Wahoos Open Season With Win Over Smokies

April 7, 2017

Tyler Mahle said he pitched his worst in his four-year professional career with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos at the end of the 2016 season.

The 22-year-old righty won only one of his final eight starts and posted a 7.17 ERA.

But given the honor of pitching the Blue Wahoos season opener Thursday, Mahle pitched 4.1 perfect innings and third baseman Taylor Sparks and first baseman Eric Jagielo both launched homers to right field to propel Pensacola to a, 4-1, victory over the Tennessee Smokies. Pensacola, which played in front of a sellout crowd of 5,038, improved to 5-1 in its season openers in franchise history.

Mahle looked sharp, retiring the first 13 Tennessee batters, while striking out five.

“It was a good one, especially on opening day,” Mahle said. “My first starts of the season haven’t been good.”

The Smokies finally got their first hit off Mahle, who threw a no-hitter for High-A Daytona last season, in the fifth inning when he smacked a line drive to center field. Tennessee then scored a run to tie the game, 1-1, when Tennessee center fielder Trey Martin singled to right field with two outs to drive in right fielder Jeffrey Baez.

Mahle, who was called up to the Blue Wahoos mid-season last year, said he felt fresh starting out the new season. Last year, he won five of his first six starts and posted a 2.41 ERA before his bad stretch.

Mahle posted a combined 14-6 record with a 3.64 ERA over 27 starts in both High-A Daytona and Double-A Pensacola. His 14 wins tied for the most among Reds’ farmhands. Mahle was lifted for Pensacola reliever Ismael Guillon after giving up his first walk of the game and throwing 86 pitches.

Mahle’s first start in Pensacola comes after a strong performance in the Futures game in which he allowed one run on seven hits, walked one, hit one batter and struck out three in five innings. Mahle allowed hits to the first four batters he faced before settling down in the game that ended in a 1-1 tie.

“It was good to get sent down and then pitch against them again,” he said. “I did really well. It keeps in their minds that I can possibly pitch up there (for Cincinnati).”

Guillon, who replaced Mahle, promptly struck out four and walked one. For the game, Blue Wahoos pitchers combined to strike out 13 Smokies.

Pensacola manager Pat Kelly praised Mahle for his strong performance.

“I thought he was marvelous,” Kelly said. “That’s the way he pitched all spring. Last year, he just kind of ran out of gas down the stretch and into the playoffs.”

Tennessee’s lead was short lived when in the bottom of the fifth inning, Blue Wahoos third baseman Taylor Sparks launched the ball over the right center field wall to put Pensacola back on top, 2-1.

Sparks hit 14 homers last year between High-A and Pensacola but hit just .179.

“There are many things I’m working on like plate discipline,” said Sparks, who scored twice. “I was just as pumped up to get a walk as hitting a bomb.”

Pensacola scored first when it got three singles in a row off Tennessee season opening starter Zach Hedges. Pensacola shortstop beat out the throw on a swinging bunt and then Devin Mesoraco hit a line drive that fell in front of Smokies center fielder Trey Martin and advanced Trahan to third. Mesoraco, an All-Star in 2014, is doing his rehabilitation with the Blue Wahoos.

Pensacola right fielder Aristedes Aquino, the Reds’ Minor League Player of the Year last season, then hit a ground ball back up the middle to drive in Trahan and put the Blue Wahoos up, 1-0.

Tennessee reliever Daniel Corcino, who a Blue Wahoos pitcher for parts of three seasons, put Pensacola ahead, 3-1, in the seventh inning when with the bases loaded and two outs he walked Blue Wahoos catcher Adrian Nieto to score Sparks.

First baseman Eric Jagielo, who was 2-3 on the night capped the scoring for Pensacola by hitting a bullet over the right field wall for a solo homer in the eighth inning.

Zach Hedges was tapped for the start for Tennessee, after being a bright spot in the Smokies rotation last year posting eight starts and going 3-3 with a 2.47 ERA. He finished the game allowing two earned runs on six hits and striking out three in five innings.


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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News, Sports, TOP sports