Elly De La Cruz hit a ball out of the entire stadium in Louisville, Noelvi Marte kept his hot-hitting going with another mutli-hit day while Allan Cerda crushed a homer and drove in four down in Chattanooga, Justice Thompson homered and doubled for Dayton, and Carlos Jorge got on base three times while Luis Mey lit up the radar gun for Daytona in his season debut.
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The Louisville Bats lost 3-2. Box Score
- Fernando Cruz (rehab) threw a perfect inning with a strikeout.
- Michael Siani went 1-5.
- Elly De La Cruz went 2-5 with a double, home run (7), and 2 runs.
- Christian Encarnacion-Strand went 1-4.
- Jason Vosler went 1-4 with an RBI.
- TJ Hopkins went 1-1 with 3 walks.
- Brett Kennedy was charged with 3 unearned runs in 5.2 innings with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts.
- Jared Solomon threw 1.1 shutout innings with 2 walks and a strikeout.
- Ricky Karcher threw a perfect inning.
Game Notes
Elly De La Cruz had two of the Louisville Bats six hits. His first hit of the day left the ballpark. Literally. His 465-foot home run cleared the wall, the hill, the concourse, and the metal fence at the back of the stadium.
The other hit was a double that came off of his bat at 110 MPH. Since starting the season 1-21, he has had 110 plate appearances and hit .333/.436/.720 with 16 walks and 26 strikeouts.
Whatever’s been going on in Louisville seems to be rather contagious. TJ Hopkins had a good month of April, posting a .968 OPS with 8 walks and 27 strikeouts. After Sunday’s game he’s got a .956 OPS in May, but that’s come with 15 walks and 15 strikeouts. Those 15 walks set a new career best for walks in a month – topping the 13 he had last May with the Chattanooga Lookouts.
Fernando Cruz needed just 10 pitches to get through his inning of work on his rehab assignment.
Top Pitch Velocity: Ricky Karcher – 97.2 MPH (called strike)
Top Exit Velocity: Elly De La Cruz – 114.4 MPH (home run)
Furthest Hit Baseball: Elly De La Cruz – 465 feet (home run)
The Chattanooga Lookouts lost 9-7 in 10. Box Score
- Noelvi Marte went 2-5 with a double and a run.
- James Free went 1-3 with a run.
- Alex McGarry went 0-2 with 2 walks and 2 runs.
- Allan Cerda went 2-4 with a double, home run (3), and 4 RBI.
- Jacob Hurtubise went 1-2 with 2 walks and a run.
- Sam Benschoter allowed 2 runs in 4.0 innings with 3 walks and 7 strikeouts.
- Evan Kravetz threw 2.1 shutout innings with 3 strikeouts.
Game Notes
From April 16th through May 9th, Allan Cerda went 4-58 (.069). Since then he’s come around a bit, picking up his first multi-hit game since April 11th on Sunday afternoon. He’s hitting .280/.379/.577 in his last eight games.
Noelvi Marte just keeps on crushing the ball for the Lookouts. In his 16 games during the month with Chattanooga he’s hitting .355/.420/.758 and he’s struck out 10 times to go along with six walks. His OPS on the season is up to .892, which ranks 6th in the league. He’s second in the league in home runs (8), 4th in average (.292), and 6th in the league in SLG (.528).
The Dayton Dragons lost 11-10. Box Score
- Blake Dunn went 0-1 with 2 walks, a steal (18), and he was hit by two pitches.
- Edwin Arroyo went 1-4 with a walk, double, 2 runs, and 3 RBI.
- Austin Hendrick went 1-2 with a double. He exited the game after grounding out.
- Ruben Ibarra went 3-4 with 2 doubles and 3 RBI.
- Tyler Callihan went 1-5 with a run.
- Justice Thompson went 2-5 with a double, home run (2), and 3 RBI.
- Michael Trautwein went 2-4 with a double and a run.
- Myles Gayman threw 2.2 shutout innings with 2 walks and a strikeout.
- Jake Gozzo allowed a run in 2.0 innings with 4 strikeouts.
Game Notes
Blake Dunn’s gone from hotter than the sun to quite cold in May. He’s hitting just .197 during the month and he’s racked up plenty of strikeouts along the way while his power and walks have dropped off. But he’s walked three times in the last two games. He’s still been able to find a way to get on base thanks to his unlucky, but seemingly uncanny ability to be hit by pitches. Dunn has been hit by 15 pitches in 36 games this season.
Austin Hendrick picked up a double in his first at-bat of they day. After his second at-bat, a ground out, he trotted off of the field and nothing seemed to be off, but when the Dragons took the field in top of the inning he was not on the field. No update on why he was removed from the game, but he is hitting .333/.373/.460 during May.
Ruben Ibarra picked up two doubles on Sunday afternoon. They were his first extra-base hits in 10 games. He’s slowed down a bit in May after a hot start out of the gate when he came off of the injured list, but he’s still hitting .292/.392/.538 through 20 games.
Justice Thompson had a big day, homering and adding a double. The home run was his first since April 28th. It was a 3-run, 422-foot home run off of the batters eye that broke a 7-7 tie in the 7th inning.
The Daytona Tortugas lost 5-4. Box Score
- Hector Rodriguez went 1-5 with a run and an RBI.
- Carlos Jorge went 2-3 with a walk and 2 runs.
- Cam Collier went 1-4 with a double and 2 RBI.
- Sal Stewart went 1-4 with an RBI.
- Ariel Almonte went 2-4.
- Victor Acosta went 3-4 with a triple and a run.
- Ryan Cardona threw 4.0 shutout innings with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts.
- Luis Mey threw a perfect inning with 2 strikeouts.
- Jean Correa threw a perfect inning.
Game Notes
Carlos Jorge’s strong start to the season continued. With two more hits and a walk the 19-year-old is now hitting .336/.410/.508 on the season for Daytona. He’s 4th in the league in average, 9th in on-base percentage, 6th in slugging, 5th in OPS, and 8th in steals with 10.
After going 1-36 from April 21st through May 7th, Victor Acosta has rebounded in a big way. In the 10 games since then he’s hit .394/.474/.545 for Daytona.
Ryan Cardona’s four shutout innings lowered his ERA to 1.37 on the season. He’s struck out 32 batters in 26.1 innings and hasn’t allowed a home run. He has struggled with control, though, walking 19 batters this year.
Luis Mey was activated this week and looked good in his first game of the season, striking out two batters in a perfect inning of work that saw him top 100 MPH with his fastball.
Top Pitch Velocity: Luis Mey – 100.4 MPH (called strike)
Top Exit Velocity: Victor Acosta – 107.9 MPH (single)
Furthest Hit Baseball: Ariel Almonte – 360 feet (flyout)
Top 25 Prospects Rundown
5/22 Game Preview
| Team | Record | Time (ET) | Probable | Box Score | Listen | Watch |
| Louisville | 21-23 | OFF | DAY | Here | Here | Here |
| Chattanooga | 19-19 | OFF | DAY | Here | Here | Here |
| Dayton | 17-22 | OFF | DAY | Here | Here | Here |
| Daytona | 16-23 | OFF | DAY | Here | Here | N/A |
Doug, Assuming that there is movement on the big league club – is Marte the next promotion to the Bats? If so – what position does he play?
It may depend on if Elly De La Cruz is still in Louisville or not. If he is, then Marte is going to be at third and DH (while CES is at third/first/DH).
This is the Noelvi Marte that was expected, a guy who will fill up a stat sheet.
Sucks that the Reds called up Benson instead of Hopkins. Another “Reds” move by this braintrust.
Game of numbers. Hopkins not on the 40 man so he gets passed up.
But since the Reds control who is and isn’t on the 40-man…..
I like the Benson call up. Let’s see what he can do.
I agree. He looked far better in Louisville the last two weeks. Gotta be tough to shake off that terrible start. Not to mention, we gave up two pretty decent prospects to get him, so he’s gonna get some chances. I’m notot saying TJ Hopkins isn’t worth DFAing somebody. He probably is. I just think we went out got Benson to be a ML contributor vs. the 26th guy types we see getting outright every day.
DaveCT , which is basically my point. No way he gets called up had we not giving up 2 former 2nd round prospects. Which is insanely stupid because you are not getting that opportunity cost back no matter what. It’s ECON 101 which the Reds just don’t understand. Can’t reverse that trade no matter what so why not just advance the best player? It’s illogical…
RedsBB, the exception to that point is that, given they will not DFA Benson, they would have to risk losing a 40-man player or arm to recall him until Friedl gets back. And that’s not likely an acceptable risk.
The underlying thought is that this year is 100% development. Yes, winning is part of development, but it’s not going to overide the risk of losing a player. Short term economics, fair or unfair.
In the pretzel logic that is personnel decisions, I’m fairly certain we’ll call up EDLC so he can hit behind Benson in order to help get Benson going.
I disagree RedBB. I think Benson is better than Hopkins. Since May 1 he has been better than CES. Benson could be a huge difference in the rebuild. Hopkins is nothing more than a 5th OF.
4th or 5th OF, IMO, a platoon guy being his ceiling. Still quite valuable, but not comparable to a guy who could be a regular. I know, I know, Stock, splitting hairs.
Hopkins has to be moving up on the prospect list. He seems to be a legit bat.
Reds continue to struggle to score runs with their “singles only, station to station offense” in a park built for power while minor leaguers with power are ignored. Reds FO thru and thru. Senzel, meanwhile, has slipped to .240s and still isn’t in double figures with extra base hits despite playing every day.
TS looks so uncomfortable at the plate, tough to watch.
I actually really like Kelch’s call on the EDLC bomb.
Time for the reds to call up Ricky Karcher. He has his control problems resolved and has been dominant lately. His ERA has dropped from 24 to 9, showing his dominance. The reds only have Diaz as a dominant relief pitcher and need another. I wish Karcher was left handed.
Karcher has not walked anyone in his last two outings. That’s good to see. He walked 7 batters in his previous 4 outings that covered 7 innings. It’s way, way too early to call him up and think he’s got his control figured out.
If you’re using common sense, I agree Doug, but the Reds did bring up Williamson.