After several days of exciting performances and notable roster moves, tonight’s game was pretty much a bust, as Reynaldo Lopez got rocked — again — and Yermin Mercedes went hitless in his 2021 Knights debut. The Norfolk Tides jumped on Lopez for five earned runs in 3.1 innings and never looked back in an 8-2 win in Charlotte.
Mercedes started at catcher and went 0-4 at the plate with three strikeouts. But he did make a nice throw to nail a runner trying to steal third. Another Knights’ catcher, Seby Zavala, was sent to Detroit on Saturday to be part of the White Sox taxi squad following Yasmani Grandal’s calf injury, though Zavala remains on the Knights’ roster.
The Knights desparately need an offensive lift from Mercedes, now that Sheets and Burger are not in the lineup. The Knights managed just two hits tonight against Tides starter Kevin Smith, who fanned nine over five innings. One of those hits was a Zach Remillard home run to lead off the bottom of the first. Smith is the Tides’ #15 prospect as rated by MLB and was especially nasty tonight though it is clear the Knights are missing a lot of thunder in the lineup.
In a night when the Knights’ offense needed a lift from the pitching staff, Lopez was not up to the task, requiring 93 pitches to labor through 3.1 innings. He gave up five hits, four walks and five earned runs, including a home run.
“His biggest thing is attacking the hitters and locating his pitches and getting ahead rather than getting behind,” manager Wes Helms said. “He kind of gets behind on some hitters and then these hitters at this level and even moreso in the big leagues, they’re going to sit on their pitch and when what they are looking for crosses the zone, they are going to hammer it, and that’s what happened tonight.”
Scanning The Box Score
It wasn’t pretty. Aside from Remillard’s home run, the Knights tallied just three singles and a walk. Defensively, Mikie Mahtook and Remillard had nice running catches but shortstop Matt Reynolds had a throwing error and the middle-infield defense appeared off tonight, including one instance when neither player covered the bag on a stolen base attempt.
Will Carter, Tanner Banks, Kyle Kubat, Danny Dopico and Tyler Johnson cleaned up after Lopez, giving up six hits, three earned runs and two walks while striking out seven over the final 5.2 innings.
Famous Tides’ Dads
The Tides’ roster includes center fielder Zach Jarrett, son of NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Dale Jarrett; first baseman Tyler Nevin, son of Phil Nevin, former MLB player and current Yankees’ third base coach; second baseman AJ Graffanino, son of former major leaguer Tony Graffanino; and of course infielder Ryan Ripken, Cal’s son.
Photo credit: Clinton Cole/FutureSox
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