PCL1 Memphis Redbirds

Game Notes: Memphis Redbirds (67-38) at Las Vegas 51s (50-55)

Published on July 28, 2018 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Memphis Redbirds News Release


Memphis Redbirds (67-38) At Las Vegas 51s (50-55)

Saturday, July 28 - 9:05 p.m. (CT) - Cashman Field (9,334) - Las Vegas, Nevada

Game #106 - Road Game #54 (35-18)

LHP Austin Warner (NR) vs. RHP Cody Martin (3-3, 6.94 ERA)

THE GAME

TODAY'S GAME: The Memphis Redbirds and Las Vegas 51s will play the second game 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 their 8-3 win over Las Vegas last night, Memphis won the 1,500th game in franchise history. Earlier today, Hector Mendoza and Elniery Garcia were transferred from Springfield. Tonight's game will be broadcast on www.memphisredbirds.com with Steve Selby on the call.

ON THE HILL: Left-hander Austin Warner will get the ball for the Redbirds tonight in his Triple-A debut. Warner was signed out of Independent League ball in June of last year and has risen rapidly through the system. Last season, he appeared across three levels in the organization, going 4-4 with a 2.44 ERA in 13 games, including 11 starts. He threw 62.2 total innings, allowing just 17 earned runs and 15 walks, while striking out 73 batters. He started the 2018 season with Palm Beach, going 3-3 with a 3.41 ERA in 12 starts, spanning 74.0 innings. He allowed just 28 earned runs and 13 walks, while striking out 77 batters. He was transferred to Springfield earlier this month and is 2-3 with a 5.34 ERA in 32.0 innings of work.

The 51s will send right-hander Cody Martin to the mound to battle Warner and the Redbirds. In 12 starts with Las Vegas this season, he is 3-3 with a 6.94 ERA in 59.2 innings of work. Opposing batters are hitting .297 off the righty, while hitting 12 home runs. He has walked 31 batters this season, while striking out 52 batters.

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 52-45, own the series record in Memphis at 31-21, and narrowly trail all-time on the road at 21-24.

BIRD BITES

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

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

KELLY: Is hitting .321 (25-for-78) over last 21 games; has hits in 15 of those games and multiple in nine of them

MEJIA: Thurs. 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: Last night, hit first career Triple-A home run; is hitting .276 (95-for-344) in 91 games between MEM and SPG

TOVAR: Is hitting .307 (27-for-88) over last 25 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

BY THE NUMBERS

457 calendar days have passed since the Redbirds were not in first place (April 27, 2017); they have played 225 regular season games since that time.

BY THE NUMBERS

1,500 wins in franchise history after last night's win over Las Vegas. The win came just a little over a year after they had won the 1,400th game (7/17/17)

THE SEASON

ABOUT THE LAST ONE: The Memphis Redbirds won the opener against Las Vegas 8-3 last night. The 'Birds slugged three home runs in the win, giving them 19 as a team in the last five games.

Last night's starter Jake Woodford threw 5.2 solid innings for the 'Birds, earning the win. The righty allowed just one run on five hits and four walks, while striking out two.

Adolis Garcia kicked off the scoring for Memphis, launching his fourth home run in two days to lead off the second inning. Later in the inning, Edmundo Sosa hit his first career Triple-A home run, a two-run shot, to make the score 3-0.

In the third, Luke Voit walked, and Tyler O'Neill brought him in with his 26th jack of the season. Garcia later drove in a run with a double, as did Luke Voit. Carson Kelly also drove in a run on the night.

Tommy Layne, Matt Bowman, and Edward Mujica combined to pitch the final 3.1 innings. Bowman allowed two runs, but their combined effort sealed the win for the 'Birds.

1,500 WINS: After winning last night, Memphis won the 1,500th game in franchise history. The 'Birds now have 67 wins this season, the second-most through 105 games in franchise history. The Redbirds have now reached a milestone win in each of the last three seasons. On June 12, 2016, they won game number 1,300, on July 14, 2017, they won game number 1,400. Manager Stubby Clapp played for Memphis from 1999 to 2002, and has been the manager since last season. He has coached the 'Birds to wins 1,400 and 1,500, and was part of the teams that won games 100, 200, and 300.

GARCIA GOES DEEP, AGAIN: In last night's win, Adolis Garcia went 2-for-5 at the plate, hitting a solo home run and driving in a run with a double. It was his fourth home run in the last two games. Thursday night, the outfielder became the seventh player in Memphis history, and the second in 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 Thursday 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. Garcia was the first player to hit a grand slam in a three-home run performance in Memphis history. Thursday 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 43 games for the Redbirds, and is hitting a solid .329 (51-for-155) in that stretch. He has now raised his batting average to .263 on the season. Last night, Garcia hit in the cleanup spot for the 12th time this season. He has been dominant out of that spot, and that continued last night. He is now hitting .500 (25-for-50) in the four spot, scoring 16 times, hitting seven doubles, and six home runs, while driving in 19 runs. He is posting an on-base percentage of .528, a slugging percentage of 1.000, and an OPS of 1.528 in the cleanup spot this season. Garcia has collected hits in 31 of his 43 games since June began, and has notched multiple hits in 15 of those games. In those 43 games, he has scored 28 runs, hit nine doubles, a triple, and 14 home runs, all while driving in 40 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 90 games this season, he already has 18 home runs and 57 RBI.

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 2-for-3 at the plate, scoring twice, hitting another home run, driving in two, and walking twice. With his home run last night, he now has a eight-game hitting streak. O'Neill has 26 home runs with Memphis this season, and 29 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 97 regular season games with the 'Birds and has hit 38 home runs in that span. His 38 home runs in a Redbirds uniform puts him tied for 10th-most home runs in Memphis history. His 26 home runs also put him tied for the 10th most home runs in a season in Redbird history. 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.

EDMUNDO'S BIG NIGHT: Last night, second baseman Edmundo Sosa went 2-for-3 at the dish, scoring twice, driving in two runs, and walking once, while also hitting his first-career Triple-A home run. With one on and two outs in the second inning, Sosa launched a no-doubter, giving him the milestone homer. It was one of three Memphis home runs on the night. In 91 games between Memphis and Springfield this season, Sosa is hitting .276 (95-for-344) with eight home runs and 42 RBI. With Memphis, he is hitting .277 (23-for-83) in 24 games with 10 RBI.

POWER SURGE: After hitting three home runs last night, the Redbirds continued to post some insane home run numbers over the last few games. Thursday night, they hit five home runs, and 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. Thursday 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 43 games since then, Memphis has hit 64 home runs, giving them 113 total on the season. They are tied with Las Vegas for the fifth-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 Thursday night, Memphis also registered the 27th game in Redbird history where the team had hit at least five homers. This year's team already has the seventh-most home runs on the road (73) 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.

WOODFORD SOLID, AGAIN: Last night, starter Jake Woodford was solid, earning his second win of the season with the Redbirds. In the game, Woodford went 5.2 innings, allowing five hits, one run, four walks, and striking out two batters. Woodford is now 2-2 with a 3.33 ERA with the Redbirds this season. In his last three starts, he has thrown 18.0 innings, allowing only 14 hits, and five earned runs, good for a 2.50 ERA.

MUJICA SETTLING IN: Last night, reliever Edward Mujica pitched a perfect ninth inning for the Redbirds, striking out one to seal the win. Since being roughed up for nine runs in three games from May 17-22, Mujica has been phenomenal for the 'Birds. Since May 26, the righty has appeared in 22 games for Memphis, spanning 23.0 innings. In that stretch, he has allowed just 15 hits, four earned runs, and two walks, while striking out 13 batters. He is 1-0 with 11 saves since that time. He now has a 1.57 ERA since May 26, and is holding opponents to a .190 (15-for-79) batting average.

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

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Pacific Coast League Stories from July 28, 2018


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