MiLB Pitcher of the Day: Pete Hansen
The Cardinal Chronicle
Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Pete Hansen
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur
Pete Hansen gave Memphis a winning start.
The Redbirds just could not give him a run.
Hansen is The Cardinal Chronicle’s Minor League Pitcher of the Day after throwing six innings of one-hit baseball in Memphis’ 1-0 loss to the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp on Friday night at VyStar Ballpark.
The line was better than the result.
Hansen allowed one unearned run on one hit. He walked one and struck out three, taking the loss in one of the toughest-luck pitching performances of the Cardinals’ minor league season.
That is baseball.
Sometimes a pitcher does his job and still takes the loss.
Hansen did his job.
He gave Memphis length. He limited traffic. He kept Jacksonville from putting together rallies. He made one unearned run the difference in the game.
That is a winning pitching line on almost any night.
It also came one day after Hansen was highlighted in The Cardinal Chronicle’s Friday Who’s Hot, Who’s Not report in the Who’s Not section.
That is what made this response stand out.
Baseball has a way of humbling everyone, but it also gives players a chance to answer quickly. Hansen did exactly that. He did not let the recent struggles carry into another start. He went back to the mound, attacked the strike zone and gave Memphis six strong innings.
That matters.
Not because one start erases everything.
It does not.
But one start can change the direction of a pitcher’s week. It can rebuild confidence. It can remind everyone what the left-hander is capable of when he is working ahead and keeping hitters from squaring him up.
Memphis out-hit Jacksonville 3-2, but the Redbirds could not push across a run. Colton Ledbetter doubled in the seventh, while Noah Mendlinger and Leo Bernal added the other two hits. The offense never found the one swing it needed.
Hansen had no room for error.
He nearly gave Memphis enough anyway.
Tink Hence followed with a perfect inning out of the bullpen, and Brandt Thompson added a scoreless inning with two strikeouts. The Memphis pitching staff allowed only two hits all night.
Still, the Redbirds lost 1-0.
That is the hard part of pitching.
You can do almost everything right and still end up on the wrong side of the scoreboard.
Liam Doyle deserves strong mention after striking out seven over 3.2 innings of one-run baseball in Springfield’s 14-2 win over Northwest Arkansas. Tanner Franklin also deserves mention after throwing 3.2 scoreless innings for Peoria, even while working around four walks.
But Hansen had the best overall pitching line in the system.
Six innings.
One hit.
One unearned run.
One walk.
A loss that should have been a win.
That earns the honor.
Old School Take
There are nights when the box score lies.
Pete Hansen took the loss Friday night, but he pitched like a winner.
One day after being listed in the Who’s Not section, Hansen answered with six innings of one-hit baseball and gave Memphis every chance to win.
That is what you want to see from a pitcher.
Not excuses.
Not carryover.
A response.
That is why Pete Hansen is The Cardinal Chronicle Minor League Pitcher of the Day.
The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Pete Hansen, Memphis Redbirds | MLB