Stephenson, Johnson Duel, Knights Fall 3-1
Published on July 28, 2015 under International League (IL1)
Charlotte Knights News Release
(Louisville, KY) - Cincinnati Reds top-prospect Robert Stephenson delivered an impressive performance on Tuesday and the Louisville Bats evened the series with a 3-1 victory over the Charlotte Knights. Charlotte starter Erik Johnson also looked sharp, allowing only one unearned run in the tough-luck loss.
Stephenson - who was ranked as the 23rd best prospect by Baseball America prior to the season - is a 22-year-old right-hander who made his fifth-career Triple-A start on Tuesday night. The righty allowed only three hits over 8.0 innings of scoreless ball, while striking out 10 Knights on the evening. The victory was the fourth in his young Triple-A career.
Collin Balester took over for Stephenson in the ninth inning, and earned his third save of the season despite some troubles. The Louisville reliever allowed a run on three hits to squander the shutout, but recorded a key double-play to seal the 3-1 victory.
Johnson battled pitch-for-pitch with Stephenson early in the game, allowing only an unearned run through six strong innings. The 2015 International League All-Star added two strikeouts to his league-leading total (107), and still ranks second in the IL with a 2.43 ERA among qualified starters.
A throwing error by Johnson on a sacrifice-bunt in the fifth inning led to the Bats only run against the Knights starter. Hernan Iribarren came through with a sacrifice-fly one batter after the error to give the Bats a 1-0 lead.
Louisville added a pair of important insurance runs off of Blake Smith in the eighth inning. Ramon Cabrera hit a double to put a pair of runners in scoring position for Josh Satin, who came through with a two-RBI single just out of the reach of Knights shortstop Drew Garcia.
With men on first and third in the top of the ninth inning, Matt Davidson grounded into a run-scoring double-play for the only Knights score of the game. Leury Garcia scored the run after starting the inning with a lead-off single, one of six Charlotte hits on the day. Jason Coats led the way with his 2-for-4 night, the only multi-hit effort by a Knight in the game.
The Knights and Bats will continue their four-game series on Wednesday as Hector Noesi takes the mound for Charlotte against Louisville newcomer John Lamb. Lamb was acquired by Cincinnati in the trade that sent Johnny Cueto to Kansas City earlier in the week, and the left-hander will make his Bats debut against the Knights in the 7:05 p.m. Wednesday night matchup.
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