PCL1 Memphis Redbirds

Game Notes: Memphis Redbirds (22-16) vs Nashville Sounds (19-17)

Published on May 14, 2018 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Memphis Redbirds News Release


Memphis Redbirds (22-16) vs Nashville Sounds (19-17)

Monday, May 14 - 11:05 a.m. (CT) - AutoZone Park (10,000) - Memphis, Tennessee

Game #39 - Home Game #19 (10-8)

RHP Dakota Hudson (3-1, 3.03 ERA) vs. RHP Frankie Montas (1-3, 4.18 ERA)

THE GAME

TODAY'S GAME: The Memphis Redbirds and Nashville Sounds will play game three of their four-game set today at 11:05 a.m. It is the second time the two teams have met in the last week. Memphis started their eight-game road trip at Nashville last week, and dropped three of four games in the series. Memphis took the series finale in that game 4-1. Despite jumping out to an early lead yesterday, Memphis fell 8-3 to the Sounds for their fourth-straight loss. Today's game will be broadcast on memphisredbirds.com with Steve Selby on the call.

ON THE HILL: Right-hander Dakota Hudson will take the mound for the Redbirds today. The righty is 3-1 with a 3.03 ERA in six starts this season. In his last appearance on May 3, Hudson took the loss, despite pitching eight dominant innings. He threw 7.1 shutout innings before an unearned run crossed the plate, giving Memphis a 1-0 loss. He finished that game with a final line of 8.0 innings pitched, allowing five hits and one walk, while striking out four Oklahoma City Dodgers. Hudson has faced Nashville once in his career, late last year. In that game, he took the no-decision, pitching 7.0 innings, allowing five hits, four runs, three earned runs, and two walks, while striking out four.

The Sounds are scheduled to send righty Frankie Montas to the mound to battle with Hudson. So far this season, Montas is 1-3 with a 4.18 ERA in seven starts. His lone win came last week against the Redbirds. In that game, he threw 6.0 innings, allowing six hits and one earned run, a homer from Adolis Garcia, while walking two and striking out three.

HISTORY WITH NASHVILLE: Memphis and Nashville have played every season dating back to 1998. In that span, Memphis has always been affiliated with St. Louis, and Nashville has changed affiliations twice. For the first seven years of the rivalry, they were Pittsburgh's affiliate before becoming Milwaukee's, and now Oakland's. The two teams met just last week for the first time this season. Nashville won three of four games in that series.

BIRD BITES

BARON: Recorded second multi-hit game of the season Wednesday; also recorded first three-hit game since 6/27/17

GARCIA: Recorded his league-leading sixth outfield assist Saturday night, cutting down a runner trying to take third

MARTINEZ: Recorded a ground-rule double and scored in his season-debut with Memphis Saturday night

MEJIA: Notched three hits in yesterday's loss, his first game with three hits since August 27, 2017

MERCADO: Ten stolen bases are second in the PCL; stole nine through first 16 games, and has one in last 17 games

MUNOZ: Went hitless Friday, snapping 10-game hitting streak .385 (15-39); hit first-career grand slam Thursday

O'NEILL: Is 9-for-24 with six runs scored, four home runs, and six RBI against Nashville this season

RAVELO: Has hits in nine of last 12 appearances and in 18-of-27 games on the season

SCHROCK: Thursday night, ended 3rd 7-game hitting streak; has K'd in just 9.0 percent of career at-bats (114-1257)

TOVAR: Has seven multi-hit games in last 11 games with a hit, including going 3-for-4 with two RBI in Wednesday's win

VOIT: Eight of 18 total hits this season are doubles, and one is a home run, making 50 percent of his hits for extra bases

WISDOM: Has hit four homers this season, all at home; hit .222 (6-for-27) in seven games on road trip

BY THE NUMBERS

12.35 ERA for Memphis bullpen over four-game losing streak. They have allowed 14 earned runs in 10.1 innings

THE SEASON

ABOUT THE LAST ONE: The Memphis Redbirds dropped their fourth-straight game yesterday, 8-3 to the Nashville Sounds.

Memphis starter Sean Gilmartin had his best start of the season, pitching 5.2 innings, allowing four hits and one earned run without walking anyone, while also striking out seven batters. It was the first time he had struck out seven batters since May 25 last season while with Las Vegas.

The 'Birds got the scoring started early, grabbing two runs in the third inning. Oscar Mercado drove in the first run of the day with a sac fly, before Tyler O'Neill doubled in the next run.

The Redbirds held a 2-1 lead going into the seventh inning before Nashville came storming back. Memphis reliever Mike O'Reilly took the loss and blown save in his 3.1 innings of work. The righty allowed eight hits, seven runs, five earned runs, and one walk, while striking out one.

Offensively, O'Neill and Alex Mejia recorded multi-hit games, while six of the nine starters recorded hits. O'Neill drove in two of Memphis' three runs with an RBI double and his 11th home run of the season in the eighth inning.

SOMETHING ABOUT NASHVILLE: So far this season, the Redbirds have struggled mightily against the Nashville Sounds. In six games against the Sounds this season, Memphis is 1-5, and is hitting just .250 against them. They have hit just six homers against the Sounds, and are posting just a .271 on-base percentage, and a 5.12 ERA against them, by far their lowest and highest on-base and ERA marks against any opponents this season. Through 38 games this season, Memphis has faced five opponents and has an above .500 winning percentage against three of them, is notched at exactly .500 with Oklahoma City, but they have just a .167 winning percentage against Nashville. The only team the Redbirds have a lower batting average against is the Omaha Storm Chasers. However, despite their .238 batting average against Omaha, the 'Birds are posting a .306 on-base percentage, and the pitching staff has posted a 2.30 ERA, giving the 'Birds a 5-2 record against the Storm Chasers.

MEANWHILE, O'NEILL LIKES THE SOUNDS: Slugging outfielder and Cardinals' No. 4 prospect, Tyler O'Neill blasted his 11th home run of the season yesterday, and his fifth since returning from St. Louis two weeks ago. He also hit a home run Saturday night, giving him home runs in back-to-back games for the third time this season. O'Neill's home run yesterday was a deep solo shot in the eighth inning. Four of his five home runs since returning from St. Louis have come against the Sounds. He hit two out in the series at Nashville last week. In six games against the Sounds this season, O'Neill is hitting .375 (9-for-24) with four home runs, one double, and six RBI. Coming into today's game, O'Neill is tied for second in the league with 11 homers, is second in slugging percentage at .696, and is first in home runs per at-bat ratio at 1/9.27 at-bats.

GILMARTIN'S TURNING IT AROUND: Memphis pitcher Sean Gilmartin got off to a rough start this season, but has turned it around since April 19. Through his first four appearances this season, Gilmartin was 0-1 with a 15.75 ERA in just 4.0 innings of work. Since making a spot-start in the second game of a doubleheader on April 19, Gilmartin has completely turned his season around. In his last seven appearances, four of them starts, Gilmartin is 2-0 with a 1.77 ERA and 15 strikeouts. In yesterday's start, Gilmartin allowed just one run over 5.2 innings of work. He also struck out a season-high seven batters, the most he has struck out since May 25 last year while pitching for Las Vegas. In four starts this season, Gilmartin is 1-0 with a 2.20 ERA in 16.1 innings of work with 11 strikeouts, compared to a 1-1 record with an ERA of 7.88 in seven relief appearances. His 1.77 ERA since April 19 is tied for the best in the PCL.

BULLPEN WOES OVER SKID: Over the Redbirds' current four-game skid, the bullpen has struggled mightily. In the last two games alone, the bullpen has pitched 7.1 innings, allowing 19 hits, 13 runs, 11 earned runs, two walks, and one home run. The bullpen has given up the lead in three of the four games over the skid, and has allowed four home runs in just 10.2 innings of work. The 'pen has allowed 14 earned runs, and 16 runs over the last four games, good for a 12.35 ERA.

LUKE'S DAILY DOUBLES: Infielder and Cardinals' No. 16 prospect Luke Voit has been searching for consistency since being hurt in the first game of the season, and spending time on the disabled list. Since going hitless on May 6 at Nashville, Voit has improved his batting average by 46 points (.191 to .237), and has collected hits in five of seven games, and multiple hits in two of those games. After smacking a double yesterday, Voit now has eight doubles this season. Of his 18 hits this season, nine have been for extra-bases. Of his eight hits since May 6, five have been doubles, including his four-hit, three-double performance at Oklahoma City last week.

SURGING EARLY, STRUGGLING LATE: So far this season, the Redbirds have outscored opponents early in games, but have struggled late. Through the first four innings of games this season, Memphis has outscored opponents 94-to-49. After the fourth inning, Memphis is only outscoring opponents in the sixth (24-to-22) and seventh innings (18-to-15), and extra innings (5-to-4). After the fourth inning, Memphis is being outscored by a total of 98-to-82. Memphis has particularly struggled in the eighth inning. They are being outscored 24-to-8 in the eighth so far this season, by far their highest deficit in any inning.

STRONG STARTERS, SHAKY 'PEN: Through the first 38 games this season, Memphis owns the second-best ERA in the league at 3.57, despite giving up 13 earned runs over the last two games. The starters for Memphis this season are 17-9 with a 2.94 ERA and 214 strikeouts in 208.2 innings, while the bullpen is 5-7 with a 4.65 ERA and 134 strikeouts in 122.0 innings, while blowing eight of 22 save chances.

STRONG OUTFIELD: Between Oscar Mercado and Adolis Garcia, not much gets past the Memphis outfield. The Cardinals' No. 13 and No. 9 prospects, respectively, have combined for eight outfield assists this season, including two in the last two games, one from each of them. The two have combined to play 63 games in the field, and have made putouts on 143 of 153 total chances. Mercado leads all PCL outfielders with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage, making 78 putouts in 80 chances, while recording two assists and no errors. He has not made an error since September 9 last season while with Double-A Springfield. He made just six errors in 120 games all of last season. Garcia currently leads the PCL with six outfield assists on the year. He has a .973 fielding percentage, making 65 putouts in 73 total chances, with just two errors on the season. Other than the two errors on Garcia this season, no Memphis outfielder has made an error. Seven players have played in the outfield for Memphis this season, and they have combined for a .991 fielding percentage coming into today's game. They have recorded putouts in 219 of 232 chances, and have turned 30 double plays. Albuquerque is the only other team in the PCL with a .991 fielding percentage by their outfield.

BETTER SIDE OF THE STRIKEOUTS: Memphis is among the PCL leaders for strikeouts by the pitching staff, and is towards the bottom of the league in strikeouts by batters. The pitching staff has struck out 347 batters through the first 38 games (9.1/game), which is just behind Fresno (357) for the best mark in the PCL this season. 'Birds batters are also towards the bottom of the league in total strikeouts. Memphis batters have struck out 268 times through the first 38 games, the lowest mark in the league, narrowly ahead of Fresno and Omaha who both sit at 269. Through the first 38 games of the season, three Memphis starters have also set their career-highs in strikeouts. Daniel Poncedeleon set a career-high with 12 strikeouts on April 14 against Iowa, Austin Gomber set his career-high and tied the franchise record on April 23 at Iowa with 16 strikeouts, and Jack Flaherty set his career-high with 13 strikeouts Wednesday at Oklahoma City. Sean Gilmartin also recorded his season-high for strikeouts yesterday, whiffing seven batters.

TOUGH-LUCK FOR PONCE: Memphis starter Daniel Poncedeleon has had a strong start to the season, but doesn't have much to show for it. The righty has made eight appearances and seven starts so far, and is 2-2 with a 2.41 ERA. After throwing 5.0 no-hit innings Saturday night, Poncedeleon's tough-luck continued. Andrew Morales came in to relieve him and allowed both inherited runners to score, and then gave up the lead, giving Poncedeleon another no-decision. Despite his performances, the Redbirds have scored just 13 (1.9/start) total runs while he has been on the mound this season, by far the lowest for any regular Memphis starter. After last night's performance, Poncedeleon is now fourth in the PCL with a 2.41 ERA, is tied for second with 44 strikeouts, is fifth in batting average against at .219, and is one of three Memphis pitchers in the top-five of strikeouts per nine innings pitched at 10.90.

2017 PCL CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON

START THE SLOW CLAPP: In 2017, first-year skipper Stubby Clapp led the Redbirds to their best season in franchise history. The 'Birds soared to a 91-50 record in the 2017 regular season and added six more wins in the PCL playoffs to win 97 total games on the year. Clapp was named the 2017 PCL Manager of the Year for his efforts, and was also named the 2017 Baseball America Minor League Manager of the Year. Clapp became the first minor league manager in the history of the St. Louis organization to win the Baseball America award. Clapp also earned the organization's prestigious George Kissell award.

FOR THE RECORD:

- Memphis' 91 wins in 2017 were the 10th-most in 119 seasons of professional baseball in Memphis dating back to 1877, and the season's .645 winning percentage was fourth-best

- Memphis was one of four teams in MiLB in 2017 with 90+ wins (Trenton Thunder [AA], 92-48; West Michigan Whitecaps [A], 91-45; Chattanooga Lookouts [AA], 91-49; Memphis Redbirds [AAA], 91-50)

- Memphis went 41 games over .500 during the regular season, the most by a PCL club since Albuquerque was 56 games over at 94-38 in 1981

- The Redbirds won the PCL American Southern Division by 22.0 games, and since divisions were established in the PCL in 1963, only two other teams won their division by 20 or more games (1970 Spokane Indians, 26.0 games; 1981 Albuquerque Dukes, 25.0 games)

- Memphis ended the season with its best ERA in franchise history (3.77) (3.89, 1998 and 2003), matched its best fielding percentage (.984) (.984, 2014), and had its third-best batting average (.278) (.284, 1999; .279, 2004)

Check out the Memphis Redbirds Statistics

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