Minor League Player of the Day: Brayden Smith

The Cardinal Chronicle
Minor League Player of the Day: Brayden Smith
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

Brayden Smith helped turn a bad first inning into one of Palm Beach’s better offensive nights of the season.

Smith is The Cardinal Chronicle’s Minor League Player of the Day after going 3-for-4 with two home runs and five RBIs in the Cardinals’ 16-6 win over the Bradenton Marauders.

Palm Beach fell behind 5-0 in the top of the first inning.

Smith changed the tone almost immediately.

In the bottom half, he hit a two-run home run to cut the deficit to 5-2 and give the Cardinals life before the game had a chance to get away. That was the first big swing. It was not just a home run. It was the swing that told Bradenton this game was not over.

Then Smith kept going.

In the fourth inning, he led off with his second home run of the game, his sixth of the season. That swing started the inning that fully flipped the game. Matthew Miura walked, Ian Petrutz followed with a two-run homer to tie it, Yordalin Peña tripled, and Alex Birge doubled him home to give Palm Beach the lead.

By then, the Cardinals had erased the five-run hole.

In the fifth, Palm Beach blew the game open with an eight-run inning, and Smith added another RBI with a sacrifice fly. That gave him five RBIs on the night and capped one of his best games of the season.

That is run production.

That is timing.

That is a player stepping into the middle of a game and changing its direction.

The final line says plenty: three hits, two home runs and five RBIs. But the situation gives it more weight. Smith did not do his damage in a game Palm Beach controlled from the beginning. He helped the Cardinals climb out of an early 5-0 deficit, then helped turn the night into a blowout win.

That is the difference between a good box score and an impact game.

Michael Dattalo deserves strong mention after driving in three runs for Peoria in the Chiefs’ 8-5, 12-inning win over Beloit. His two-run single gave Peoria life in the seventh, and he added another RBI single in the 11th. José Suárez also had a key two-run double in the 12th for Peoria.

Matt Koperniak deserves mention after driving in three runs for Memphis, including a two-run single in the 10th inning of the Redbirds’ 8-3 win over Jacksonville. Leo Bernal and Ramón Mendoza each had three hits for Memphis, and Jesús Báez added two hits in his Double-A debut for Springfield.

But Smith had the biggest offensive line of the day.

Two home runs.

Five RBIs.

A comeback win.

That earns the honor.

Old School Take

There are nights when one swing changes the mood.

Brayden Smith gave Palm Beach two of them.

The Cardinals were down 5-0 in the first inning, and Smith helped pull them right back into the game. Then he homered again, drove in five runs total, and helped turn a rough start into a 16-6 win.

That is impact.

That is why Brayden Smith is The Cardinal Chronicle Minor League Player of the Day.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
Preserving the Past, Promoting the Present, and Projecting the Future.

Check out The Cardinal Chronicle for more St. Louis Cardinals coverage, daily farm reports, prospect updates and old-school baseball commentary:
www.cardinalchronicle.com

Photo Image: Brayden Smith, Palm Beach Cardinals | MLB