Brooks Baldwin picked the best possible way to end his worst slump of the season.
Mired in a hitless drought that reached 0-for-20 after three strikeouts and a popout in his first four plate appearances Wednesday evening, Baldwin delivered a walk-off two-run single that capped off a furious seven-run ninth inning for an 8-7 win over Rocket City.
The Barons opened the inning with a pair of singles off John O'Reilly, who was entering his fourth inning of relief. O'Reilly then walked Michael Turner to load the bases with nobody out, and plunked Jason Matthews with his first pitch to bring in a run.
Up came Matt Hogan, who you may remember jumped from Kannapolis to Birmingham to serve as an emergency outfield fill-in during the last week of the first half. He's ben playing surprisingly well, and he continued to shock by shooting an opposite-field double that hopped over the fence for two runs, narrowing the Trash Pandas' lead to 7-4.
Edgar Quero then hopped off the bench to bat for No. 9 hitter Cristopher De Guzman, and after a lengthy mound visit, O'Reilly negated the strategy session by falling behind 3-0. O'Reilly did get a borderline call that looked slightly outside for a first strike, but that backfired on him, because Quero inside-outed a slider to left for two more more runs, and the Barons only trailed 7-6, with still nobody out.
As Rocket City made a pitching change to Hayden Seig, Sergio Santos upgraded the speed at first base by running Terrell Tatum for Quero. Seig immediately spotted Jacob Gonzalez a 3-0 count, and then Gonzalez used the green light to smack a grounder through the right side that put the tying run on third, and the winning run in scoring position a well.
Seig came at Baldwin with a first-pitch breaking ball over the heart of the plate, and as he is wont to do, Baldwin offered at the first hittable pitch he saw and dropped a single inside the left-field line for some fireworks before the fireworks. In the blink of an eye, the Barons scored seven runs on eight batters.
And after all was said and done, two of the evening's heroes reportedly got the call to Charlotte. Francys Romero said that Edgar Quero will be promoted, after which Elijah Evans said Baldwin would be joining him.
Baldwin hit .322/.386/.441 over 74 games and 319 plate appearances with the Barons, and overall, everybody would've taken that line in a heartbeat. The promotion just catches him during a quiet period. He's been hitting .252/.282/.360 since the start of June, with an uncharacteristic clustering of strikeouts during that time (22 percent).
This could merely be what standard regression looks like, because nobody would count on him hitting .370 over a full season of Double-A. But he's also somebody who will put the ball in play early, so he could be led into a bunch of quiet outs once the league understands his deal. He has enough discipline that he's not merely aggressive for aggression's sake, but the advanced sequencing of Triple-A pitchers will test his ability to wait for a better pitch.
For Quero, recency bias is on his side. He hit .275/.360/.463 over 72 games and 292 plate appearances for Birmingham, but his full-season line undersells how ready he's looked for a promotion. From June 1 through his pinch-hit single on Wednesday, Quero hit .371/.440/.608 over a span of 109 plate appearances.
Quero spent all of last year at Double-A thanks to the Angels' extremely aggressive decision to have him skip High-A, so the White Sox gave him ample time for his development to catch up the competition, and then surpass it.
Jacksonville 3, Charlotte 2
- Oscar Colás doubled, singled twice, struck out once and stole a base.
- Colson Montgomery was 0-for-2 with a walk and a hit by pitch.
- Matt Foster moved up to Triple-A: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
Birmingham 8, Rocket City 7
- Jacob Gonzalez went 1-for-3 with a double, two walks and a strikeout, and was caught stealing.
- Brooks Baldwin ended an 0-fo=
- Tim Elko was 2-for-4 with a homer.
- Wilfred Veras, 2-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Edgar Quero came off the bench and delivered a two-run pinch-hit single in the ninth inning.
- Jake Eder: 5 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 1 HR, 2 WP, 57 of 87 pitches for strikes.
Hickory 5, Winston-Salem 1
- Loidel Chapelli went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- DJ Gladney was 0-for-4 with a K.
- Ryan Galanie, 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Wes Kath doubled and struck out twice.
- Samuel Zavala singled and struck out twice.
- Shane Murphy: 5 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 3 HR
- Corey Knebel: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
Kannapolis 7, Fayetteville 2
- Rikuu Nishida singled thrice, walked once, struck out once, stole three bases and was caught stealing once.
- Ronny Hernandez was 3-for-5 with a strikeout.
- George Wolkow wore the golden sombrero.
- Aldrin Batista: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, 49 of 84 pitches for strikes.
