Cardinals Minors Spring Training Report: 3/27

Thursday’s St. Louis Cardinals minor league spring training game results. The Player of the Day is Matt Arburr - again. Three pitchers get the daily nod – Jess Todd, J.D. Stambaugh and Deryk Hooker.

Thursday’s schedule for the St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers was an abbreviated one, with the Springfield club heading home to entertain the major league club in a pair of games over the weekend. The Triple-A club remained in Jupiter to play the Dodgers and the Palm Beach team headed to Vero Beach to play their Double-A affiliate for what was the official last Cardinals trip to Dodgertown. The two Quad Cities clubs faced off at home.

Friday is another camp day at the Roger Dean Stadium complex in Jupiter, Florida.

Scout.com Cardinals Pitchers of the Day – Thursday

Palm Beach’s Jess Todd and Quad Cities #1’s J.D. Stambaugh each posted three shutout innings on two hits. J.D. also fanned two. Quad Cities #2’s Deryk Hooker had a three-inning shutout outing, too. He yielded three hits but logged four strikeouts.

Scout.com Cardinals Hitter of the Day – Thursday

It is another Arburr day here in March. Quad Cities #2’s Matt Arburr is just tearing the cover off the ball this spring. This day, he singled, doubled, homered and delivered four RBIs in four at-bats.

Earlier in the week, he was hitting .407. On Wednesday, he went 2-for-3 with two home runs and five RBIs. I have him currently unofficially hitting .471 (16-for-34) this month!

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Memphis 10, Las Vegas 5

Mitchell Boggs had a couple of rough plays that skewed his bottom line of three earned runs in five innings. All the runs scored in the first on a three-run home run after a bad-hop single on a potential inning-ending double play ball extended the frame. Boggs allowed five hits and two walks, striking out three.

Cliff Politte hasn’t shaken off all the post-surgery rust yet. In his two innings, he yielded two runs, one earned, on three hits and a walk. He fanned one. Mark Worrell (one K) and Jason Motte each added a scoreless inning. Both allowed one hit.

Several younger hitters were given the chance to “play up” on Thursday and that they did. Pete Kozma tripled and scored in two at-bats. Jim Rapoport (double), Gabe Johnson (home run) and Joe Mather (double, two runs, two RBI) each had two hits. Josh Phelps went 3-for-5 including a double and a home run.

Jacksonville (Dodgers AA) 12, Palm Beach 6

Gary Daley, Jr. took the loss, allowing nine runs in two-plus innings. Brad Furnish followed and was charged with two runs (one earned) in three innings. He yielded two hits. Josh Dew was touched for a run in his one inning on a pair of hits. He also fanned two.

In five at-bats each, Steve Hill had three hits while Brandon Buckman, Nick Derba, Donovan Solano and Tony Cruz each had two. Tyler Henley hit a three-run home run. Daryl Jones singled, walked and had an RBI in four at-bats. Tommy Pham doubled and walked.

Quad Cities #2 10, Quad Cities #1 1

For Quad Cities #1, it was a rough day on the mound. Andres Rosales allowed eight runs in 2.1 innings and Eddie Degerman yielded two runs in 1.2 innings.

Quad Cities #2 pitching fared much better. Mark Diapoules gave up one run in 2.1 innings on two hits and two walks. He fanned two. Eduardo Sanchez and Matt Spade both threw a perfect inning, striking out two each.

Catcher Luis DeLaCruz led the limited offense for Quad Cities #1, going 2-for-2. In addition to Arburr’s feats noted above, Ross Oeder paced QC #2 with two singles and two doubles in four at-bats. Ryde Rodriguez came to life with a single and a home run in three at-bats and Paul Vasquez also went deep.

Basic player stats provided through the courtesy of Cardinals Director of Minor League Operations John Vuch.

Brian Walton can be reached via email at [e-mail].

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