The Daytona Tortugas entered Saturday’s game against Bradenton riding an 8-game losing streak after beginning the season 5-0. And things weren’t looking promising at the start of the 7th inning as the Marauders held a 3-0 lead over Daytona. But things changed once the top of the 7th got going. Logan Tanner led off with a double. Three pitches later was a hanging breaking ball and Ariel Almonte hit it to the moon, cutting the Bradenton lead to 3-2.
Before the inning was over the Tortugas offense would put up five runs and take a 5-3 lead. Bradenton would get one of those runs back in the bottom of the 7th. And the next inning they had a big opportunity in front of them with the bases loaded and down by a run, but Michel Triana came through with an outstanding defensive play to end the inning and help end the Tortugas 8-game losing streak.
Chuckie Robinson’s hit streak ends at 11 games
The Louisville Bats played two games on Saturday. Chuckie Robinson started the first game at catcher and was batting 9th. Robinson had been on an 11-game hitting streak and had a .415 average on the season, having gone 17-41. In his first at-bat he looped a shallow fly ball into center, but Billy Hamilton raced in to catch it on the run. His second at-bat saw him hit the ball hard – 101 MPH off the bat – but he hit it on the ground and the second baseman made a nice play to record the out. In a 7-inning game, that was the only two at-bats that Robinson would get. Louisville led the game heading into the 7th inning, and they held onto that lead, meaning that they would only bat in six innings in the game. Robinson was left in the on-deck circle when the bottom of the 6th inning was over.
During the 11-game hitting streak, Chuckie Robinson hit .447/.512/.684 with three doubles and two home runs with more walks than strikeouts. He’s now gone two games this season without a hit in it. Through his 13 games he’s hitting .395/.458/.605 and he’s only struck out three times in 48 plate appearances. Last season in the minors he struck out 22.4% of the time. This season he’s struck out just 6.3% of the time. That’s a heck of a difference so far in 2023.
Jay Allen II transferred to the 60-day IL
Two weeks ago we saw Jay Allen II placed on the injured list in Dayton after spraining his thumb while diving head first to first base to try and beat out an infield single. He didn’t and also injured himself on the same play. While it was expected that he’d be out for a while after it was announced that he had a sprained thumb, he’s going to miss at least two months now because the Reds transferred him to the 60-day injured list in Dayton. Right now I don’t have much more on his status than that, but I’ll check in on it this week and see what I can find out.