 1-for-3 with 2BBs.
• Nathan Southard had a nice night going 2-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base.

Quad Cities 6, Lansing 2

• The box score records at the bottom the wind speed and direction. Today’s game had 1 mph winds from directions that “varies“. Only someone in MLB would feel the need to record 1 mph winds. Is that even a breeze? I’ve yawned winds faster than 1 mph.
• In a continuation of the bizarro tandem starters, Brad Furnish went 4 innings with 4Ks vs. 1BB. The only run came on a solo home run. Tyler Herron later picks up the win, pitching 3.2 innings striking out 5 and allowing only 1 ER.
• Brandon Buckman obviously read my comments from the other day as he drew 2 walks on the night. He was 1-for-3 in his at bats.
• Mark Shorey was the offensive force of the night going 3-for-3 and getting pegged with a pitch in the 5th. (Maybe a retaliation as Furnish hit one of their batters in the first.)
• Catcher Christian Reyes went 2-for-4 with a double.
• SS Christian Lopez gets the golden sombrero striking out 4 times in 5 at bats.