Chase Petty made just one mistake over six strong innings of work, but the Louisville Bats' offense recorded just one hit to support him in their 2-0 shutout loss to the Memphis Redbirds at AutoZone Park on Thursday night.
The Bats got off to a painfully slow start against righty Quinn Matthews (W, 2-3) to open the game. Louisville recorded just one base runner, a walk from Francisco Urbaez, through the first four innings. Thankfully for the Bats, Chase Petty was just as dominant. The righty danced around a one-out single and double in the first inning but stranded the runners with a strikeout and flyout to end the threat.
He entered the fourth having allowed just two hits, one walk, and racked up four strikeouts, but finally faltered. He hung a sweeper up in the zone, which Leo Bernal smacked 387 feet for a two-run homer, giving the Red Birds a 2-0 lead after the inning.
Petty settled down nicely and retired eight of the final nine batters he faced. Jared Lyons replaced him in the seventh, and Petty left the game with a quality start. He allowed just two runs on five hits, walked two, and struck out seven over six innings of work. Thursday night was Petty’s first quality start since April 23 against the Iowa Cubs.
Lyons came in to make his Triple-A season debut and struck out two over a dominant first inning of work in the seventh. He worked around a walk in the eighth and completed another scoreless frame. He finished with four strikeouts over two hitless innings of work.
The Bats were unable to muster anything offensively all evening. They entered the ninth inning with one hit and one walk to their name. The hit was courtesy of Ivan Johnson, who led off the fifth inning before Urbaez grounded into a double play. It took Red Birds closer Scott Blewitt just 10 pitches to record the final three outs and collect his third save of the season. In total, the Bats struck out 15 times on the night, which marks the second-largest total they've had in a game this season.
Louisville will face Memphis again on Friday for the fourth game of the six-game set, with first pitch set for 8:05 p.m. ET. RHP Julian Aguiar (0-1, 9.28) will get the ball for the Bats. He’ll oppose LHP Bruce Zimmerman (4-2, 4.47). Nick Curran will be on the call on Sports Talk 790.