Tuesday, May 25th 6:05 p.m CT Memphis Redbirds (8-10) at Gwinnett Stripers (9-9) Game 1 of 6 Coolray Field / Gwinnett, GA Game #19 of 120 / Road Game #7 of 60 RHP Angel Rondón (0-2, 7.98 ERA) vs RHP Kyle Wright (0-2, 6.75 ERA) First Pitch App: Evan Stockton & Justin Gallanty Last Game – 5/23/21 Bird Bites Memphis vs. Gwinnett ‘21 Last Time Out: The Redbirds dropped the final game of their series against LOU 8 10 0 the Louisville Bats by a score of 8-3. The loss snapped the ‘Birds four-game 12 Home, 12 Away (24 Total) winning streak. Louisville jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the game and 5/25 A – MEM 3 5 1 5/26 A – never trailed. Memphis scored all three of its runs on the afternoon on solo 5/27 A – home runs. Lars Nootbaar went deep twice and Kramer Robertson 5/28 A – WP: Tony Santillan (1-1) launched his second home run of the season. Even with the loss, the Redbirds 5/29 A – took four of the six games in the series against Louisville. 5/30 A – - 5.1 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K 6/8 H – 6/9 H – LP: Matthew Liberatore (0-3) Today’s Starter: Angel Rondón will make his fourth appearance and third 6/10 H – start of the year for the Redbirds today. Rondón is coming off his best outing of 6/11 H – -4.0 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K the young season. Last Wednesday, he pitched 6.1 innings and allowed just two 6/12 H – earned runs in a game the ‘Birds won against Louisville. That start made 6/13 H – S: None 7/27 H – Rondón the first Redbirds starter to work into the seventh inning in 2021. The 7/28 H – HR: MEM: L. Nootbaar – 2 (3, 4), 23-year-old struggled in his first two appearances of the season, yielding a 7/29 H – combined 11 earned runs in 8.1 innings. Rondón was the Cardinals’ Minor 7/30 H – K. Robertson (2) League Pitcher of the Year in 2019 and is ranked as the No. 11 prospect in the 7/31 H – 8/1 H – LOU: M. De Leon (2) organization by MLB Pipeline. 8/31 A – 9/1 A – Time: 3:06 Louisville Starter: Kyle Wright will take the hill for Gwinnett this evening. 9/2 A – Wright has made three starts for the Stripers this season and has yielded 11 9/3 A – Attendance: 2, 443 earned runs in 14.2 innings. Wright also made one start for the Atlanta Braves 9/4 A – 9/5 A – on April 16 and gave up two runs in 4.1 innings against the Chicago Cubs. Wright made eight starts with Atlanta in 2020 and posted a 5.21 ERA on the Notable Players Affiliates Roundup season. He also made two starts for the Braves in the 2020 playoffs. He pitched -L. Nootbaar: 2-3, 2 HR, BB against Miami in the NLDS and tossed 6.0-scoreless innings but struggled in St. Louis Cardinals (MLB) -C. Jones: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 K the NLCS against the Dodgers, allowing seven runs in 0.2 innings. The 25-year- -Last Game: L, 5-1 at Chicago [AL] old was taken by Atlanta with the fourth overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft out of Vanderbilt. -P. Goldschmidt: 2-3, RBI Record: - 26-21 Active Hit Streaks Comeback Kids: The Memphis Redbirds developed a flair for the dramatic in -Today: 7:10 p.m. CT vs. CHW their series win over Louisville. Between Wednesday and Saturday, the ‘Birds put together a four-game win streak, all of the comeback variety. Memphis also Springfield Cardinals (AA) L. Nootbaar: 3 (5/21-pres.) had walk-off wins on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Each of the four wins in the series were by one run. -Last Game: L, 14-3 vs. NW Arkansas Nootbaar the Star: Lars Nootbaar has been on fire over his last 11 games. -Record: 3-14 During that stretch, Nootbaar is 14-40 (.350) with four HR, 13 RBI and 13 runs. -Today: 7:05 p.m. CT at Wichita Nootbaar hit all four of his home runs in the series against Louisville including two in the game on Sunday. Since May 9, Nootbaar is tied for first in Triple-A Peoria Chiefs (High-A) Stat of the Day East in runs, third in RBI, third in OBP, third in OPS, fifth in SLG, tied for -Last Game: L, 5-2 vs. Quad fifth in HR and tied for ninth in AVG. The Redbirds scored 23 runs in Cities the six-game series against Repping the Stars and Stripes: Matthew Liberatore was named to USA -Record: 6-12 Baseball’s Olympic Training Camp roster on Sunday. Team USA will cut its Louisville. 10 of the 23 runs scored -Today: 6:35 p.m. CT at Beloit roster from 28 to 26 players on May 30. Those 26 players will compete for the via the home run, accounting for Americas Qualifier from May 31-June 5 in Florida. The winner of the event will Palm Beach Cardinals (Low-A) 43% of the Redbirds scoring on the qualify for the Tokyo Olympics while the second- and third- place finishers will -Last Game: L, 9-4 vs. St. Lucie week. get another chance at the Final Qualifier in Mexico. Liberatore will be on the Temporary Inactive list while he is with Team USA. -Record: 6-12 -Today: 5:05 p.m. CT at Bradenton Shutting the Door: The Redbirds bullpen was dominant during the four-game winning streak last week. From Wednesday-Saturday, the Memphis bullpen did not allow a run in 13 consecutive innings. A New Opponent: This series is the first all-time between the Redbirds and Gwinnett Stripers. Gwinnett had been a member of the International League since 2009 before joining the newly formed Triple-A East Southeast Division in 2021. Memphis had been a member of the Pacific Coast League since 1998. Upcoming Probables (all times CT) 5/26 @ Gwinnett Stripers 6:05 p.m. LHP Bernardo Flores Jr. vs. RHP Jasseel De La Cruz 5/27 @ Gwinnett Stripers 6:05 p.m. LHP Zack Thompson vs. TBD 5/28 @ Gwinnett Stripers 6:05 p.m. RHP Tommy Parsons vs. TBD 5/29 @ Gwinnett Stripers 5:05 p.m. TBD vs. TBD RHP Angel Rondón (0-2, 7.98 ERA) 6’1” 205 lbs B/T: R/R Age: 23 (12/01) Acquired: Signed as FA, January 6, 2016 2021 Game-by-Game Rondón Notes Date Opp. Dec. IP H ER BB K P/S Depart. Notes -From Higuey, Dominican Republic. 5/7 v. DUR L 4.1 9 6 1 2 76/53 Down, 6-0 Allowed three HR -Spent 2020 at the Cardinals’ Alternate Pitched in relief of Training Site. MLB rehabber 5/13 @ NAS L 4.0 7 5 0 3 82/55 Down, 5-2 Daniel Ponce de -Named the 2019 Cardinals’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Leon First MEM starter -Began 2019 with High-A Palm Beach. 5/19 v. LOU ND 6.1 6 2 2 4 85/58 Down, 3-2 to pitch in 7th Went 5-1 with a 2.20 ERA in eight starts. inning in 2021 Struck out 47 batters in 45 IP. Named a Florida State League Midseason All-Star. -Made final 20 starts of 2019 with Double-A Springfield. Went 6-6 with a 3.21 ERA in 115 Season Bests IP. IP: 6.1 -Never had an ERA over 3.17 in four seasons H: in the Cardinals’ organization. 6 K: 4 -Ranked as the No. 11 prospect in the Cardinals’ organization, according to MLB BB: 0 Pipeline. ER: 2 -“His delivery creates natural HR: 0 deception…The fastball features late movement and sits in the mid 90s, but can Pitches: 85 also touch 97 mph on occasion. He varies the shape of his curveball, a pitch with heavy downward action that reminds some Miscellaneous of a slider. He’s also shown an ability to keep hitters off-balance with an average WHIP: 1.70 changeup.” – MLB Pipeline. Record in Starts: 1-1 -“His ceiling seems to be at the back end of BAA: .338 a rotation, although his fastball/curveball combo, paired with his pitchability, could also play well out of the bullpen.” – MLB Pipeline Redbirds Hitters Rayder Ascanio 5’11 155 INF Age: 25 (3/17) Acq.: Trade w/ SEA, Aug, 30, 2017 Conner Capel 6’1 185 OF Age: 23 (5/19) Acq.: Trade with CLE, 7/31/18 Last Game: 5/23 vs. LOU (0-4, K) Last Game: 5/23 vs. LOU (1-4, 2B) Current Series: Current Series: Season Highs… Season Highs… H: 2 (5/15 @ NAS) R: 1 (2x) BB: 1 (4x) H: 3 (5/18 vs. LOU) R: 1 (5x) BB: 1 (4x) HR: 0 RBI: 0 K: 2 (5/16 @ NAS) HR: 0 RBI: 2 (5/11 @ NAS) K: 3 (2x) 2019 Notes 2019 Notes • Split the season between the Palm Beach Cardinals (High-A) and the • Spent the season primarily with Springfield (AA), slashing .232/.283/.352 Springfield Cardinals (AA). in 98 games with 12 doubles, 9 home runs and 40 RBIs. • Palm Beach: Slashed .259/.347/.306 in 31 games. 4 doubles, 9 RBIs. • Also appeared in eight games with the Redbirds, going 13-30 (.433) at • Springfield: Slashed .270/.329/.401 in 76 games.