The St. Louis Cardinals minor
league clubs completed their final day of spring training camp in their Jupiter,
Florida facility on Sunday. There were
two intersquad games, but the teams were mixed and matched with players on
various clubs, so we were warned that the team a player played for here doesn’t
necessarily reflect where he will be playing next week. Still, we hope to
have all the rosters very soon, as we know many are anxious to see them.
A day after there was an
unconfirmed rumor of a skirmish between tired players in camp from the
Palm
Beach and Jupiter squads, the benches
had to be emptied on Sunday, too, but the reason was different.
In the words of Cardinals'
executive John Vuch, “A swarm of bees made their way through the infield
and third base dugout in the eighth inning, causing a brief delay and a hasty
stampede of players away from the field. The bees ended up swarming the
steps of our tower for the rest of the game - fortunately we had decided to
evacuate when we saw the cloud coming our way, so nobody was trapped in the
tower. Dyar Miller suffered the only casualty from the incident, receiving
a single bee sting on his finger.”
Scout.com Cardinals Pitcher of the
Day – Sunday
The Extended club’s starter was Clayton Mortensen who allowed Quad
Cities just unearned run on two hits in 4.2 innings. He did walk three and fan
three, too. Last year’s supplemental round pick will be skipping
Palm
Beach and join
Springfield’s rotation.
Scout.com Cardinals Hitter of the
Day – Sunday
Memphis first baseman Josh Phelps returns here for the second
consecutive day on the heels of a double and home run in three at-bats. Look out
for that 2008 Redbirds offense!
(Reminder: Click on any the highlighted
names in this or any other article on Scout.com to be taken to the Player
Profile Page for that player. There, you can find photos, biographical
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sites!)
The “underdogs” at least by title,
won both games Sunday.
Palm
Beach 5,
Memphis 3
Predictably, Braden Looper fared better against the
high-A-labeled hitters on Sunday than Brad Thompson did on Saturday against
the Double-A club. Looper allowed three runs, two earned in 6.1 innings,
including a Tommy Pham home run. He
allowed seven hits and two walks for a WHIP just under 1.50. Looper fanned three
and will pitch next at home against Washington on Friday.
Cliff Politte had a day of “ones” as he allowed
one run on one hit and struck out one in one inning on the mound. He needs to
put up some more zeroes before getting back to the bigs. Mark Worrell went 1.2 shutout innings
on two hits. He fanned three. Chris Perez finished with one perfect inning including a
strikeout.
Pitching for
Palm
Beach, Matt Clement drew the shorter straw,
allowing two earned runs in 3.2 innings. He yielded five hits, but walked no
one. Clement whiffed two hitters. Mitchell Boggs (1.1 innings), Jason Motte (one inning) and Josh Dew (one inning, one K) were each
perfect. Francisco Samuel was
charged with a run in his inning, on one hit and two walks. He struck out two.
Memphis hitting standouts included Nick Stavinoha, who went 2-for-3 and Mark Johnson, who doubled and had 2
RBIs. For Palm
Beach, Steven Hill (in 5 ABs) and Casey Mulligan (in 2 ABs) had two hits.
Tyler Henley singled, stole a base
and had two RBIs.
Extended Spring Training club 4,
Quad Cities 1
For Quad Cities on the mound,
normal Memphis starter Blake Hawksworth went five innings, but
allowed three runs on eight hits. He didn’t walk anyone, but fanned just one. Brad Furnish (1 K) and Shaun Garceau (2 Ks) each logged one
perfect inning. Pete Parise had
Politte’s “ones”, except for no walk.
After Mortensen, the Extended
club’s other pitchers put up some zeroes. Jess Todd spun one perfect inning
including a strikeout. J.D. Stambaugh also pitched one scoreless on two hits. Kenny Maiques got two outs with no
scoring.
At the plate for Quad Cities, Domnit Bolivar (single and triple) and
Jose Garcia (single and double) each
went 2-for-3. What a surprise here. Spring standout Matt Arburr tripled and scored a run
and number one draft pick Pete Kozma
walked three times.
The Extended club had enough
hitting as Mateo Marquez went
3-for-3 with a double and RBI. Chris Gibson singled and doubled with an RBI in four at-bats. Osvaldo Morales doubled, scored and had
an RBI, too.
Basic player stats provided
through the courtesy of Cardinals Director of Minor League Operations John Vuch.
Brian Walton can be reached via
email at brwalton@earthlink.net.
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