Indianapolis Indians 7, Charlotte Knights 3
Jordan Guerrero: 4 1⁄3 IP, 10 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
Carson Fulmer: 2 2⁄3 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K **MVP**
Danny Mendick: 3-for-5, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K, 1 SB
Ryan Cordell: 0-for-5, 0 BB, 3 K
Nicky Delmonico: 0-for-4, 1 BB, 1 K
Sevy Zavala: 1-for-5, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K
SKOLE! SKOLE!
— Charlotte Knights (@KnightsBaseball) April 11, 2019
Matt Skole goes YARD with his 2nd HR of the season!
: @laurawolffphoto pic.twitter.com/3Gxj0FcsgU
Jordan Guerrero and the Knights did not get off to a good start in tonight’s game. In the first two innings, Guerrero allowed two home runs, and four runs total. But the Knights were able to keep it close at first. Danny Mendick drove in Alcides Escobar in the second. In the third, Matt Skole hit a home run, and Preston Tucker concluded the scoring with a single. At the end of a wild three innings it was 4-3, Indianapolis.
However, Guerrero’s struggles continued. He saw two more runs cross the plate, one earned, that salted the game away. The Knights left 11 runners on base, but worse, they were 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position. The bright spot, and a very welcome one, was Carson Fulmer. He went 2 2⁄3 innings of one-hit baseball. He was responsible for one walk but had three Ks. That is about six straight good innings for Fulmer this week, between AAA and MLB.
Birmingham Barons 5, Tennessee Smokies 1
Jimmy Lambert: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K **MVP**
Luis Gonzalez: 1-for-4, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Micker Adolfo: 0-for-2, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 K
Blake Rutherford: 0-for-4, 1 R, 0 BB, 2 K
Gavin Sheets: 0-for-3, 0 BB, 1 K
.@JimmyLambert12 is straight up DEALING tonight at Regions Field
— Birmingham Barons (@BhamBarons) April 12, 2019
5.0 IP, 2 hits, 6 Ks
Scoreless going to the B5! pic.twitter.com/2tT0TVjeXH
Birmingham’s lineup has been in a bit of a rut, and that continued tonight — well, at least for most of the game. For seven innings, the Barons could not muster a run with just two hits, both singles. Thankfully, Baron Jimmy Lambert was dealing. He threw six innings of one-run baseball. The lone run allowed was a homer in the sixth inning.
Thankfully for all involved, Birmingham had a big eighth.
First, Joel Booker singled in Laz Rivera to tie the game 1-1. As the Barons proceeded to load the bases, Ti’Quan Forbes hit a bases-clearing triple. Gavin Sheets, today’s Q & A man, would drive in Forbes with a sac fly to put the lead at 5-1. The Barons’ offensive rut was now over. Yet even after the five runs, the Barons loaded the bases for a second time in the inning, but were unable to add to their lead. Mauricia Cabrera came in to close down the Barons win.
Winston-Salem Dash 8, Potomac Nationals 6
John Parke: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Luis Robert: 3-for-5, 1 HR, 3 R, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 1 K **MVP**
Nick Madrigal: 2-for-5, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K
Yeyson Yrizarri: 1-for-4, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 2 K
He's at it again... Luis Robert has a stand-up triple tonight for @WSDashBaseball! #NextSox pic.twitter.com/7WsnO9lF60
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) April 12, 2019
Like the Charlotte game, the Dash and Nationals got off to a fast start in the first third. The Nationals scored four over the first three innings, including two error-aided runs. Nick Madrigal drove in two runs as Tyler Frost and Craig Dedelow had RBIs on extra-base hits. So at the end of three, the Dash were up, 5-4.
For the next three innings, John Parke was able to keep the Nationals off the board. Luis Robert would later score on a wild pitch, but Kevin Escorcia allowed two runs in the seventh to blow the lead.
Then Robert came up in the eighth and clobbered his fifth home run of the season into center field. Clobbered actually soft-pedals this home run, to a ludicrous degree (see below). Robert came up a double short of the cycle, so, sweet hell, maybe it is time for some AA action at this point.
The Robert home run was enough, as Luis Ledo closed out the 8-6 win.
[Ed note: It seems a good enough time to introduce a new South Side Sox writer, even though she might still be a few weeks from school’s end and regular contributions to the site: Julie Brady. Julie does incredible live-tweeting from Dash games, covering Winston-Salem for Future Sox. With us, she’ll be be writing on the White Sox, as well as exploring the full studio space of all other affiliates by doing a few minor league updates per week (our regular update crew is rounding into quite a tripod of terror: returning champion Darren Jackson, newcomer Tiffany Wintz, and paper chaser Julie Brady, a group that will be providing kickass coverage all summer).
At any rate, here are a couple of the fabulous tweets/vids from Julie at the Dash opener tonight. Think someone with a @DestroyBaseball tweeting monicker is going to be a rollicking good writer for us? You betcha. And, incidentally, she was the first one who pointed out tonight that Luis Robert’s Dash home jersey tonight had a nameplate that was misspelled ... er ... “Roberts.”]
Luis Robert with perhaps the easiest triple I've ever seen pic.twitter.com/hV4fKxLERg
— Julie, Maybe (@DestroyBaseball) April 12, 2019
Sweet mother of dingers. That's the first time I've seen anyone hit one over that wall, and of course it was Luis Robert. pic.twitter.com/kPLs4mDF1O
— Julie, Maybe (@DestroyBaseball) April 12, 2019
Hickory Crawdads 6, Kannapolis Intimidators 1
Taylor Varnell: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
Jason Bilous: 1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Andrew Perez: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
Lenyn Sosa: 0-for-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K
Luis Curbelo: 0-for-4, 0 BB, 3 K
Steele Walker: 2-for-4, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K**MVP**
Bryce Bush: 0-for-4, 0 BB, 4 K
Gunnar Troutwine: 1-for-2, 1 BB, 1 K
Kannapolis and Taylor Varnell were able take a lead in the first, as Varnell sailed through four innings. In the third , Steele Walker drove in Lenyn Sosa with an RBI triple. He would add a double later in the game, but his RBI was the only offense for the I’s tonight, while Varnell ran into trouble in the fifth.
Four runs crossed the plate that inning for the Crawdads, with three of them earned. However, Jason Bilous proceeded to allow two homers in the sixth inning to officially put the game out of reach, at 6-1. Andrew Perez did come in for mop-up duty and did well in his two innings, allowing two hits and striking out four. Meanwhile, Walker has an OPs of 1.054 to open the season. Maybe when Robert is promoted, Walker will find himself in Winston-Salem.