A Whale of a Tale: Whalen, M-Braves Win in Birmingham
Birmingham, AL - Rob Whalen and the Mississippi Braves finished the first half strong, running away with an 8-3 win over the Birmingham Barons on Sunday afternoon at Regions Field.
Whalen (5-4) took a perfect game into the 6th inning before giving up a leadoff single to Courtney Hawkins, and by that point the Braves (34-35) already led 6-0. He finished seven strong innings to earn the win, allowing just a run on two hits and a walk while striking out eight.
Mississippi jumped on former first round pick and top White Sox prospect Carson Fulmer (3-8), plating three in the third and three more in the fifth. With one out, Jordy Lara doubled to the wall in left and moved to third on a Mel Rojas Jr. groundout. Dian Toscano walked, and Dansby Swanson singled off his old college teammate for an RBI.
The Braves continued the onslaught with a Dustin Peterson RBI knock to plate Toscano for a 2-0 lead. Carlos Franco walked, and Jacob Schrader added another RBI single to bring home Swanson to make it 3-0.
In the fifth, the M-Braves put the win away with three more runs to chase Fulmer. Swanson was hit by a pitch and Peterson and Franco singled, the latter driving home a run for a 4-0 lead. With runners on the corners, Tyler Barnette came on in relief and gave up a single to Jacob Schrader for another RBI, and a sacrifice fly to Willians Astudillo to make it 6-0.
Fulmer allowed six runs on seven hits over 4 1/3 innings in the loss, striking out nine and walking three.
The Barons (29-41) got on the board in the sixth. After Hawkins' single broke up Whalen's perfection, Jeremy Dowdy reached on a fielding error by Toscano in right. Eddy Alvarez singled to break the shutout and pull it to 6-1, but Whalen got out of the jam and limited the damage to just a run.
The two clubs swapped runs in the eighth. Mississippi added one with a Lara double and Rojas RBI single to make it 7-1. Birmingham threatened in the bottom half, scoring twice and loading the bases to bring up the potential tying run. Alvarez homered and Engel added a double against reliever Steve Kent, setting up a Marcus Lemon soft RBI single to right to drive in a run against his former team, pulling it to 7-3.
Madison Younginer came on and walked two batters to load the bases, but he struck out Keon Barnum as the potential tying run to send it to the ninth. The Braves added one more for good measure, loading the bases and driving in a run when Astudillo grounded into a force at second.
The Braves took the series three games to two and will resume the season on Thursday June 23 with a five-game series against the Jacksonville Suns at Trustmark Park. The M-Braves will also host the Southern League All-Star Game on Tuesday June 21, with first pitch slated for 7:30 PM CT pitting the stars of the North Division against the South Division in Pearl, MS.
Mississippi Braves (34-35) 8 R 12 H 1 E
Birmingham Barons (29-41) 3 R 5 H 1 E
W - Whalen (5-4)
L - Fulmer (3-8)
Time: 2:59
Attendance: 6,227