Future Redbirds

Memphis 3, Salt Lake 2

• It’s worth noting that the Redbirds beat a major league caliber starting pitcher tonight. Joe Saunders has filled in ably for the injured Bartolo Colon earlier in the Angel’s season. Additionally, this in a prospect rich system like the Angels it’s worth noting that the Memphis pitchers are shutting down very good hitting prospects like 3b Brandon Wood, C Jeff Mathis (he’s good for a catcher) and everyone’s favorite Terry Evans who went 2-for-4 tonight with a pair of doubles.
• Tagg Bozied went deep for the 3rd time in the last 5 games (4th time in the last 8 games) on a 2-for-3 effort with a walk.
• Edgar Gonzalez also went 2-for-3 with a walk and a double.
• Nick Stavinoha is having a really disappointing season so far going 0-for-4 tonight dropping his average to .234 on the season.
• Blake Hawksworth had a superb outing throwing a mere 71 pitches in 6 innings. He allowed 2 runs (1 earned) with 5 hits, 0 walks and 3 strikeouts. If there was one downside, it was that he recorded 10 of 15 outs on fly balls.
• Andy Cavazos throws 2 scoreless innings allowing 2 hits and striking out 1. Mark Worrell comes in to collect his 1st save of the season with a scoreless inning.

Springfield 8, Wichita 6

• Juan Encarnacion (expected to be recalled this weekend) went 1-for-5 with a double. Better options for the Cardinals: John Rodriguez, Rick Ankiel, my 77 year old grandmother (she’s got great plate discipline). In all seriousness, Encarnacion does not appear to be ready to rejoin the bigs and I think the wrist surgery has just taken more of a toll than expected.
• Colby Rasmus goes 2-for-4 plus a BB.
• Juan Richardson went 4-for-5 with a double but only collected 1 RBI from the 3 hole.
• Joe Mather had a great night going 3-for-3 with 2 BBs.
• There are two things I truly despise to see in a box score: defensive errors and our pitchers walking people. Errors are an outdated, bad method of quantifying defensive value; that being said, when your team collects 5 errors. . . . .not a good night defensively. The culprits are: Anderson, B (4, throw), Lucena (1, fielding), Richardson 2 (3, fielding, fielding), Rasmus (4, fielding)
• As for the pitchers, well it wasn’t a great night. Kevin Ool walks 4 and strikes out 4 and allows 4 runs (1 earned). He moves to 2-0 on the season.
• Michael Cooper walked 1 and allowed a solo homer in two relief innings.
• Jason Motte throws a scoreless, walk free inning striking out 1.
• Chris Perez officially has control issues. He picked up his 8th save despite allowing a run and walking another batter. That’s 10 walks in 13.1 IP this season by my count.

Palm Beach 4, Dunedin 6

• If you write it, they will hit. Mark Hamilton goes deep for his 5th of the season.
• Shane Robinson goes deep for his second and also throws out a man at home.
• Casey Rowlett reached base twice . . . but got picked off first base and caught stealing.
• How Gary Daley kept the wheels on for 6 innings is beyond me. He walked 7 (!) batters and struck out 6. Allowing only three hits probably saved what would have otherwise been a truly horrific outing. All told he had 4 runs (3 earned).

Quad Cities 11, Lansing 5

• Big night for the Quad Cities offense. You’ve got people walking at the bottom of the order in SS Christian Lopez and LF Daryl Jones (each 2BB).
• Power from catcher Christian Reyes with a HR.
• 3B Donovan Solano going 4-for-5.
• I was very excited for a moment to see a BB in Brandon Buckman’s line. . .until I noticed it was an intentional walk. tragic. . .
• Brandon Dickson picks up his 6th win with 3 ER on 6 hits and 4 Ks.
• Blake King had an encouraging outing with only 1 unearned run in 3 IP. 0 BBs vs. 4 Ks.
• Kenneth Maiques strikes out 2 in the 9th allowing 1 ER and his ERA on the season almost doubles to 1.50.