Memphis lost its 7th game in a row despite a strong start by Joe Kelly and a decent chance to even the score in the 9th inning. All of today’s starting pitchers lasted at least 6 innings. It turns out that Carlos Martinez did not start for Palm Beach today but I am uncertain whether we had misinformation or if something came up. I checked the site but did not see any explanation. Maybe that was our mistake. More after the jump…
- Matt Adams led the offense going 4-for-5. He also stole his first base since 2010 in Quad Cities. He had 5 that season. One of his hits was a double that made him the tying run in the 9th inning but he was stranded there when Bryan Anderson struck out to end the game.
- Bryan Anderson, Adron Chambers, and Amaury Cazana all went 1-for-5 with singles.
- Pete Kozma and Zack Cox were both hitless. In 3 plate appearances, they each had 2 strike outs.
- Eugenio Velez added 2 singles.
- Joe Kelly only allowed 2 ER in 7 innings that included 4 hits, 1 walk, and 5 strike outs.
- Nick Greenwood allowed the winning run to score in the 8th despite retiring the first 2 hitters he faced. Chuckie Fick prevented further damage by getting a ground out to end the inning.
- Jose Garcia and Jake Shaffer were both 2-for-4 with a double. Garcia added 1 walk and 1 SB.
- Kolten Wong was 2-for-5 with a double.
- Oscar Taveras was hitless but did manage an RBI when he outran a double-play ball in the 3rd inning.
- Thomas Pham, playing DH, hit his 1st HR of the season.
- John Gast had a great game. His 7 innings included 7 strike outs, 4 hits, 2 walks, and only 1 ER. 8 of his outs came on the ground compared to 2 fly balls.
- Eric Fornataro allowed 1 hit and 1 walk in 1 scoreless inning.
- Sam Freeman pitched a perfect 9th inning.
- Alan Ahmady had another multi-hit game going 3-for-4. All of his hits were singles and he was caught trying to steal in the bottom of the 8th inning.
- Patrick Elkins went 2-f0r-4 with a double.
- Chris Edmonson added 2 hits that were both singles.
- Ronny Gil was 1-for-3 and his lone hit was a double.
- Jonathan Rodriguez also had a double but he also struck out in 2 of 4 plate appearances.
- Geoffrey Klein drew 2 walks in 3 plate appearances.
- Richard Castillo pitched 6 innings and only allowed 1 ER. He allowed 5 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 3 batters. Most of his outs were via fly balls.
- Dean Kiekhefer threw 2 perfect innings in relief, striking out the last hitter he faced for good measure.
- Chase Reid netted a save by handling the last inning; he allowed 1 hit but struck out 2 hitters.
- Matt Williams had an excellent day leading off. He went 2-for-3 with 2 doubles and 1 walk.
- Colin Walsh had a solo HR in 4 trips to the plate as DH.
- Nick Martini and David Medina each went 1-for-4 with a double.
- Anthony Garcia had 1 double and 1 walk in 4 plate appearances; he was also caught stealing.
- Hector Hernandez gave up 3 runs but none of them were earned because of an error by Tyler Rahmatulla (3B) in the 4th inning. In 6 innings, Hernandez had 3 strike outs and only allowed 2 hits and 1 walk. 14 of the 15 outs he got on balls in play were ground balls.
- Brandon Creath allowed 1 hit, 1 walk, and 1 ER in 2 innings of relief.
- Heath Wyatt was credited with the save for ending the game with a scoreless inning that included 1 walk and 1 strike out.
Entries (RSS)
Outstanding day for the pitchers. Hector Hernandez still hasn’t given up an earned run this season.
+1! John Gast has been excellent…granted only two starts…but is striking alot of people out and not walking very many, does anyone know if he has made any specific adjustments to his game, or was it more he just needed some time to get acclimated to the AA level?
Wonder what move gets made first Gast to Memphis or Gorgen to Memphis?
Good pitching all the way around.
I’m glad to see Bryan Anderson got his first hit finally. Is anyone else a little concerned that losing his best chance at making the big league club is affecting his play?
I agree 5 years in AAA Left handed hitting Catcher hits .400 in ST. He must be a very poor catcher. I know Tony did not like him.
but Matheny seem to. Still he gets left behind. The pitchers must not like thowing to him.
Then he can quit baseball. 5 years in AAA and how many years has he dominated? I like the guy but he’s never forced the team’s hand outside of three good weeks this spring
his minor numbers are better than Cruz
Cruz 1500 abs .733 OPS has caught 1925 IN
Anderson 2050 abs .771 OPS has caught 4497 IN
anderson is even 4 months younger. He must be awful to pitch to. we are only talking 30 games for a backup.
I totally agree with you – and had no problem with Anderson making the team. But my point is if Anderson is letting his demotion affect his play, he needs to reconsider what he’s doing because again, he has yet to really force his way into the lineup and like you said, obviously, there is something about his catching game that coaches do not like
Exactly. You are talking 30 games. So offense matters even less.
Cruz is a better catcher.
The difference between a back up catcher who hits .280 and a back up catcher who hits .230 is only 5 hits. however, he will catch over 200 innings.
I can’t quite put my finger on it but I got the sense from various quotes about the backup catcher spot that someone, or some persons, on the major league roster didn’t like Anderson’s attitude. I don’t think the defense is the issue or necessarily something quantifiable like pitch calling or something, but rather that one or more of the veterans didn’t like throwing to him for more subjective reasons.
I think it’s this quote from Matheny mostly.
“He’s a guy who’s done a good job at the Triple-A level but hasn’t won the confidence of the big-league guys, and it’s my job to keep working with him to try to understand what that looks like — how to win their confidence.”
Matheny said Anderson “has kept a great attitude. He’s just put his nose down. He’s a tough kid. A lot of it is just kind of a perception. He gives that perception of being laid-back and not really caring, which just isn’t true. That’s just his personality.
“A lot of it is just faking it a little bit. You know you’ve got to be different.”
Here’s the source of the quote: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cardinal-beat/bryan-anderson-gets-another-chance-with-cardinals/article_feab9790-5987-11e1-90fb-0019bb30f31a.html#ixzz1ry3IbCwL
I will say this again…Bryan Anderson is simply not a very good catcher. That is a huge deal when it comes to back up catchers. Is a few extra basehits a seaon really worth having a bad devensive catcher as a fill in back up? Remember, they won’t be used to pinch hit. And you are correct, the pitchers don’t trust him.
Being a professional baseball player is extremly hard. For the back up catcher spot, you only have 30 open spots.
I never understood the assumption that Anderson should be on a major league team.
Geronimo Pena always had good springs. He was not a very good player.
I thought Pena’s problem had less to do with skill and more with staying healthy.
Kozma and Cox need to get on the stick the team needs them to get consistant .Dont worry about where you are.Your there to put runs across the board
Kelly and Gast had nearly identical starts: 7 IP, 82-83 pitches, 4 hits, lots of ground balls.
If those two progress as solid SP prospects, that’s a layer of depth we didn’t expect to have. (And Gorgen is a nice surprise as well, so far.)
Thanks Andy
question Matt Adams: do you think he will be up with the big club by mid season.
I’m not Andy, but my 2 cents is we wont see him in St. Louis unless something very bad happens to Lance Berkman.
So, in other words….I hope we don’t see Adams this season.
Agreed. I think that’s totally dependent on how things go medically for Lance Berkman and Allen Craig. Should one or both of them not recover from injuries like the team is predicting at the moment and Adams continues to mash in Memphis, they’ll be forced to consider it… but I’m sure they’d prefer to let him get a full season down there.
Craig seems odd man out. do not know why?last year Holiday,Berkman,Pujols this year Beltran,Holiday,Berkman next year Beltran,Holiday,Adams??? I know he will get some ABs when he’s back. with what he has shown he needs 500-600 PA. will be 28 in July.
Taveras took a walk, thats pretty sweet
Good pitching, this can only help the club for the future, and for trades..
I’ve said from the day we drafted Gast in 2010 that he could be one of the best pick we made that year. I was very high on him and felt getting him in the 6th was a value pick by at least 2-3 Rds. Glad to see him continuing to have success.