The Memphis Redbirds kicked off the Triple-A “Final Stretch” with a 5-3 loss at the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Triple-A affiliate, Miami Marlins) on Tuesday night. The ‘Birds are now 3-4 against Jacksonville this season.
Early on, Memphis (57-63, 0-1) jumped out to a lead when Alec Burleson blasted a two-run home run in the second inning. Burleson has been swinging a powerful bat over the last week. He’s 9-26 at the plate over his last seven games with two doubles, three home runs, seven runs driven in and seven runs scored .
Jacksonville (69-51, 1-0) surged in front with four runs in the bottom of the third inning. The Jumbo Shrimp had two huge hits in the inning. First, Lorenzo Quintana pounded a two-run double to score Brian Miller and Peyton Burdick. Then the next batter, Isan Diaz, laced another double to score Quintana.
Quintana was locked in on Tuesday night. He added a solo home run in the fifth inning to complete Jacksonville’s scoring on the evening. He is now 4-for-9 against Memphis this season.
The Redbirds got their last run via a sacrifice fly in the fourth from Evan Mendoza that drove in Conner Capel. Capel scored half of Memphis’ four runs in the midst of a two-hit game. Brendan Donovan and Ali Sanchez also chipped in two-hit nights at the plate.
Johan Quezada and Jake Walsh made successful season debuts out of the Memphis bullpen. Quezada tossed a scoreless seventh, while Walsh wowed the crowd with three strikeouts in a clean eighth.
