The Midwest League and Minor League Baseball have announced that Dayton Dragons starting pitcher Ryan Cardona has been named as the league’s Pitcher of the Week for his performance against the Lake County Captains on June 2nd.
Back in early May, Lake County roughed up Cardona in what was likely his worst start of the season. He allowed seven hits and walked four batters in 3.2 innings while giving up a season high five earned runs. Last week he got his revenge for that day.
This time around it was Ryan Cardona who put it to the opposition. The right-hander didn’t give up a single hit in his 6.0 shutout innings on the day. He walked two batters and he struck out three others. Cardona needed just 73 pitches on the day to complete his outing.
That start lowered his ERA on the season to 4.06. In his 62.0 innings over his 11 starts and three relief appearances he’s given up just 48 hits (six home runs), walked 30 batters, and he’s struck out 74 of the 263 hitters he’s faced.
He struggled a bit in May, posting a 6.19 ERA in 16.0 innings, but he’s been good outside of that stretch. On the season he’s held hitters to a .212 batting average, a .307 on-base percentage, and they’ve slugged just .372 on the year against him.
Here are the other Cincinnati Reds players to win a Player of the Week Award in 2024:
| Player | League | Time Frame |
| Ricardo Cabrera | Florida State League | April 15-21 |
| Rhett Lowder | Midwest League | April 22-28 |
| Carson Spiers | International League | May 6-12 |
| Tyler Callihan | Southern League | May 6-12 |
| Juan Martinez | Florida State League | May 13-19 |
| Jonathan Harmon | Midwest League | June 3-9 |
| Nestor Lorant | Florida State League | June 24-30 |
| Francisco Urbaez | Southern League | June 24-30 |
| Ryan Cardona | Midwest League | July 1-7 |