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PCL1 Memphis Redbirds

Game Notes: Memphis Redbirds (21-18) at San Antonio Missions (22-17)

May 16, 2019 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Memphis Redbirds News Release


mphis Redbirds (21-18) at San Antonio Missions (22-17)

Thursday, May 16 - 7:05 p.m. (CT) - Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium (9,200) - San Antonio, Texas

Game #40 - Road Game #21 (11-9)

LHP Genesis Cabrera (1-3, 7.81) vs RHP Thomas Jankins (2-1, 4.50)

BY THE NUMBERS

1.74 Jake Woodford's ERA after eight starts. That figure ranks 2nd in the Pacific Coast League.

4 Number of home runs slugged by the Redbirds on Tuesday's contest against the Sounds. That set a season-high for most homers in game.

THE GAME

TONIGHT'S GAME: The mphis Redbirds open up a nine-game road swing with a five-game series with the San Antonio Missions in the River City. This marks the second time the two teams are meeting in San Antonio. The Missions took two of three in the first series this season, with both victories coming in walk-off fashion. Tonight's game will be broadcast live on www.memphisredbirds.com with Steve Selby on the call.

ON THE HILL: Left-hander Genesis Cabrera is scheduled to take the mound tonight and make his eighth appearance overall and sixth start of the season. In his last time out, on Friday vs. Iowa Cabrera tossed a season-high 6.0 innings and fanned a season-high nine batters, but he also set a season-high with seven hits allowed and matched a career-high seven earned runs allowed. Cabrera also gave up his eighth home run of the season in five starts. In his last start against San Antonio, his first career Triple-A start on April 16, Cabrera took no-decision (3.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R/ER, 2 BB, 5 SO, 3 HR) in the Redbirds' 8-7 victory over the Missions. The Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, native is in his sixth professional season and second with the St. Louis organization. Cabrera entered this season ranked as the No. 6 prospect in the Cardinals system by Baseball America. He spent the bulk of last season at Double-A Montgomery, going 7-6, 4.12 (52 ER/113.2 IP). He was named a Southern League All-Star and ranked 3rd in the league with a .218 batting average.

The Missions are slated to start right-hander Thomas Jankins tonight to open up their brief five-game homestand. The 23-year-old is scheduled to make his fifth Triple-A start of the season and his seventh overall. In his last time out on May 9 vs. New Orleans, Jankins earned the win (6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO) in the Missions' victory over the Baby Cakes. Through his first four Triple-A starts of the year, Jankins has gone 2-1, 4.50 (10 ER/20.0 IP) and has worked at least five innings in three of those outings. He has two outings of allowing no earned runs, but allowed at least four earned runs in two outings, including six on May 3 vs. Round Rock. Jankins earned the win (5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R/ER, 2 BB, 0 SO) in his 2019 Triple-A debut on April 21 at Nashville in the nightcap of the doubleheader. The Worcester, Mass., native began the season at Double-A Biloxi, going 1-0, 2.25 (3 ER/12.0 IP) in two starts. Jankins spent the whole 2018 at Double-A Biloxi, where he went 10-9, 4.42 (64 ER/135.1 IP) in 23 G/21 GS. The Quinnipiac College product is in his fourth professional season, spending them all with the Milwaukee organization.

HISTORY WITH SAN ANTONIO: April 9 marked the first time that the Redbirds played a game in the Alamo City in their young history. It was also the first meeting between the two cities since 1973 when the mphis Blues were members of the Texas League. The last time these two teams met prior to last week was in 1973 TL Championship Series, where the Blues won the series 3-2, with all games played in San Antonio, to capture their second TL title before moving to the International League the next year.

This is 14th-straight year that the Redbirds have faced off against Milwaukee's Triple-A affiliate, with the previous four being played against the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. mphis went 38-26 against the Sky Sox from 2015-18, including an 11-5 record last season. The 'Birds played the Sox for 21-straight seasons prior to this season's realignment, going 104-87 overall, 60-35 at home and 44-52 on the road. Prior to Colorado Springs, Nashville played host to the Brewers' top affiliate, where the Redbirds went 76-84 from 2005-14.

THE SEASON

ABOUT THE LAST ONE: The mphis Redbirds (21-18) cranked four home runs in a 9-3 win over the Nashville Sounds (Rangers) Tuesday afternoon at AutoZone Park to take the series three games to one.

Rangel Ravelo, Tyler O'Neill, Drew Robinson, and John Nogowski all went deep for the Redbirds to account for eight of the team's nine runs. Tommy Edman had an RBI single in the seventh for the other tally on the day.

Jake Woodford went 7.0 strong shutout innings for the Redbirds, allowing just five hits, and he struck out six and walked two. He fanned two in the first, fourth, and seventh frames. He moves to 3-0 with the win, and his ERA now sits at 1.74.

The game was scoreless until Ravelo's fourth-inning home run, with the two-run shot extending his hitting streak to seven games. He has homered in three of the seven games.

O'Neill launched his sixth bomb of the year in the sixth inning in his 11th game played with the Redbirds. All six of his home runs for mphis have come against Nashville. The Redbirds added three more in the seventh to take a 6-1 lead, with Robinson providing the big blow with a two-run shot to deep right field.

Nashville (13-25) scored its first run in the top of the eighth off mphis reliever Jesus Cruz, but the Redbirds added three more in the home-half on Nogowski's fourth long ball of the campaign.

The Sounds plated two in the top of the ninth, but Chris Beck retired the final two hitters of the game to finish things up.

Although he was the only Redbird not to reach base in the game, Andrew Knizner caught a runner stealing in the top of the first inning.

NASHVILLE SERIES WRAP: The Redbirds won their first series since April 24-28 at Omaha after taking three of four from the Sounds at AutoZone Park. mphis has not lost a series to Nashville since May 12-15, 2018.

The Redbirds homered eight times in the series, with Tyler O'Neill leading the way with three long balls. All six of O'Neill's home runs have come against the Sounds. The four home runs launched on Tuesday set a season-high. Rangel Ravelo went 7-for-15 (.467) with one home run and five RBI, bringing his season average up to .265. Tommy Edman hit the team's first lead-off home run on the season in Monday's contest.

The 'Birds starting staff allowed just six earned runs in 21.1 innings (2.56 ERA) and fanned 20 batters while issuing nine walks. Austin Gomber and Jake Woodford turned in back-to-back seven-inning quality starts to close out the series.

PAIR OF ACES: Austin Gomber and Jake Woodford turned in back-to-back seven-inning quality starts to close out the series against the Sounds and find themselves among Pacific Coast League leaders in multiple categories as a result. Woodford ranks 2nd (1.74) and Gomber ranks 6th (2.98) in the PCL in ERA, as the pair have combined to go 7-0, 2.35 (24 ER/92.0 IP) in 16 starts. Gomber and Woodford rank 2nd (52) and 10th (42) respectively in strikeouts, 4th (45.1) and 3rd (46.2) in innings pitched and 10th (1.28) and 3rd (1.09) in WHIP. Woodford also ranks 3rd in opponent average (.176), while Gomber is one of two pitchers in the PCL to have thrown a complete-game shutout.

RAVELO HEATING UP: After hitting a career-low .173 (13x75) in the month of April at the Triple-A level, Rangel Ravelo has gotten off to a hot start in May, going 18-for-42 (.429) in his first 12 games of the month. Ravelo already has three, three-hit games this month, compared to just one in 21 games in April. He is currently riding a season-high seven game hitting streak and has homered three times during that span. The 27-year-old has raised his batting average to .265 on the season and is getting on base at a .344 clip.

SHEW SHINES: In his first two career Triple-A starts, Anthony Shew did not allow a run in 11.2 innings and allowed just four hits in 39 at-bats (.103). On May 8 in the series opener against Iowa, Shew delivered his first quality start at the Triple-A level, tossing 6.0 scoreless frames and yielding a season-low one hit while fanning a season-high eight. The Bookings, Ore., native did not allowed a run in 17.2 innings across all levels and has allowed one earned run or fewer in seven of eight of his outings in 2019 overall.

O'NEILL RETURNS: In his first Triple-A appearance of the season on May 5, Tyler O'Neill launched two, two-run home runs in the first game of the doubleheader. It was his first multi-HR game of the year and was the second Redbird to homer twice in a game this season. O'Neill blasted another two-run shot on May 6 and ranks 2nd on the team with six home runs in just 14 games. All of his home runs have come against Nashville. On May 8 in the series opener against Iowa, O'Neill collected his first three-hit game of the season. The 23-year-old led the Redbirds in 2018 with 26 HR and six multi-HR games.

OFFENSIVE OUTBURST: In their series opener against Nashville on May 2, the mphis Redbirds set numerous season-highs, and matched a couple of franchise records in their 17-2 rout of the Sounds. The 24 hits matched a franchise record and was also the most hits in a Pacific Coast League game this season. Their 10 hits in the second inning matched a franchise record for most in a single frame. The 'Birds set season-highs in, runs, hits and total bases and matched a season-high with eight extra-base hits.

APRIL RECAP: The Redbirds finished April with a 13-12 record, going 6-5 at AutoZone Park and 7-7 on the road. Since 2017, the Redbirds have posted a losing record in a month just once, August 2018, going 13-16 overall, 8-10 at home and 5-6 away. That is also the only time during that span that the 'Birds had losing records at home or away.

The 28 home runs slugged by the Redbirds ranks T-3rd for home runs in April, matching the 2014 team in that category. They fell just one home run shy of matching the 2017 Redbirds for 2nd most home runs in April. The franchise record is 34, held by the 2000 club.

MR. APRIL: On April 22, LHP Austin Gomber was named the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week for April 15-21 following his complete-game shutout on April 20 in the second game of the doubleheader against Round Rock. Gomber allowed just three hits in his outing and faced the minimum over the final five innings. In his first eight starts of the season, Gomber is 4-0, 2.98 (15 ER/45.1 IP) to go along with 52 strikeouts.

In April 2018, Gomber also won PCL Pitcher of the Week for April 23-29 and was also named Cardinals Minor League Pitcher of the Month as well. In his last two Aprils, Gomber is 5-0, 2.50 (15 ER/54.0 IP) in nine starts and has held opponents to a .214 batting average (41x192).

CLUTCH HITTING: Edmundo Sosa delivered the Redbirds first walk-off victory of the season on April 21 vs. Round Rock with his two-run shot in the 10th. With runners in scoring position, Sosa is 16-for-33 (.485) with three doubles, a home run and 17 RBI. With runners in scoring position and two outs, Sosa leads the team with a .600 average (9x15) and nine RBI.

Sosa has the second-highest batting average in the Pacific Coast League with runners in scoring position (min. 33 AB).

On May 2 against Nashville, Sosa set a career-high with five RBI, four of which came with two outs.

EXTRA! EXTRA!: The Redbirds have recorded at least one extra-base hit in every game this season, collecting 68 doubles, 10 triples and 50 home runs. Adolis Garcia and Tommy Edman share the team lead with 15 extra-base hits each, combining for 14 doubles, four triples and 13 home runs.

After Garcia's home run Thursday, the Redbirds 27-game run of having at least one extra-base hit surpassed the 2018 Redbirds mark of 26 consecutive games with at least one extra-base hit.

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