Louisville’s Bats Quieted Despite Leibrandt’s Solid Start

The Louisville Bats couldn’t generate much offense behind Brandon Leibrandt’s solid outing and fell to the Toledo Mud Hens 6-2 on Friday night at Louisville Slugger Field.

Two singles followed by an error and a sacrifice fly gave Toledo an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. The Bats recorded just two hits and two walks through the first four innings and failed to score.

Leibrandt ran into trouble again in the fifth inning when he allowed two singles and a double, which boosted the Mud Hens' lead to 2-0.

After walking Jace Jung to load the bases with two outs later that inning, Bats manager Pat Kelly elected to bring in Julian Garcia from the bullpen. He immediately induced an inning-ending ground out to hold Toledo at bay. Leibrandt (L, 0-2) allowed two runs (one earned) on eight hits over 4.2 innings of work.

The Bats' offense finally made noise in the fifth with Francisco Urbaez’s leadoff double, followed by Dayne Leonard’s RBI single to pull within one at 2-1.

Garcia allowed back-to-back doubles to open the sixth inning before Max Clark smoked his first Triple-A homer, a two-run shot to center field to give the Mud Hens a 5-1 lead. Edwin Arroyo and JJ Bleday both walked in the bottom of the sixth, but the Bats failed to bring them home.

Luis Mey allowed a one-out triple in the eighth and threw a wild pitch, which scored the runner to increase Toledo’s lead to 6-1. After allowing a leadoff walk and double, Zach Maxwell struck out three-straight to strand runners at second and third in the ninth.

Three consecutive Bats walked to lead off the bottom of the ninth before Jack Little came on in relief. The righty struck out two batters before walking Edwin Arroyo to bring the score to 6-2. Little induced a Hector Rodriguez ground out to end the game.

Leonard got on base three times, which increased his OPS to 1.167 over three games this season. Francisco Urbaez doubled twice and walked during his 2-for-3 night.

The Bats will host the Mud Hens in game five of the series on Saturday at 1:05 p.m. for Thunder at Louisville Slugger Field.

Nick Sando will get the start for Louisville in his Triple-A debut after allowing just one run over his first nine innings with the Chattanooga Lookouts. He will oppose Toledo's Lael Lockhart. Nick Curran and Jim Kelch will have the call on Sports Talk 790.