photo: Casey Meisner (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
On Monday, St. Louis’ minors went 3-1 as pitching led the way. Daniel Poncedeleon and Adam Wainwright paced Memphis and Springfield while Player of the Day Casey Meisner tossed six scoreless innings for Palm Beach.
Results from the games played Monday, May 7th.
Daniel Poncedeleon fanned eight over six innings, resulting in a 4-1 win by the Redbirds over the Sounds (15-15) (OAK). The victory snaps a four-game skid by Memphis (20-12), salvaging the last of the four-game set, and expands the first-place Redbirds’ lead over Nashville and New Orleans (MIA) to four games.
Poncedeleon (W, 2-2) rebounded from a sub-par effort against Oklahoma City in which he did not finish the fourth last time out. On Monday, the righty held his opponents to a run on two hits and three walks. Poncedeleon also hit a batter.
Arturo Reyes retired six batters, five of them via the K. Preston Guilmet faced the minimum in the ninth, striking out two, for his eighth save.
Down 1-0 after three, the visitors put up a three spot the next inning. Luke Voit’s first home run of 2018 accounted for two, with Tyler O’Neill (single) aboard. Adolis Garcia’s sac fly brought Rangel Ravelo (double) home for the frame’s last score.
Two other Redbirds generated a multi-hit effort: Patrick Wisdom and Alex Mejia. Wisdom singled twice in four at bats while Mejia went 2-for-3 and drove in Garcia in the seventh after the latter reached on a force out.
Tuesday’s game: at Oklahoma City (22-7) (LAD), 7:05 pm CT, Sean Gilmartin (1-1, 5.93)
Adam Wainwright’s trip back to St. Louis began with a win as the S-Cards flew past the Drillers, 6-2. Riding a four-game winning streak, Springfield (18-11) sits atop the North Division, 2.5 games ahead of Tulsa and with a three-games-to-none series lead with one game remaining.
Waino (W, 1-0) will very likely use today’s performance to campaign for immediate activation on the big club and there was a lot to like in his effort. The right-hander retired his first 10 batters before allowing a single. The Georgia native then recorded one of his two K’s before yielding another single. But Wainwright ended his rehab start by retiring the next four batters and threw 45 of his 59 pitches for strikes. Of the 15 recorded outs, only five left the infield.
Connor Jones took over for Wainwright, his first action since going on the disabled list after his April 15th start. Jones displayed a bit of rust, yielding a run on two hits and a walk in 1 2/3. Ian McKinney recorded four outs before handing off to Estarlin Arias, who permitted a run via a double, ground out and wild pitch.
The S-Cards generated six tallies on seven hits, a walk, balk and hit batsman. Chris Chinea and Randy Arozarena had two hits apiece with two runs scored. Chinea doubled twice in three at bats while knocking in one and Arozarena went 2-for-4.
Tuesday’s game: vs. second-place Tulsa (16-14) (LAD), 6:30 pm CT, Jake Woodford (2-3, 6.04)
Casey Meisner led a quartet of Beach Birds’ hurlers who joined forces on a five-hitter, resulting in a 4-0 victory over the first-place Hammerheads, the first of three games between the two clubs. Third-place Palm Beach (17-13) climbs to within 3.5 games of Jupiter with the win.
Meisner (W, 1-1) threw six strong frames, yielding just two hits and two walks while striking out six. The 22-year-old hit two batters. Austin Sexton, Colton Thomson and Jesus Cruz each went an inning with one K, Sexton giving up a hit and Cruz working around two hits and a base-on-balls.
The PB-Cards’ offense was a balanced effort with eight of nine starters either getting a hit or touching home. Three players had two hits apiece: Johan Mieses, Brian O’Keefe and Andy Young. Mieses and O’Keefe both went 2-for-4 with a run scored, the latter knocking in one, while Young singled twice in three at bats with a base-on-balls. Designated hitter Juan Yepez was hitless in four at bats in his Florida State League debut.
Tuesday’s game: vs. Jupiter (21-10) (MIA), 6:30 pm ET, Austin Warner (1-1, 4.23)
The Chiefs could not overcome their own defensive lapses, falling to the Hot Rods, 7-5, in the series’ opener. Peoria (13-15) is tied for fifth with Kane County (ARI), 3.5 in back of Clinton (SEA).
Six of Bowling Green’s seven tallies were charged to starter Johan Oviedo (L, 1-3), although only three of the runs was earned. Oviedo did not finish the fourth, surrendering five hits and five walks over 3 2/3, a span that included three of Peoria’s five miscues.
Levi MaVorhis was the unlucky recipient of his team’s other two errors, which generated another unearned run during MaVorhis’ 2 1/3 innings on the bump. The righty yielded one hit and issued one free pass. Fabian Blanco made it through the last two frames, allowing a hit and three walks.
It was a rough night on the infield as shortstop Edwin Figuera and third baseman Elehuris Montero both committed two errors and went hitless at the plate. First baseman Yariel Gonzalez was responsible for his team’s fifth miscue.
Each squad pushed across two in their initial frame before the visitors matched that output in the second to go up 4-2 after two. But that lead evaporated after the Eastern Division’s leaders scored four times in the next two innings, putting Peoria in a hole from which they could not recover.
Offensively, Peoria banged out 10 hits, led by right fielder Bryce Denton, who went 3-for-4 with a run scored out of the eight hole. Lead-off batter Scott Hurst and second baseman Irving Lopez, Peoria’s number two batter, both went 2-for-5 with a double and RBI. Hurst scored twice while Lopez crossed home once.
Tuesday’s game: at Bowling Green (19-11) (TB), 6:35 pm CT, Evan Guillory (3-1, 2.67)
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