Games Played on 04/05/2012
It was Opening Day for the Cincinnati Reds and their four full season minor league affiliates on Thursday. The organization pulled off an Opening Day sweep!
Minor League Player of the Day: Last year’s Reds Opening Day shortstop, Paul Janish, hit two homeruns for AAA Louisville, including the go-ahead solo homerun in the top of the 9th inning.
AAA
Louisville 5 – Columbus 4
All 5 Louisville runs came on the homerun. Daniel Dorn struck first with a 2-run homerun in the 2nd inning. Chris Valaika added a solo shot in the 3rd. Paul Janish hit the pair of aforementioned solo shots in the 7th and 9th innings.
Bats pitching allowed no homeruns. Jeff Francis gave up 2 runs in 6 innings. He allowed 7 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 3. Veteran lefty Ron Mahay and newly acquired J.J. Hoover each pitched a perfect inning in relief, each striking out 2 batters.
AA
Pensacola 3 – Montgomery 1
The long ball accounted for the majority of runs scored in this game, also. Henry Rodriguez, playing 3rd base and batting 3rd, hit a sac fly in the first inning and a 2-run bomb in the bottom of the 8th to account for all of Pensacola’s runs scored.
Pedro Villarreal made the start, allowing just 1 run in 5.2 innings. He gave up 5 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 7. Looking to bounce back from a bad year statistically, Donnie Joseph pitched to the final two batters, striking both of them out to pick up the save.
High A
Bakersfield 3 – Visalia 1
Starting pitcher, Daniel Renken, had a “true†perfect first inning. A “true†perfect inning is 9 pitches, 9 strikes, 3 strikeouts. For the game, Renken threw 5 innings, allowing 1 unearned run on 5 hits, 2 walks, and 5 strikeouts.
(Hat tip to Doug Gray for the first inning information via twitter.)
The Reds #2 prospect, shortstop Billy Hamilton, was responsible for all three Bakersfield runs. He hit a 2-run homerun in the 3rd inning to give Bakersfield a 2-1 lead. Hamilton added an insurance run in the 3rd inning with his wheels. After reaching 1st base on an error, Hamilton stole 2nd base, advanced to 3rd on a throwing error by the catcher, then later scored on a wild pitch.
Low A
Dayton 3 – West Michigan 0
Like Cincinnati, Dayton was able to hold their opponent scoreless yesterday. Justice French, 25th round draft pick from the 2011 draft, threw 6 innings of 2-hit baseball, allowing 2 walks, and striking out 8. French was rated as having the best control in the Reds system by Baseball America after issuing just 6 walks in 58.2 innings last year.
Shortstop Juan Perez hit two triples in three at-bats with a walk, a run scored and an RBI.