Sports stats



PCL1 Memphis Redbirds

Game Notes: Memphis Redbirds (66-38) at Las Vegas 51s (50-54) --

July 27, 2018 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Memphis Redbirds News Release


Memphis Redbirds (66-38) At Las Vegas 51s (50-54)

Friday, July 27 - 9:05 p.m. (CT) - Cashman Field (9,334) - Las Vegas, Nevada

Game #105 - Road Game #53 (34-18)

RHP Jake Woodford (1-2, 3.80 ERA) vs. LHP P.J. Conlon (3-6, 6.92 ERA)

THE GAME

TODAY'S GAME: The Memphis Redbirds and Las Vegas 51s will play the opener of a four-game set tonight at 9:05 p.m. in Las Vegas This is the first and only time the two teams will meet in the regular season this year. The Redbirds are coming off a 2-1 series win over the Salt Lake Bees, while Las Vegas is coming off a 2-1 series win over the Nashville Sounds. 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. With a win tonight, the Redbirds will have won the 1,500th game in franchise history. Today's game will be broadcast on www.memphisredbirds.com with Steve Selby on the call.

ON THE HILL: Right-hander Jake Woodford will take the mound for the Redbirds tonight in the opener. Coming into the game, Woodford has made four starts with the Redbirds this season, and is coming off his first career Triple-A win. So far with the 'Birds, he is 1-2 with a 3.80 ERA in 21.1 innings of work. He has thrown two-consecutive quality starts as well. In his last start against Colorado Springs, the righty tossed 6.0 innings, allowing just one run on three hits and three walks, while striking out seven batters. In 20 starts between Memphis and Springfield this season, the righty is 4-10 with a 4.93 ERA in 102.1 innings of work. He has fared much better with Memphis this season than he has with Springfield. With Springfield, he is 3-8 with a 5.22 ERA.

The 51s will send left-hander P.J. Conlon to the mound to battle Woodford and the Redbirds. In 15 starts this season, Conlon is 3-6 with a 6.92 ERA in 79.1 innings of work. In his last start against Reno, the lefty threw 5.2 innings, allowing eight hits, four runs, three earned runs, and two walks, while striking out four batters. This will be his first career start against the Redbirds.

HISTORY WITH LAS VEGAS: Memphis and Las Vegas have played every year dating back to 1998 when Memphis joined the PCL. Since 2003, the two teams have played once per year, alternating ballparks every other year. Since 1998, Las Vegas has been affiliated with four different teams. They have been with the Padres, Dodgers, Blue Jays, and now the Mets, while Memphis has stayed with the Cardinals. Last season, Memphis swept the season series at home, 4-0. The 'Birds lead the all-time series at 51-45, own the series record in Memphis at 31-21, and narrowly trail all-time on the road at 20-24.

BIRD BITES

BARON: Wed. night, snapped an 8-game hitting streak; was his longest since 8-game streak July12-23, 2016

GARCIA: Last night, went 3-for-4 with three home runs and eight RBI; hit a 3R home run, a grand slam, and a solo home run

KELLY: Is hitting .307 (23-for-75) over last 20 games; has hits in 14 of those games and multiple in eight of them

MEJIA: Last night hit third home run of the season and his second this month; had just one until July 15

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; 25 HR this season

RAVELO: Tues. night, hit two home runs in game for the first time in his career; now has tied career-high with 11 home runs

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 .273 (93-for-341) in 90 games between Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis this season

TOVAR: Is hitting .321 (27-for-84) over last 24 games; recently snapped a season-long nine-game hitting streak

VOIT: Tues. night, went 2-for-5 at the plate with a triple and a home run; second-straight game going BTB with O'Neill

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

THE SEASON

ABOUT THE LAST ONE: The Memphis Redbirds slugged their way over the Salt Lake Bees, winning 12-3 last night. The 'Birds were led by a three home run performance from Adolis Garcia.

Garcia kicked off the scoring early for Memphis, launching a three-run homer in the first inning. In the second, Oscar Mercado made the score 5-0, hitting his eighth home run of the year and his first in almost a month.

In the sixth, Memphis loaded the bases for Garcia. He then belted his second home run of the game, a grand slam to make the score 9-3. In the seventh inning, Alex Mejia hit his third home run of the season, a two-run shot, to make it 11-3.

In his last at-bat of the game in the eighth inning, Garcia crushed a solo home run to give him the seventh three-home run game in Memphis history. Tyler O'Neill accomplished the feat earlier this week. This is the first time in franchise history that the Redbirds have had multiple three home run performances in the same season, let alone the same week.

Garcia also tied the franchise record with eight RBI in the game. It is only the second time in Redbird history that a player has recorded eight RBI.

Starter Chris Ellis earned the win for the Redbirds, pitching five innings, allowing three runs on five hits and six walks, while striking out three. Andrew Morales and Landon Beck combined to throw the final four innings, allowing just three hits and a walk, while striking out five batters.

THREE HOMERS FOR GARCIA: Last night, outfielder Adolis Garcia became the seventh player in Memphis history, and the second in the last four games, to hit three home runs in a game. Tyler O'Neill hit three home runs against Colorado Springs on July 22, and with last night's performance, the two have 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. In the first inning, Garcia hit a three-run home run, in the sixth inning, he hit a grand slam, and in the eighth inning, he hit a solo shot. Garcia is the first player to hit a grand slam in a three-home run performance in Memphis history. Last night, Garcia also tied the franchise record with eight RBI in a game. He joins Tagg Bozied (8/1/07) as the only Redbirds to drive in eight runs in a game. After seeing his batting average drop to a season-low .203 on May 31, he has steadily been improving that mark. Since the last day of May, Garcia has appeared in 42 games for the Redbirds, and is hitting a solid .327 (49-for-150) in that stretch. He has now raised his batting average to .260 on the season. Last night, Garcia hit in the cleanup spot for the 11th time this season. He has been dominant out of that spot, and that continued last night. He is now hitting .511 (23-for-45) in the four spot, scoring 14 times, hitting six doubles, and five home runs, while driving in 17 runs. He is posting an on-base percentage of .542, a slugging percentage of .978, and an OPS of 1.519 in the cleanup spot this season. Garcia has collected hits in 30 of his 42 games since June began, and has notched multiple hits in 14 of those games. In those 42 games, he has scored 26 runs, hit eight doubles, a triple, and 13 home runs, all while driving in 38 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 89 games this season, he already has 147home runs and 55 RBI.

MERCADO LOCKED IN: After going hitless in five of six games from July 13-19, Oscar Mercado has been on fire at the plate and on the base paths. Since then, he has had an official at-bat in five games, and has recorded hits in four of them, and multiple hits in three of them. Last night, Mercado went 2-for-5 at the plate, notching a home run, driving in two runners, and scoring twice. On July 21 against Colorado Springs, Mercado became the first player in Memphis history to record five hits and three steals in a game. He went 5-for-5 with two runs and two RBI in that game. Mercado is now hitting .287 (106-for-369) this season with 21 doubles, one triple, eight home runs, 72 runs scored, 41 RBI, and 29 stolen bases. With over 30 games left to play in the regular season, Mercado is just 31 hits short of his career-high, is just two doubles short of his career-high, five RBI short of his career-high, and four runs short of his career-high. He also leads the league in stolen bases, is tied for the most runs, has the fourth-most at-bats (369), and is tied for the fourth-most hits (106). He has played in 96 of Memphis' 104 games, most on the team, and has recorded the most multi-hit games among Redbird players at 30.

O'NEILL ON FIRE: After making history Sunday afternoon by becoming the sixth player in franchise history to hit three home runs in a game, Tyler O'Neill continued his hot-hitting last night. He went 1-for-3 at the plate, scoring twice, hitting a double, and walking twice. With his triple last night, he now has a seven-game hitting streak. O'Neill has 25 home runs with Memphis this season, and 28 total between St. Louis and Memphis. He now has six multi-home run games this season. O'Neill holds the outright lead for home runs in the PCL, and in all of Triple-A baseball. Since being traded to the organization on July 21 last season, O'Neill has appeared in 96 regular season games with the 'Birds and has hit 37 home runs in that span. His 37 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, and the 16th player in franchise history to hit 25 home runs in a season. O'Neill has six multi-home run games this season. It is the third time since at least 1999 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.

POWER SURGE: After another five home run performance by the Redbirds last night, they posted some ridiculous home run numbers over the last few games. Tuesday night, they hit six home runs in the win over Salt Lake. This came one game after they went deep five times on Sunday. Tuesday night, they went back-to-back in the first inning, and Sunday, they went back-to-back in both the first and third innings. Last night, the 'Birds hit home runs in the first, second, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. Adolis Garcia was responsible for three of those home runs, while Oscar Mercado and Alex Mejia hit the other two. It was the fourth time this season the 'Birds have hit at least five home runs in a game, the other time coming on June 13 at Albuquerque. Sunday, 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 42 games since then, Memphis has hit 61 home runs, giving them 110 total on the season. They have hit the seventh-most home runs in the PCL this season, and have hit the most homers out of PCL teams not located on the West Coast. With the performance last night, Memphis also registered the 27th game in Redbird history where the team had hit at least five homers. This year's team is already tied for the most home runs on the road (70) in franchise history. Tuesday night marked just the second time in franchise history the 'Birds had hit at least five home runs in consecutive games. They hit five on July 27, 2009 and hit seven the next day. Those two games also came against different teams.

ELLIS FINALLY GETS A WIN: Although he was not as sharp as he had been in his previous two starts, last night's starter Chris Ellis did enough to earn the win for himself and the Redbirds. Last night, Ellis pitched five innings, allowing three runs on five hits and six walks, while striking out three batters. For his efforts, he won this third game of the year with Memphis. In his previous two starts, he had taken the loss in both games despite having pitched 7.0 innings of one-run ball in both. Memphis lost 1-0 in both games.

ONE FROM 1,500: After winning last night, Memphis has 66 wins this season, the second-most through 104 games in franchise history. On July 14 last season, Memphis won the 1,400th game in franchise history. Since that time, they have won 99 regular season games, giving the franchise 1,499 wins.

FUN STUFF: Through the first 104 games this season, the Redbirds have already posted some pretty incredible numbers. They have had three separate five-hit performances, two by Luke Voit, and one by Oscar Mercado. Voit is the only player in Redbird history to have multiple five-hit games. It is also the first time since 2012 that Memphis has had multiple five-hit games in the same season. Additionally, Tyler O'Neill has six multi-home run games this season, the second-most in Memphis history since at least 1999. O'Neill and Adolis Garcia are the sixth and seventh players in Memphis history to have three-home run performances. Garcia also tied the franchise record with eight RBI last night. It was the second time in franchise history a player had eight RBI. The 'Birds starters have also had nine separate 10-strikeout performances, two by Jack Flaherty, Kevin Herget, and Daniel Poncedeleon, and one each by Austin Gomber, Ryan Helsley, and Alex Reyes. Three Memphis players, Oscar Mercado, Randy Arozarena, and Wilfredo Tovar, have all recorded games with three steals this season, tying the franchise record for steals in a game. Additionally, Mercado became the first player in franchise history to record five hits and three steals in a game. Patrick Wisdom also had a 16-game hitting streak this season, tied for the sixth-longest streak in franchise history.

The Redbirds have also posted 52 quality starts this season, just three shy of the mark they had in 2017. The 'Birds also have 91 steals as a team this season, just 19 short of the franchise record with 36 games left to play. Two weeks ago, Daniel Poncedeleon threw a complete-game, one-hit shutout. It was just the 17th complete-game shutout in franchise history, and the 11th one-hit performance by Memphis. It was the fifth complete-game, one-hitter by a single Memphis pitcher in franchise history, and the first since 2014.

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.

Check out the Memphis Redbirds Statistics

• Discuss this story on the Pacific Coast League message board...

Pacific Coast League Stories from July 27, 2018


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central