The Memphis Redbirds rallied back late and won for the third straight night, taking down the Louisville Bats (Triple-A affiliate, Cincinnati Reds) 6-2 on a beautiful Friday night for baseball at AutoZone Park
The story of the night for Memphis (56-62) early on was the return of Dakota Hudson to AutoZone Park on an MLB rehab assignment. The 2018 PCL Player of the Year was impressive in his start, allowing two runs (one earned) on just two hits in 5.0 innings. Hudson has now made five rehab appearances in the Minor Leagues this season in his comeback from Tommy John surgery in late September 2020.
Louisville (50-67) received excellent starting pitching from Michael Mariot, who began his outing with six scoreless innings on just one hit. The ‘Birds finally got to him in the seventh, tying the game with two runs on three hits. Nick Plummer provided an RBI single in the frame.
Memphis surged in front for good with a four-run flurry in the eighth. Two home runs powered the game-clinching flourish. Brendan Donovan led off the inning with an opposite-field blast off the left-field foul pole, followed by a two-run dinger from Alec Burleson later in the frame that made it 6-2 and salted the game away. The Redbirds have scored 11 runs combined between the seventh and eighth innings the past two games.
Also for the second straight night, the Memphis bullpen was excellent. Seth Elledge, Tommy Parsons, Brandon Waddell and Jesús Cruz combined to toss four scoreless relief innings and lock down a Redbirds win. The bullpen has thrown 7.1 scoreless innings the past two games with only three hits allowed.
