Another great writeup from bgh with all the first hand details you could want.

I’ll toss this out to the crowd because I don’t have a good answer but has anyone noticed a note on Joe Mather.  He’s been conspicuously absent and, to my knowledge, isn’t injured.  Maybe he’s battling a flu bug but if anyone has read anything recently, drop a comment.

Memphis 2, Iowa 6

On a beautiful day for a ballgame (sixties, no clouds, slight breeze), the Redbirds did their best to spoil it. My friend and I were two innings late because we couldn’t get out of the office, much to our chagrin. When we arrived, P.J. Walters had already been touched for a run. We arrived just in time to Solano, Pagnozzi, and Walters each fly out weakly to center field in the top of third. No Redbird managed a hit or a walk through the first three innings, according to the scoreboard and a brief canvass of those sitting around us.

In the bottom of the third, the I-Cubs beat up on Walters. After getting the pitcher, who lead off to start the inning, to ground out to second base, Sam Fuld, a pesky, gritty little leadoff man, stroked a line drive single to right field. Walters made four or five attempted pick-off throws at first, but to no avail. Fuld easily stole second on Pagnozzi. (I choose “on Pagnozzi” because of the number of throws over to Stavinoha that Walters threw.) The second out was then had when Walters induced a fly out to center. He then beaned Jake Fox–much to the pitcher’s disgust–putting runners on first and second with two outs. After (presumably) murmuring to himself while circling all the way around the mound after the bean, P.J. found himself in a battle with Brad Snyder, the I-Cubs’ right fielder. Walters’s second full count offering (after the first was fouled off), was a fastball that Snyder drilled over the right-center field fence. There was never any doubt as it was a line shot which took a mere moment to land amongst the aluminum bleachers in front of the scoreboard. A fly out to center ended the inning, but the Redbirds were down 4-0.

In the fourth, Jon Jay led off with a walk and so ended the perfect game for the Reinhard. With the walk, action ensued in the Cubs’ bullpen. I can also assume that this was because they were converting Reinhard from reliever to starter. Mike Folli hit a lazy fly ball to Jason Dubois’s glove in left. Then, with one out and a full count, the I-Cubs executed the “Strike ‘Em Out, Throw ‘Em Out” double play. Stavinoha took a mighty hack, missed, and fell over the plate with his follow through. But, this had no effect on Robinson, the I-Cub backstop, who quickly fired down to second and cut down Jay by about two steps. It wasn’t even a close play. So ended the Redbirds’ turn at the bat. In the home team’s half, Walters retired their 6-7-8 hitters 1-2-3.

In the fifth, David Freese led off against the new I-Cub pitcher, Vince Perkins. He drew a base-on-balls, putting the leadoff hitter on for the second consecutive inning via walk. Allen Craig was robbed of a single when Kyle Reynolds, the I-Cub third baseman made a nice diving play to his left, got up, and fired to first to narrowly get Craig. On the play, Freese was able to advance to second. Mark Shorey then hit as routine a grounder as one could hit to Jake Fox at first base, which Fox booted about as badly as a first baseman could boot such a routine grounder. I now add that Fox’s leg was sliced open Friday night by a splintered bat head hurtling through the air and the injury caused him to leave the game in what my friends and I roundly condemned as an act of ninniness. However, this injury and its accompanying tape job could have contributed to the awful manner in which Fox attempted—if you can call it even an “attempt”—to bend down and field the grounder with a pseudo-backhand motion. The ball ricocheted toward the wall and rolled down the warning track, allowing Freese to score easily from second. The Memphis Redbirds thus accomplished an amazing feat by breaking up a shutout while still being no-hit. At this point the “Out-of-Towners’” scoreboard went: 1/0/0. Solano grounded into a double play ball to third, but tied the throw to first, which prolonged the inning long enough for Matt Pagnozzi to be the inning’s final out. Lil’ Pags hit a looping pop-up (even though it didn’t reach what I perceive to be the required height for a “pop up,” I don’t know how else to explain it) that looked like it was struck by an eleven-year-old, and which was caught in the grass behind the pitcher’s mound by the first baseman.

Walters started the fifth by striking out Vince Perkins, the opposing pitcher. The gritty Fuld then walked. Walters recorded his second strikeout of the inning, perplexing Matt Camp with the change. Fuld then sent a clear message to Tony LaRussa by swiping second base for the second time on Pagnozzi. The pitch was a fastball and it followed three or four pick-off attempts at first by Walters. Pagnozzi’s throw was high and rather late. It was an easy steal for Fuld that, frankly, left me thinking Pagnozzi is not all that much better at stopping the opposition’s running game than Bryan Andersen. The I-Cubs looked to run on both Memphis backstops and did so freely and easily over the course of the series. For the third out, Jake Fox lofted a ball high into the cloudless air that routinely found Allen Craig’s glove despite the squeals of joy from the crowd at such a towering fly ball and the fifth was over.

In the sixth, P.J. Walters decided to take matters into his hands. Apparently sick and tired of having two pitchers combine for a no-hitter against his club, Walters worked a full count to lead off the inning and then slapped the 3-2 offering into right field for the Redbirds’ first hit. Jay followed by flying out to right. Folli grounded out to second softly enough to avoid the double play and Stavinoha ended the inning by again striking out.

In the bottom of the sixth, Walters got four outs. He started the inning off by striking out Brad Snyder, but Pagnozzi could not block the super-changeup, which was in the dirt. The ball trickled off down the path from home plate toward the I-Cubs dugout and Pagnozzi was not quick enough retrieving and throwing to get Snyder at first. The play was scored a “wild pitch.” Thus, there was a runner on first and no outs. Walters induced a fly out to Shorey in right from Jason Dubois (pronounced in the American “Dew-Boys” instead of the French). Walters then got Chris Robinson to strike a ground ball into what Tony Gwynn called the “5.5 hole,” which Freese fielded ranging to his left and made a horrendously ugly throw to second that looked more like the flinging of a dart than the throw of a baseball. The throw was so lacking velocity that it bounced in front Folli at second. The second baseman scooped the ball up on the soft hop, and took some punishment from the runner as he tried to leap and throw to first. The ball popped out, but the umpire correctly ruled that Folli had control for the force out and only lost the ball attempting the transfer to his throwing hand on the turn. After all of that, Walters got the defensively skilled Kyle Reynolds to fly out to right to end the inning.

In the seventh, Freese led off with a groundout to third. Craig K’d swinging. And, the third Redbird batsman, Shorey, grounded out to first. It was lackluster. For the seventh inning stretch, we headed back to the office, disappointed in the way the Memphis 9 had carried themselves while in Des Moines. I did, however, listen to the rest of the game on the radio at work and here is a paraphrase of it. In the bottom of the seventh, Walters gave up a bunt single, recorded a fly ball out to right, and walked the leadoff man, Fuld, after Blanco stole the third base off of Pagnozzi. With the walk, Walters was lifted for Charlie Manning and, with runners on first and second, Jake Fox clubbed a triple off of the lefty, giving the I-Cubs went up 6-1. So, Walters’s line ended up being 6.1 IP/5 H/6 ER/2 BB/4 SO/1 HR. He didn’t look very sharp and his line shows it.

I’m sad to say that we missed seeing Kinney throwing a scoreless, hitless, strikeoutless, and walkless eighth. He must have been better than he looked when he threw in the ‘pen during Saturday’s game and didn’t throw very many strikes just in warming up. In the ninth, Stavinoha whacked a solo homer before Freese flew out to center, Craig K’d swinging (again), and Shorey struck out to end the game.

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