Ryan Eades is on the mound Thursday for the Lookouts.
photo by Tim Evearitt
PENSACOLA, Fla. - In his Blue Wahoos Stadium debut, the 21-year-old Tyler Mahle showed he belongs here by throwing five scoreless innings, striking out eight, including four in a row, and pitching his way out of two bases-loaded jams.
His poise helped Pensacola win the opener of the five game series against Chattanooga, shutting them out, 3-0, in front of the Blue Wahoos 19th sellout crowd of 5,038 Wednesday.
Pensacola manager Pat Kelly has followed Mahle, who's ranked the Cincinnati Reds No.
10 prospect and won the Chief Bender Award as the Reds Minor League Player of the Year last season.
"He's been a real good pitcher. All the way through the minor leagues he has been effective," Kelly said. "He got into a couple of jams but he did a great of pitching out of them."
The right hander, selected in round seven of the 2013 draft, struck out four in a row and dug himself out of a two-out, bases loaded jam in the fourth inning by striking out Chattanooga first baseman D.J. Hicks on a 92 mph fastball.
For the Lookouts, David Hurlbut didn’t get any run support from the hitters or his fielders. The lefty gave up three runs (just one earned) on nine hits. He walked one and struck out five. Three errors were committed behind him. Corey Williams and Raul Fernandez each worked a scoreless inning.
There wasn’t much offense. There were six hits, though no one had more than one. Daniel Palka went 1-3 with a walk. Leonardo Reginnato went 1-2 with a walk and was hit by a pitch. Stuart Turner went 1-3, was hit by a pitch and hit his 10th double.
In the fifth inning, the Lookouts loaded the bases with no outs but Mahle then forced leadoff hitter Zach Granite to fly out to right field and struck out both second baseman Ryan Walker and right fielder Palka, who leads the Southern League in home runs (19) and is tied for first in RBIs (59).
His strikeout of Palka was a key point in the game. Palka was 5-17 with one home run and three RBIs in the teams' first meeting in May. He went 1-3 with a walk Wednesday.
Mahle ended up working five scoreless innings, allowing four hits, walking two and striking out eight. He's now 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA. In his two starts, Mahle has racked up 16 strikeouts in 10 innings pitched in his two starts for the Blue Wahoos. On the season, he has 92 strikeouts in 89.1 innings this season between Daytona and Pensacola.
Pensacola scored first when first baseman Ray Chang hit a sharp two-out line drive single to left field and then shortstop Zach Vincej followed with a double down the left field line to score Chang from first to put the Blue Wahoos up, 1-0.
Blue Wahoos left fielder Phillip Ervin hit a screamer that went through the shortstop's legs. Ervin swiped second for his 23 steal of the season and advanced to third when the catcher's throw rolled into centerfield. He then scored on a wild pitch by Chattanooga starter David Hurlbut to make it a, 2-0, game.
With two outs, Brandon Dixon smacked a line drive single to left field and was driven in by Taylor Sparks triple into the right field corner to increase Pensacola's lead to 3-0.
Pensacola hosts the second game of a five-game series at 6:30 p.m. Thursday against the Minnesota Twins Double-A affiliate Chattanooga Lookouts.
Box
Pitching for the Lookouts is RHP Ryan Eades (4-3, 4.36), who is going against Blue Wahoos RHP Rookie Davis (6-1, 2.64).