KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — On a night where Bailey Horn and the Kannapolis Cannon Baller offense put themselves in a position to win, the bullpen imploded and gave up crucial runs in an 8-3 loss to the Carolina Mudcats.
Horn, coming off a solid outing against the Fayetteville Woodpeckers in his last appearance, was looking to keep the momentum rolling into Tuesday. The southpaw got off to a solid start in the opening innings, collecting strikeouts in each of the first three frames of work. What impressed even more was his velocity on the fastball which topped out at 98MPH on the gun. Horn was tested in some sticky situations that he was able to work out of.
In the first inning, Horn surrendered a triple to the Mudcats’ Joe Gray Jr. and had a runner in scoring position early. He was able to brush that off by striking the next batter to end the inning. Horn’s next situation was the following inning where he allowed runners on the corners with a single out in the inning.
A pop-out and a strikeout turned the Mudcats away from the scoreboard, getting Horn through two scoreless innings. His ability to get out those jams shows the composure the 23-year-old possesses.
After a scoreless third for Horn, the Cannon Ballers offense showed up in the bottom half of the frame. Cabera Weaver kicked things off for the Cannon Ballers by roping a triple to center field, giving them their first hit of the night. An Ivan Gonzalez ground out scored Weaver and got Kannapolis out front 1-0 early.
Jose Rodriguez crushes the ball when he’s at home. Coming into the game Tuesday, the shortstop boasted a .373 average with 9 extra base hits and an impressive 1.015 OPS this year. He enhanced those numbers with third inning homer that extended the Ballers’ lead to 2-0. Rodriguez went on to finish the game going 2-4 with the homer, a walk and a strikeout.
The offense tacked on an extra run in the fourth inning on a Lency Delgado double play that scored Bryan Ramos from third base. With a 3-0 lead and Horn cruising, the Cannon Ballers looked poised to get their fifth win on the year against a team they struggled against during their two week road-trip.
Signs of fatigue and loss of command on Bailey’s off-speed pitches became apparent in the fifth. Horn was pulled after one out in the frame with a runner in scoring position.
The final line for the Texas native was solid: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K on 72 pitches. Two consecutive strong starts for Horn have put the Cannon Ballers in positions to win.
With Horn out of the contest, Brandon Jenkins followed in relief. Jenkins came into tonight yet to concede an earned run across his first seven appearances for the Cannon Ballers. That streak came to an end as he allowed the Mudcats to get on the scoreboard that same inning.
In the sixth, the wheels fell off the wagon for the Cannon Ballers. Southpaw Ty Madrigal, twin brother of White Sox second baseman Nick Madrigal, came in to pitch. Madrigal didn’t look great from batter one of his appearance as he walked the Mudcats’ Felix Valerio to begin his night. Three singles and a near bases-clearing double later, the Mudcats had reclaimed the lead, 5-3.
Kevin Folman relieved Madrigal, but allowed three more runs to cross the plate. The score suddenly ballooned to 8-3 in favor of the Mudcats.
A 6-run sixth inning saw 12 Mudcats take to the plate, accumulating six hits, two walks, a hit-by-pitch, and a balk on Kevin Folman. With the life sucked out of the Ballers, the team couldn’t respond the rest of the game as they went hitless after the 4th inning, leaving the final score at 8-3.
We have seen this same song and dance where the Cannon Ballers come out and attack early, but once they lose the lead or have an inning where things go wrong, the game seems out of reach and they can’t bounce back. Kannapolis only mustered five hits and when the bullpen implodes like they did in the 6th, five hits is not going to cut it, especially against a team like the Carolina Mudcats.
The Cannon Ballers are scheduled to have Angel Acevedo take the ball to open the night in Kannapolis tomorrow. Acevedo, similar to Horn, will look to build off a recent outing against the Fayetteville Woodpeckers where he threw a solid 3.2 innings, allowing two hits and striking out four.
Photo credit: Michael Guariglia/FutureSox
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