NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana – The Memphis Redbirds (35-22) stormed all the way back from a 5-0 deficit and picked up a 6-5 win over the New Orleans Baby Cakes (Marlins) in 10 innings Saturday night in New Orleans, La.
Memphis scored one in the fourth inning, three in the seventh, one in the eighth, and one in the 10th to erase the five-run deficit. The Redbirds have now won 12 of their last 16 games.
Oscar Mercado and Patrick Wisdom each had two-hit games for the Redbirds, and Tyler O’Neill drove in a pair of runs. Nine Redbirds had at least one of the club’s 11 hits in the game, including pinch-hitting pitcher Sean Gilmartin.
After the Redbirds struggled through a rough third inning, making three errors and walking four Baby Cakes, the comeback began. Adolis Garcia homered leading off the fourth, his fifth of the season, and after that the score remained 5-1 in favor of New Orleans heading into the seventh.
O’Neill had a two-out, two-run single in the seventh, and Andrew Knizner followed with an RBI knock of his own to make the score 5-4 at the seventh-inning stretch. The Redbirds tied the game in the next inning, with Wisdom hitting his second double of the game and scoring Mercado, who reached on a single.
Memphis put two runners on base in the top of the ninth, but Wilfredo Tovar struck out to end the frame. Edward Mujica came on and got a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings.
Tovar started the inning as the runner on second base, and he moved up 90 feet on a Mercado sacrifice bunt and scored on a Max Schrock sacrifice fly. Faced with the runner on second base in the bottom of the 10th, Mujica got a bunt groundout, a pop out, and a flyout to end the ballgame.
Ryan Helsley allowed five unearned runs in his outing, working 2.2 innings and walking four. After he departed, five Redbirds relievers threw the final 7.1 innings and did not allow a run.
New Orleans was 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on base. The Redbirds were 3-for-18 with runners in position to score, and Memphis left 14 on.a
The Redbirds and New Orleans finish their series at 1:00 tomorrow, before Memphis returns home for seven contests against Tacoma and Reno starting Tuesday. For more information on single-game tickets and ticket mini-memberships, visit www.memphisredbirds.com.
