Jumbo Shrimp ride strong pitching to win over Redbirds

Acosta, Ramirez homer in win

Maximo Acosta blasts a home run in Jacksonville's 4-1 win over Memphis Thursday night. (Dell Morgan/Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp)

By Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp

April 18, 2025

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Home runs from Maximo Acosta and Agustín Ramírez along with strong pitching performances aided the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp’s 4-1 win over the Memphis Redbirds Thursday night at AutoZone Park. After trading scoreless frames, Jacksonville (13-5) took the lead in the top of the third. With one out,

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Home runs from Maximo Acosta and Agustín Ramírez along with strong pitching performances aided the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp’s 4-1 win over the Memphis Redbirds Thursday night at AutoZone Park.

After trading scoreless frames, Jacksonville (13-5) took the lead in the top of the third. With one out, Acosta (2) crushed a solo homer off Memphis (9-7) starter Alex Cornwell (L, 1-1). Ramirez followed with a double and stole third. Deyvison De Los Santosknocked him in with a base hit increasing the Jumbo Shrimp lead to two. Troy Johnston and Ronny Simon knocked consecutive singles to bring home De Los Santos pushing the advantage to 3-0.

Memphis plated their lone run in the sixth. Michael Helman doubled and advanced to third two batters later. During Ryan Vilade’s at-bat, a wild pitch scored Helman from third cutting the deficit to 3-1.

The Jumbo Shrimp’s exclamation point came in the top of the ninth. Ramirez (3) crushed a solo homer putting Jacksonville ahead 4-1.

Valente Bellozo (W, 1-0) led the way with a great pitching effort for Jacksonville. He spun five scoreless frames, allowing just four hits and two walks against four strikeouts. Seth Martinez, Xzavion Curry and Austin Roberts (S, 1) combined for three scoreless frames with just one hit allowed with two walks and two punchouts.

Jacksonville and Memphis meet again in Friday’s 4:05 p.m. ET contest. RHP Freddy Tarnok (0-0, 3.86 ERA) starts for the Jumbo Shrimp against Redbirds RHP Gordon Graceffo (0-1, 11.37 ERA). Coverage begins at 3:50 p.m. ET on ESPN 690 AM and ESPN690.com.

ABOUT THE JUMBO SHRIMP: The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins and compete in the International League. The team calls VyStar Ballpark home for baseball but also a wide variety of additional community focused events with a goal of providing Affordable, Family, FUN to Northeast Florida. Winners of many marketing and sales awards and recognition since the team was rebranded prior to the 2017 season, the Jumbo Shrimp continually lead the state of Florida in attendance across all minor league professional sports organizations.