The Morning Farm Report
Cardinal Chronicle
Morning Farm Report
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur
Springfield Walks It Off as Cardinals Affiliates Go 1-2 With One Postponement
The St. Louis Cardinals’ full-season affiliates went 1-2 Wednesday night, with Palm Beach postponed by weather and Springfield providing the night’s heartbeat.
Memphis wasted a strong start from Bruce Zimmermann in a 2-0 extra-inning loss to Charlotte. Springfield pulled off the comeback of the night, rallying from an 8-4 deficit in the 10th inning to beat Arkansas 9-8. Peoria dropped its third straight game, falling 7-3 to Wisconsin. Palm Beach’s game at Lakeland was postponed due to inclement weather and will be made up as part of a Thursday doubleheader.
It was not a pretty system-wide night, but Springfield saved it from being a cold one.
Memphis Redbirds
Charlotte 2, Memphis 0 — 8 innings
Memphis: 49-34 overall; 2-6, 10th, International League West, Second Half
Memphis got the pitching. The Redbirds just did not get the bats.
The Redbirds were shut out 2-0 by the Charlotte Knights in a rain-delayed, extra-inning game Wednesday night at AutoZone Park. The game was shortened to seven innings after a one-hour, 57-minute pregame rain delay, then went to the eighth scoreless before Charlotte finally broke through.
Bruce Zimmermann gave Memphis everything it needed to win. The left-hander worked six shutout innings, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out six. He extended his streak of allowing three runs or fewer to six consecutive starts and 12 of his 15 outings this season.
Luis Gastelum followed with a scoreless seventh inning, pushing his own scoreless streak to 16 appearances. That should have been enough to give Memphis a chance to steal one late.
Instead, the offense never arrived.
The Redbirds managed just two hits. Noah Mendlinger singled in the fourth and walked in the eighth, while Colton Ledbetter added the other Memphis hit with two outs in the sixth. After scoring 10 runs in the series opener, Memphis was held quiet and fell to 5-8 in extra-inning games this season.
Charlotte scored twice in the eighth without needing much offense, using the placed runner, walks and a wild pitch to scratch out the only runs of the night.
Old School Take: Zimmermann deserved better. Six shutout innings, six strikeouts and only one walk should be a winning line most nights. But baseball has no mercy for a lineup that brings two hits to the table.
Springfield Cardinals
Springfield 9, Arkansas 8 — 10 innings
Springfield: 6-2, 1st, Texas League North, Second Half
Springfield gave the farm system its moment of the night.
The Cardinals trailed Arkansas 8-4 in the 10th inning and still found a way to win, rallying for five runs and walking off the Travelers 9-8 at Route 66 Stadium. Rainiel Rodriguez delivered the final swing, singling up the middle to complete the comeback and even the series.
This was a grown-man win for a young roster.
Tre Richardson III got Springfield moving with a two-run home run in the sixth inning, his second homer since joining Double-A. Jesús Báez followed with another loud night, homering in the seventh inning to tie the game at four. It marked his third straight game with a home run, making him the second Springfield player this season to accomplish that feat, joining Won-Bin Cho.
Báez was not finished. He went deep again in the 10th inning, his second homer of the night, helping fuel the Cardinals’ comeback from four runs down.
Dakota Harris tied the game with a two-run single in the bottom of the 10th, setting the stage for Rodriguez. The 19-year-old catcher came through with the walk-off single, giving Springfield one of its best wins of the season.
Tyler Bradt also made his first appearance for Springfield since April 5 after being sidelined by injury. He threw a scoreless inning, allowing one hit and one walk. Andrew Schultz earned the win, improving to 3-0.
Old School Take: Trailing by four in extra innings usually means you start packing the bats. Springfield did not. Báez supplied the thunder, Harris tied it, and Rodriguez finished it. That is a clubhouse win.
Peoria Chiefs
Wisconsin 7, Peoria 3
Peoria: 36-40 overall; 4-6, 5th, Midwest League West, Second Half
Peoria dropped its third straight game Wednesday night, falling 7-3 to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers at Dozer Park.
Wisconsin continued its hot stretch, using three home runs and a strong start from Ethan Dorchies to control the game. The Timber Rattlers improved to 9-1 since June 20, while Peoria fell to 4-6 in the second half.
Yhoiker Fajardo started for the Chiefs and allowed four runs on seven hits over 4.1 innings. He walked two and struck out four. Wisconsin struck for solo home runs from Yannic Walther and Daniel Dickinson in the third inning, then added two more runs in the fourth to build a 4-0 lead.
Rubén Menes relieved Fajardo in the fifth and gave up Wisconsin’s third solo homer of the night, this one to Luis Castillo, stretching the deficit to 5-0. The Timber Rattlers added another run in the sixth and one more in the eighth.
Peoria finally broke through in the sixth when Jack Gurevitch singled in Cameron Nickens. The Chiefs added two more runs in the eighth when Nickens put the ball in play and a Wisconsin error allowed Cade McGee and Ian Petrutz to score.
But the Chiefs could not find the big inning.
Dorchies held Peoria to one run on four hits over his outing, walking one and striking out seven. It was his second consecutive quality start, and he kept the Chiefs from building any real offensive rhythm.
Old School Take: Peoria did not get buried, but it never really grabbed the game either. Wisconsin got the big swings. The Chiefs got traffic, a few late runs and another frustrating loss.
Palm Beach Cardinals
Palm Beach at Lakeland — Postponed
Palm Beach: 40-36 overall; 7-3, 1st, Florida State League East, Second Half
Palm Beach did not play Wednesday night. The Cardinals’ game at Lakeland was postponed due to inclement weather and will be made up Thursday as part of a doubleheader.
The postponement keeps Palm Beach at 7-3 in the second half and still in first place in the Florida State League East. The Cardinals entered July 2 holding a two-game lead over Daytona in the division.
After Tuesday’s 7-1 loss to Lakeland, Palm Beach will now have to regroup with two games in one day. That is never ideal, but first-place clubs have to handle odd schedules, wet fields and long days just like everybody else.
Old School Take: A rainout never wins you a game, but sometimes it gives a club a needed reset. Palm Beach gets two cracks Thursday to wash away Tuesday night’s loss.
Cardinal Chronicle Player of the Day
Jesús Báez, INF, Springfield
Jesús Báez earns Cardinal Chronicle Player of the Day honors after a two-homer night in Springfield’s 9-8 walk-off win over Arkansas.
Báez homered in the seventh inning to tie the game at four, then homered again in the 10th as Springfield erased an 8-4 deficit. It was his third straight game with a home run, making him only the second Springfield player this season to homer in three consecutive games.
Rainiel Rodriguez delivered the walk-off single, and that moment deserves its own spotlight. But Báez helped make the comeback possible. He supplied the power, kept Springfield within reach and gave the Cardinals one of the loudest individual offensive performances of the night.
Two homers in a comeback win will play.
Cardinal Chronicle Pitcher of the Day
Bruce Zimmermann, LHP, Memphis
Bruce Zimmermann gets the nod as Cardinal Chronicle Pitcher of the Day.
Memphis lost the game, but Zimmermann was excellent. The left-hander threw six shutout innings against Charlotte, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out six. He also extended his streak of allowing three runs or fewer to six consecutive starts and 12 of 15 outings this season.
That is steady work.
Zimmermann gave Memphis a real chance to win, and the bullpen kept it scoreless through seven. The Redbirds simply could not push a run across.
Pitching lines do not always come with a win attached. This one deserved better, but it still stands as the best mound performance in the Cardinals’ system Wednesday night.
The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Jesús Báez, Springfield Cardinals | MiLB