PCL1 Memphis Redbirds

Game Notes: Memphis Redbirds (64-37) at Salt Lake Bees (54-47)

Published on July 24, 2018 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Memphis Redbirds News Release


Memphis Redbirds (64-37) At Salt Lake Bees (54-47)

Tuesday, July 24 - 7:35 p.m. (CT) - Smith's Ballpark (15,411) - Salt Lake City, Utah

Game #102 - Road Game #50 (32-17)

RHP Kevin Herget (6-7, 3.81 ERA) vs. RHP Luis Pena (3-2, 5.46 ERA)

THE GAME

TODAY'S GAME: The Memphis Redbirds and Salt Lake Bees will play the opener of a three-game set tonight at 7:35 p.m. This is the first and only time the two teams will meet in the regular season this year. Salt Lake is tied with El Paso for first in their division, while the 'Birds sit in first place. The Redbirds are coming off a 2-1 series win over the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, while Salt Lake is coming off a 3-0 series sweep of Tacoma. After this seven game road trip against Salt Lake and Las Vegas, the 'Birds will return home to play Sacramento and Fresno to finish off games against the West Coast. Daniel Poncedeleon was optioned today, and Austin Gomber recalled. Today's game will be broadcast on www.memphisredbirds.com with Steve Selby on the call.

ON THE HILL: Right-hander Kevin Herget will take the mound for the Redbirds against Salt Lake tonight. Herget will be making his 16th start for Memphis tonight. As a starter this season, he is 5-6 with a 3.94 ERA in 89.0 innings of work. Overall, he is 6-7 with a 3.81 ERA. In his last start against Iowa, Herget took the loss despite posting his fifth-straight quality start after the 'Birds were shutout. In that game, he struck out a season-high 11 batters over six innings without walking a man. Herget has been particularly good as of late. Since being roughed up over a three game stretch in mid-June, he has been a force on the mound over the last five starts. He is 3-1 with a 2.45 ERA in that span, pitching 33.0 innings.

The Bees will send right-hander Luis Pena to the hill to battle Herget and the Redbirds. Pena has made seven starts with the Bees since joining the team in mid-June. In that span, he is 3-2 with a 5.46 ERA in 31.1 innings of work. So far with Salt Lake, he has allowed 30 hits and 19 earned runs, while walking 19, and striking out 30 batters. This will be his first-career appearance against Memphis.

HISTORY WITH SALT LAKE: Memphis and Salt Lake have played at least once a year dating back to 1998 when Memphis joined the PCL. Beginning in 2003, the teams have played each other once per year, alternating ballparks every other year. Last year, Memphis won the season-series 3-1 in Memphis. The last time they went to Salt Lake in 2016, they split the series 2-2. Overall, Memphis leads the all-time series 55-41, and leads it both at home and on the road. They are 27-21 in Memphis and 28-20 in Salt Lake.

BIRD BITES

BARON: Currently has an 8-game hitting streak, his longest of year and longest since 8-game streak July12-23, 2018

GARCIA: Sunday, went 2-for-4 at the plate, hitting 13th HR; hitting .514 (19-for-37) in the cleanup spot this season

KELLY: Is hitting .314 (22-for-70) over last 18 games; has hits in 13 of those games and multiple in eight of them

MEJIA: Mon. night, hit game-winning 2-run single; 15 RBI in last 28 games after having just eight in his first 46 games

MERCADO: Saturday night, became first player in Memphis history to record five hits and three steals in a game

O'NEILL: Sunday, became sixth player in Memphis history to hit three home runs in a game; 26 HR between STL and MEM

RAVELO: Recently won Cardinals Minor League Player of the Month honors after hitting .449 (31-for-69) in 20 June games

SCHROCK: Last Sunday, hit fourth home run of the season and his first since June 9 against Reno; it was a two-run shot

SOSA: Is hitting .271 (90-for-332) in 88 games between Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis this season

TOVAR: Is hitting .342 (26-for-76) over last 22 games; recently snapped a season-long nine-game hitting streak

VOIT: Sunday, went 4-for-5 at the plate, driving in game winning run, and hitting homer in first inning

WISDOM: Sunday night, hit 13th home run of the season, snapping nearly a month-long home run drought

BY THE NUMBERS

453 calendar days have passed since the Redbirds were not in first place (April 27, 2017); they have played 221 regular season games since that time.

ON THIS DATE

In 2009, the first four Memphis batters of the game walked, and the 'Birds took advantage of nine walks by the New Orleans starter to win 6-5.

THE SEASON

ABOUT THE LAST ONE: The Memphis Redbirds slugged their way over the Colorado Springs Sky Sox 7-4, Sunday afternoon, winning the series 2-1.

Memphis slugged three home runs in the win, three of them coming off the bat of Tyler O'Neill. In the first, Luke Voit hit a solo home run with one out, and O'Neill went back-to-back with him to make the score 2-0.

In the third, O'Neill came up with two outs and smoked an opposite-field home run for his second bomb of the day. Adolis Garcia went back-to-back with him to make the score 4-0. It was the second time this season that Memphis had gone back-to-back twice in the same game.

After Colorado Springs nabbed four runs in the fifth, the score was tied until the bottom of the seventh inning. With Luke Voit on base, O'Neill launched his third homer of the game, becoming the sixth player in Memphis history to accomplish the feat.

Voit finished the game 4-for-5 at the dish, while Garcia, Alex Mejia, and Steven Baron also recorded multiple hits for Memphis.

Tyler Webb started for the 'Birds in a bullpen day. He pitched 3.2 innings of no-hit ball before handing it over to the 'pen. Five different relievers pieced together the tough win, with Tommy Layne earning his first win this season, and Edward Mujica earning his 12th save.

MAN OH MAN, BUDDY: Sunday afternoon, Tyler O'Neill made history for the Redbirds, becoming the sixth player in franchise history to hit three home runs in a game. He joined Chris Haas (8/3/99), Billy Selby (6/16/03), Rick Ankiel (6/16/07), Josh Phelps (7/29/08), and Jamie Romak (4/8/13) as the only Redbirds to accomplish the feat. It was the first three-home run game of his career. O'Neill's first home run came in the first inning when he went back-to-back with Luke Voit to give Memphis an early 2-0 lead. His second home run came in the third. Adolis Garcia was up next, and went back-to-back with him, the second time in the game the 'Birds had gone back-to-back, and the second time this season the 'Birds had gone back-to-back multiple times in one game. With his performance Sunday, O'Neill now has 23 home runs with Memphis this season, and 26 total between St. Louis and Memphis. It was the fifth time this season he had posted a multi-home run game. O'Neill is now tied for the league-lead in home runs this season. Since being traded to the organization on July 21 last season, O'Neill has appeared in 93 regular season games with the 'Birds and has hit 35 home runs in that span. His 35 home runs in a Redbirds uniform puts him just outside the top-10 all-time in Memphis history for home runs. O'Neill is now the 22nd player in Memphis history to hit at least 20 home runs in a season. O'Neill now has five multi-home run games this season. It is the third time since at least 2000 that a Redbird has had at least five multi-home run games, and the first time since 2002 when Ivan Cruz had seven such games.

ADOLIS SURGING FORWARD: After seeing his batting average drop to a season-low .203 on May 31, Adolis Garcia has steadily been improving that mark. In Sunday's game, Garcia went 2-for-5 at the plate, hitting a home run, driving in one run, and scoring once. This came one day after he went 4-for-5 at the plate. His home run on Sunday was back-to-back with Tyler O'Neill. Since the last day of May, Garcia has appeared in 39 games for the Redbirds, and is hitting a solid .316 (43-for-136) in that stretch. He has now raised his batting average to .253 on the season. Sunday, Garcia hit in the cleanup spot for the second-consecutive game and the ninth time this season. He has been dominant out of that spot, and that continued Sunday. He is now hitting .514 (19-for-37) in the four spot, scoring 11 times, hitting five doubles, and two home runs, while driving in nine runs. He is posting an on-base percentage of .538, a slugging percentage of .811, and an OPS of 1.349 in the cleanup spot this season. Garcia has collected hits in 27 of his 39 games since June began, and has notched multiple hits in 12 of those games. In those 39 games, he has scored 22 runs, hit seven doubles, a triple, and nine home runs, all while driving in 29 runners. Between Springfield and Memphis last season, his first in America, he hit 15 home runs and drove in 65 runners in 124 games. Through 86 games this season, he already has 13 home runs and 46 RBI.

HAVE A DAY, LUKE: Sunday, Luke Voit went 4-for-5 at the plate, hitting a home run, driving in two, and scoring twice. His home run kicked off the scoring for Memphis in the first inning, and was followed by a Tyler O'Neill home run, making it the first time in the game the 'Birds hit back-to-back jacks. So far this season, Voit has 15 multi-hit games. Only seven of those games have been two-hit performances. He has five three-hit performances, two four-hit performances, and one five-hit performance. His four-hit performance Sunday came on the heels of a three-game hitless stretch. Since June 26, Voit has also hit seven home runs in 24 games after having hit just one through his first 34 games with Memphis this season.

TEAM EFFORT: In Sunday's 7-4 win over Colorado Springs, Memphis used a season-high six pitchers to earn the win in the bullpen game. Lefty Tyler Webb got the start for the 'Birds, making his first start in two years. He threw 3.2 innings of no-hit ball, throwing 61 pitches, and walking two, while striking out four batters. Reliever Landon Beck allowed three runs on one hit and two walks in 1.0 innings of work. Matt Bowman pitched 1.1 inning, allowing an unearned run on two hits. Tommy Layne earned his first win of the season, pitching a scoreless seventh inning. Andrew Morales earned his seventh hold of the season, pitching the eighth inning, and Edward Mujica earned his 12th save of the season.

GREAT PITCHING ALL AROUND: After Sunday's hard-fought pitching performance, the Redbirds' pitching staff continued its season-long dominance on the mound. The entire pitching staff owns the best ERA in the league at 3.26, 0.65 points lower than the next closest team, Oklahoma City. The 'Birds staff has pitched the second-most innings this season at 886.2, while allowing the fewest hits at 802, and have racked up the second-most strikeouts at 871 through 101 games, 8.6 per game. The pitching staff has also allowed just 373 total runs this season, the fewest in the league. Memphis is the only team in the league that has allowed fewer than 400 runs this season and became the final team to allow 800 hits. The Redbirds have allowed just 321 earned runs, also the fewest in the league. They have allowed 51 fewer earned runs than Oklahoma City, the next closest team. They have also walked the third-fewest batters in the league at 300. Additionally, two Memphis pitchers hold the top two spots in the league wins list, Dakota Hudson (13) and Poncedeleon (9). The 'Birds also have three players in the top-10 in ERA this season. Poncedeleon is second at 2.15, Hudson is third at 2.36, and Kevin Herget is eighth at 3.81. This season, Memphis starters are 50-21 with a 2.86 ERA and 52 quality starts.

TOVAR STILL HITTING: After struggling through most of May and June, Wilfredo Tovar has been on fire at the plate. From May 1 to June 8, Tovar hit just .223 (21-for-94) in 31 games. Since June 9, Tovar is hitting .311 (32-for-103) in 29 games. In that span, he has recorded a season-high nine-game hitting streak, and has hit safely in 24 of those games. He has also recorded eight multi-hit games in that stretch. Saturday night, he went 2-for-4 at the dish, driving in three of the 10 Memphis runs.

WISDOM CONTINUES TO MAKE HISTORY: Sunday, Patrick Wisdom went 1-for-2 as a defensive replacement in the Memphis win. Wisdom is now hitting a career-high .300 (95-for-317) this season. Wisdom's career-high in hits came last season with Memphis when he recorded 111. With 39 games left to play this season, Wisdom is very near his career mark. With his career-year, Wisdom is now in the top-10 or just outside it for many offensive categories in Redbird history. Wisdom is now tied for the seventh-most doubles in franchise history (66), has the fourth-most home runs (49), has the fourth-most RBI (172), the fifth-most extra-base hits (118), and the eighth-most total bases (486). He is also outside the top-10 in multiple other categories, including games played, at-bats, runs scored, hits, walks, and hit-by-pitches. He needs to play just four more games to move into the top-10, needs just 30 more at-bats, six more runs scored, and 13 more walks. Unfortunately, Wisdom is also just eight strikeouts from passing John Nelson for the most in franchise history. Wisdom has also hit 27 home runs at AutoZone Park in his career, third-most in Redbird history.

POWER SURGE: In Sunday's game, Memphis hit five home runs, and went back-to-back in both the first and third innings. It was the second time the 'Birds had hit five home runs as a team in one game this season, the other time coming on June 13 at Albuquerque. They also went back-to-back multiple times in the same game for the second time this season. Through June 8 this season, the 'Birds had hit just 49 home runs as a team. June 8 was the 62nd game this season. In the 39 games since then, Memphis has hit 50 home runs, giving them 99 total on the season. They have hit the eighth-most home runs in the PCL this season, and have hit the second-most homers out of PCL teams not located on the West Coast. Round Rock has hit 101 home runs this season. With the five-home run performance Sunday, Memphis also registered the 25th game in Redbird history where the team had hit at least five homers.

WHAT A DEBUT: Last night, pitcher Daniel Poncedeleon made his Major League debut, starting for the Cardinals against the Reds. Poncedeleon's contract was purchased earlier this season, but he did not appear in a game. Yesterday, he was recalled and was phenomenal in his debut. The righty pitched seven no-hit innings, allowing just three walks, while striking out three batters. The Cardinals' bullpen lost the no-hit bid and the game after he departed. Poncedeleon was pulled after throwing 116 pitches. This performance came just one week after he threw a one-hit shutout over Omaha for the Redbirds. In 18 starts between both levels this season, he is 9-3 with a 2.02 ERA in 98.0 innings, striking out 106 batters.

1,500 WITHIN REACH: After winning Sunday, Memphis now has 64 wins this season, the second-most through 101 games in franchise history. On July 14 last season, Memphis won the 1,400th game in franchise history. Since that time, they have won 97 regular season games, giving the franchise 1,497 wins.

Check out the Memphis Redbirds Statistics

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Pacific Coast League Stories from July 24, 2018


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