photo: Malcom Nunez (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
The St. Louis Cardinals farm system was 2-4 on Monday with slugfest wins by Memphis and Johnson City, and losses for Peoria, State College, the Gulf Coast Cards, and the DSL Red squad. Springfield, Palm Beach, and the DSL Blue team took the day off. In Johnson City’s victory, Malcom Nunez returned after six weeks of inactivity and hammered a grand slam.
Results for games played Monday, July 15th.
The Memphis Redbirds upped their record to 38-57 with a homer-soaked 8-6 win at Round Rock Monday evening. Adolis Garcia smoked his 17th and 18th longballs, Randy Arozarena popped his fifth in 30 Triple-A games this year, and third baseman Jose Martinez, who also drew two walks, hit his second in seven Memphis games. Arozarena is now batting .362/.432/.569 for the Redbirds. Backstop Joe Hudson chipped in a pair of singles and a free pass.
After five straight solid outings (28 innings, sub-3.00 ERA), Genesis Cabrera was ineffective on Monday night, allowing six runs in three innings before the bullpen bailed him out. Righty Ryan Helsley (W, 2-3) threw three shutout stanzas and 22-year-old Junior Fernandez blanked the Express for two more frames, before southpaw Hunter Cervenka concluded the win with a spotless ninth inning. Fernandez fanned four and walked one, lowering his Memphis ERA to 0.79 in 11 1/3 innings.
Tuesday’s game: at Round Rock, Jake Woodford (5-5, 3.56) 7:05 CT.
Springfield OFF
Springfield (12-12) had a scheduled off day Monday. The S-Cards open a seven-day, seven-game Texas roadtrip to Amarillo and Corpus Christi on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s game: at Amarillo, Angel Rondon (4-1, 2.79) 7:05 CT.
Palm Beach OFF
Palm Beach (8-18) had a scheduled off day Monday. The Beach Birds will be home for the next two weeks straight, though this coming weekend, they will be the designated away team when facing Jupiter.
Tuesday’s game: vs. Florida, pitcher TBA, 5:30 CT.
Peoria scored first but couldn’t hold on, falling to 4-20 in the season’s second half by tumbling 3-1 at home to the Loons on Monday morning. Michael Baird started and lowered his ERA to 0.82 with four shutout innings. The 24-year-old righty yielded three hits and a base on balls while fanning four. Tony Locey came next and was the bullpen highlight, striking out six of seven men. The hulking 20-year-old has whiffed nine in his last 3 1/3 innings pitched. The loss went to lefty Evan Sisk, who surrendered all three runs on five safeties, including a homer.
Brady Whalen had the only multi-hit game for the Chiefs, tripling and singling and drawing a walk for good measure. However, the team went 1-for-8 with men in scoring position, short-circuiting every rally. Ivan Herrera reached twice via a walk and a single, while the only other extra base hits were doubles by third sacker Josh Shaw and leadoff man Brendan Donovan.
Tuesday’s game: No game scheduled.
Staten Island 7 at State College 4
State College lost its seventh in the last 10 games and slipped to 16-15 on the season with a 7-4 home defeat to the Staten Island Yankees. Center fielder Jonatan Machado led the offense with a double and triple and two runs scored, an 18-game on-base streak and now sports a sturdy slash line of .324/.393/.432 with exactly as many walks as whiffs. The only other multi-hit effort came from first baseman Shane Benes, who singled and doubled, but neither scored nor plated a runner. Catcher and cleanup batter Pedro Pages picked a man off first, gunned another runner stealing, and added a single. The 20-year-old Venezuelan with the big defensive reputation is hitting .288/.409/.385 with an 11/9 ratio of walks to strikeouts.
Righty Scott Politz made the start and was very good, going five innings and permitting just one run while fanning five Yanks. Jacob Schlesener relieved and was tagged for two runs and a blown save. Schlesener wasn’t hit hard, only allowing a single in his inning of work…but also issued a walk, wild pitch, and hit batter, for the two runs. The loss however went to the next man out of the pen, lefty Hector Villalobos, who coughed up four tallies across two innings. Intriguing if lightly-used 20-year-old righty Leonardo Taveras finished up with a shutout ninth, and has now allowed one hit and two walks in nine innings this season, with 15 strikeouts.
Tuesday’s game: No game scheduled.
Johnson City 9 at Elizabethton 5
Johnson City (14-11) pounced on Elizabethton early and never let up, breaking the game open with a fifth-inning grand slam from cleanup hitter Malcom Nunez in a 9-5 road triumph Monday night. Designated hitter Nunez, playing for the first time for Johnson City, and the first time anywhere since June 2nd, added a single to his slam, and was ably aided by multi-hit games from third baseman Raffy Ozuna (homer, two singles), shortstop and leadoff man Mateo Gil (two singles and a walk), and center fielder Jhon Torres (single, homer, and two of the team’s four free passes).
Righty Julio Puello retired the first 18 men he faced — seven of the first nine on strikes — before falling apart in the seventh inning with a single, hit batter, and longball. If ever “three earned runs” were a misleading line, this is it. Dylan Pearce followed with 1 2/3 stellar relief innings, fanning four and conceding just two harmless baserunners. Cameron Dulle was on mop-up duty, yielding a pair of insignificant runs in the ninth.
Tuesday’s game: at Elizabethton, Dalton Roach (1-0, 5.64) 5:30 CT.
GCL Mets 11 at GCL Cardinals 7
In a reverse of their recent script, the GCL Cardinals had their hitting shoes on but forgot to pitch and field, dropping to 7-12 on the season with an 11-7 home loss to the Mets. Starter Inohan Paniagua surrendered six runs, four earned, over 4 1/3 frames. The 19-year-old stringbean (6′ 1″ and 148) struck out one and allowed eight runners before handing off to Mexican righty Martin Cordova, who yielded three more runs in just 1 2/3 innings. The sole praiseworthy moundwork came from 23-year-old Connor Coward, who blanked the Mets for an inning.
Left fielder Luis Montano led the attack with a double and triple, and third baseman Francisco Hernandez continued his hot hitting with a single and double for his fourth two-knock game in his last five starts. Other multi-hit contributors included designated hitter Yowelfy Rosario (single, double) and backstop Joyser Garcia with a pair of singles. Recent draftee Patrick Romeri doubled and walked in four at-bats, but also fanned three times. (Romeri now sports a .921 OPS and is the youngest GCL regular with an OPS over .850.)
Tuesday’s game: No game scheduled.
DSL Cubs2 6, DSL Cardinals Red 5 (10 innings)
The DSL Cardinals Red team fell to 14-22 with a 10th-inning walkoff loss to the DSL Cubs2 squad, 6-5 on Monday morning. The Red was led by a dazzling day from center fielder and leadoff man Smith Vargas, who went 4-for-5 with two singles, a double, and a triple. The 17-year-old Vargas can still only claim a .528 OPS, but one never knows when a young player has turned his season around; maybe this was the game for him. Chipping in was third baseman Luis Andular with two singles and a sac fly, designated hitter Endri Salas (double, walk) and first baseman Jesus Orecchia (walk, single).
Edgar Manzo started and was effectively wild, walking five but allowing just two runs, only one earned, over 5 2/3 innings. The 18-year-old Mexican righty fanned six Cubs and permitted four hits while lowering his ERA to 2.10 in seven starts. Manzo is yet to allow more than two earned runs in any 2019 appearance. The only Red hurler to not yield a Monday run was 17-year-old Brayan Ramirez. The big Colombian righty (6′ 4″ and 200) retired four of five opponents on strikes, while walking one.
Tuesday’s game: vs. DSL Cubs2, pitcher TBA, 9:30 a.m. CT.
DSL Cardinals Blue OFF
The DSL Blue team was off Monday.
Tuesday’s game: at DSL Angels, pitcher TBA, 9:30 a.m. CT.
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