Future Redbirds

Redbirds 6, Sounds 5

Rick Ankiel hit a single and drew a walk in his first game back from the DL. He also got caught stealing home…How in the? Oh, and he had an assist. On a side note, The Tennessean has a nice little puff piece on Ankiel’s transformation from pitching to hitting. There’s also some interesting discussion over at Notes in a Minor Key. Mike Emeigh draws some interesting conclusions about Ankiel’s hitting style from some of Rick’s peripherals-

26 Ks in 121 ABs is well inside the danger line, suggesting that Ankiel isn’t flailing around wildly up there.
Far more of a issue, for me, is the fact that he has just 7 EBH that are *not* home runs, compared to nine HR. That suggests that he’s hitting lazy fly balls, some of which carry over the fence, rather than making solid contact. His relatively low line-drive rate (just 11 LD on 98 BIP, with the caveat that minor league BIP stats aren’t that reliable) also suggests the same thing.

51% percent of the balls Rick has put in play have been fly balls to the outfield according to minor league splits. Ankiel has really come farther then I think many of us thought he could, so while that is somewhat of an alarming trend, it seems like he could alter his swing a bit to generate more line drives. I’ll be keeping an eye on it. I just hope Cardinal fans are having reasonable expectations with Ankiel. Ok, on with the report.

Skip Schumaker hit the go ahead home run in the 9th inning that gave the Cardinal the lead. It was his one hit out of 5 at bats.
Brendan Ryan homered, going 2 for 4 with a walk.
Nick Stavinoha homered for the 2nd night in a row. He went two for four. In his last 10 games he’s slugged .610.
Edgar Gonzalez doubled and homered. Free Edgar!
Mike Parisi was due for a good game, and he went 7 strong while giving up 3 runs on 3 hits and a couple of walks. He struck out 4 and gave up a HR. He also got 12 ground ball outs.
Chris Lambert was only able to get one out. He gave up 2 hits, one being a double that scored in a run then was pulled.
Brian Falkenborg picked up the save, it was his first appearance since clearing waivers.
Matt Pagnozzi was removed early in the game due to being hit in the helmet with a pitch. Scary stuff.

Springfield was off tonight.

Palm Beach 3, Fort Myers 2

Gary Daley Jr. turned in a good performance, striking out 6 in 6 innings while scattering 4 singles and walking three. He didn’t allow a run. He also got 8 outs via the grounder.
Former independent league player of the year Ian Church hit a 2 RBI double for his only hit of the night.
Mark Hamilton drove in the other run, he went 2 for 4.
Nathan Southard went 3 for 4.
Luke Gregerson struck out 3 working a perfect inning and a third.

South Bend (Arizona) 6, QC 5

Kenny Maiques failed to do what he was called in the game for, which was to record the final out. He blew the save by allowing the go ahead run to score and was tagged with the loss.
Blake King gave up a HR and a total of 3 runs on 5 hits and a couple of walks. He uncharacteristically struck out only 1 batter.
Brandon Dickson pitched a solid five while giving up a run on 5 hits, walking 2 and striking out 2. He also had 7 ground outs. Dickson has a 64% ground ball rate for the season, good for 3rd in the MWL.
Feel good story Jaime Landin hit a 2 run homer and drew a walk.
Christian Reyes went 2 for 4.
Jim Rapoport rejoined the team from the DL. He went 1 for 5, was picked off and commited an error. To make room for Rapoport, Omar Falcon was released. I think the game where he allowed 8 steals in one game probably had something to do with that.
Donovan Solano went 3 for 4 with a double.
Former Jayhawk Jared Schweitzer went 2 for 4 with a walk and a double.
Mark Shorey went 2 for 4 with 2 K’s.