Wednesday’s opponents: Florida Marlins on the Cardinals side of the complex.
Thursday’s opponents: New York Mets (Memphis and Springfield at Jupiter with Palm Beach and Quad Cities at Port St. Lucie) plus Quad Cities 2 entertains Gildea’s Rangers, a traveling squad.
Memphis lost to New Orleans, 7-5
Memphis faced ML pitcher Andrew Miller for the first four innings and led 3-1 when he left the game
Memphis pitching
Adam Ottavino 4 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K’s
Charlie Manning, 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Matt Scherer, 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K’s
Tyler Norrick, 1 IP, 1 BB, 1 K
Marco Gonzalez, 1IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1K
Memphis hitting
Shane Peterson 2-for-3 with a run scored and RBI
Nick Stavinoha 2-for-4 with a run and RBI
Mark Shorey 2-for-4 with an RBI and a diving catch in RF
Casey Rowlett had an RBI double in his only AB
Justin Knoedler tripled and scored a run
Tyler Greene was 1-for-3 with a walk, SB and run scored. Made a tremendous play deep in the hole with strong throw to retire the runner by plenty.
Springfield defeated Jacksonville, 3-0
Springfield pitching
Justin Fiske 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K’s
Kyle Mura two perfect innings with a K
Elvis Hernandez 1 IP, 1 H
Jon Mikrut 1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB
Ken Maiques 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Springfield hitting
Brett Wallace 2-for-4
Tony Cruz 2-for-3 with a run scored
Daniel Descalso hit a solo HR
Pete Kozma had a 2-run single in the 8th to snap a scoreless tie
Antonio DeJesus singled, walked and made a nice running catch in RF
Donovan Solano was 1-for-2
Palm Beach lost to Jupiter, 9-5
Led 5-1 after four innings
Palm Beach pitching
Lance Lynn, 3 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K’s
David Kopp, 2 IP, 7 H, 5 ER ,1 K
Davis Bilardello, 1 IP, 1 BB
Casey Mulligan, 1 IP, 1 BB, 1 K
Matt Spade, 0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
Eduardo Sanchez 1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Palm Beach hitting
Jermaine Curtis 2-for-4 with a walk and run scored
Curt Smith 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs
Oliver Marmol and Jon Edwards both 2-for-4
Charlie Kingrey 2-for-5
Tommy Pham had a two-run single and scored in his only AB
Aaron Luna and Francisco Rivera both singled
Quad Cities #1 defeated Greensboro, 6-5
Quad Cities pitching
Arquimedes Nieto 2.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K’s
Gary Daley, 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K’s
Adam Veres 2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K’s
Zach Pitts 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Matt Frevert 1 IP with two K’s
Quad Cities hitting
Osvaldo Morales 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs
Domnit Bolivar 2-for-4 with an RBI
Xavier Scruggs 2-for-3 with a double and run scored
Alex Castellanos had a two-run single and scored a run
Chris Swauger doubled
Quad Cities #2 defeated Marlins 5th team, 4-3
Quad Cities pitching
Miguel Tapia two perfect innings with four K’s
Michael Blazek and Kevin Siegrist had identical lines 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Randy Santos 2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Jose Mateo 1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER
Quad Cities hitting
Beau Riportella 2-for-4
Yunior Castillo 2-for-4 with a big league play in the hole
Ivan Castro 1-for-3 with an RBI and gunned down a basestealer
Brett Lilley doubled
Travis Mitchell singled, walked and made a nice play on a sinking liner to avert a potential rally.in 7th
Edgar Lara doubled and had two RBIs
These reports as above are provided through the courtesy of the St. Louis Cardinals by Director of Minor League Operations John Vuch.
I want to acknowledge right up front that the pitchers don’t get their fair due in my reports. Flitting around from field to field means more of the highlights seen are by batters. Sorry about that, but the Vuch Report above fills in the blanks nicely.
Traveling men
Scout.com subscribers may have read my article this morning about the unique travel squad the Cardinals are using this weekend for Friday and Sunday games in Ft. Myers. The first wave includes Friday’s nine major league starters and eight minor leaguers to be used as reserves.
The six that have been named are Justin Knoedler, Daniel Descalso, Donovan Solano, Casey Rowlett, Shane Robinson and Daryl Jones. The final two will likely be pitchers.
Memphis notes
Adam Ottavino opposed Florida’s Andrew Miller, picked up from Detroit a year ago, but still struggling to achieve his potential. There had to be a half-dozen golf carts filled with Marlins’ bigwigs watching him pitch.
One of the Cards pitching coaches attributes Ottavino’s improvement from “doing his work in front of the rubber” instead of leaning back with unpredictable results.
Lefty Charlie Manning allowed a run, but an alert throw into second base caught the runner to end an inning.
Springfield notes
Though he had been penciled in Tuesday’s lineup, third baseman Brett Wallace was sidelined after taking a ball off his shin. He was back in the lineup and in the game on Wednesday. In his first at-bat, Wallace shot a single deep into the right field corner. Steven Hill followed with what would have been a home run had it not been for the strong wind blowing in from left.
Another well-known Marlins prospect, Taylor Tankersley, fanned Jim Rapoport and Brandon Buckman in the same inning.
Antone DeJesus legged out an infield single to deep short. He then stole second but was called back due to catcher’s interference on Buckman. DeJesus was nailed in his second attempt to swipe the base as Pete Kozma fanned in the process.
Later after Buckman fanned again, Kozma picked the club up with a two-run single.
Palm Beach notes
I was really looking forward to seeing Lance Lynn, the second rounder from 2008 who had to be shut down early last season due to heavy use at Ole Miss. Lynn was greeted rudely by one of the Fishes’ top prospects as Michael Stanton took him deep.
In his first at-bat, Tommy Pham shot an RBI single up the middle and alertly moved up on the throw home. Charlie Kingrey plated Pham and a second runner with a single, but was subsequently cut down trying to steal second.
David Kopp had a rough outing as the Marlins plated five against him while I was watching. Only one ball, an RBI triple to deep center, was really hard-hit. Several others were seeing-eye grounders. Stanton brought home the final two runs.
Quad Cities notes
Arquimedes Nieto started for QC #1 and was a bit rough in the early going. Florida’s Isaac Galloway took him deep, but the wind blew it foul. A couple of pitches later, Galloway went all the way the second time.
One of the internal surprises of camp is Gary Daley, Jr. In his first two outings, he has been sharp, drawing raves from coaches and peers alike. The latter say he was hitting 94-95 mph, while the coaches were more conservative at 93-94. Even more importantly, the location was there, which was his biggest problem in 2008. Outing #3 was on Wednesday. More on that later.
Chris Swauger fanned with the bases jammed, but second baseman and cleanup hitter (doesn’t that sound nice?) Alex Castellanos brought two home with a sharp single to right center.
Sorry, but QC #2 was played elsewhere and I didn’t get over there to see them, but I should catch them Thursday.
| Lineup | Memphis | Springfield | Palm Beach | Quad Cities 1 | QC2 |
| 1 | Robinson cf | Jones lf | Curtis dh | Gomez dh | Mitchell cf |
| 2 | Barton lf | Solano ss | Sedbrook ss | Buck rf | Lilley 2b |
| 3 | Stavinoha ib | Wallace 3b | Luna 2b | Swauger lf | Riportella lf |
| 4 | Cazana dh | Hill c | Peterson rf | Castellanos 2b | Lara rf |
| 5 | Greene ss | Descalso 2b | Rivera 1b | Morales 1b | De La Cruz 3b |
| 6 | Folli 2b | T Cruz dh | Pham cf | Bolivar 3b | Martinez 1b |
| 7 | Shorey rf | Rapoport cf | Kingrey lf | N Vasquez ss | Swinson dh |
| 8 | Knoedler c | Brown 1b | Edwards dh | Parejo cf | Castro c |
| 9 | Rowlett 3b | De Jesus rf | Cartie 3b | Espinosa c | Castillo ss |
| 10 | Shorey dh | Cutler c | Scruggs dh | Polanco dh | |
| Pitchers | Ottavino | Fiske | Lynn | Nieto | Tapia |
| Manning | Mura | Kopp | Daley | Blazek | |
| Scherer | Hernandez | Bilardello | Veres | Siegrist | |
| Norrick | Mikrut | Mulligan | Pitts | Santos | |
| Gonzalez | Maiques | Spade | Frevert | Mateo | |
| Samuel | Sanchez |
The lighter side of the news
I thought I would share a view of the fantastic sunrise from this morning.
