Pitching Matchup Between Meyer and Greene Lives Up to Hype

In a highly anticipated pitching showdown between two of baseball’s top prospects, the Lookouts edged past the Wahoos 1-0 on Friday night at AT&T Field.

Hunter Greene (W, 5-0), the league leader in wins and strikeouts (60) took the mound for the hosts against Wahoos ace Max Meyer. It was matchup that featured a second overall pick in 2017 (Greene) and a third overall pick (Meyer) in 2020.

The pitching matchup lived up the hype, as evidenced by the final score.

Meyer lasted only five innings on a night where his command at times tried to betray him. During his outing, Meyer yielded four walks and only struck out three, but escaped peril numerous times throughout his start.

In the bottom of the first, the Lookouts loaded the bases with only out. Meyer fell behind Brian Rey 3-0; however, Rey hit into an inning ending double play on a 3-0 fastball to end the threat. In the second inning the Lookouts had runners on first and second with two outs before Meyer induced a groundout to end the inning. Meyer ran into the same issue in the fourth, but stranded two more base runners when Leonardo Rivas ended the inning with a groundout Lazaro Alonso.

Despite the nine strikeouts from Greene, the Wahoos had chances to score against the Reds top pitching prospect.

In the top of the first inning, Jerar Encarnacion doubled to right and Nick Fortes walked to set up first and second with two outs. The inning came to an end when Greene struck out Alonso with a 101 mph fastball. In the fourth, the Wahoos opened the inning with back-to-back walks against Greene. Unfortunately for the Wahoos, the rally would go no further as the right-hander retired the next three Wahoos in a row to end the inning.

The only offense in the game came after Meyer departed the contest. Zach Wolf (L, 0-2) surrendered a solo home run to Chuck Robinson to put the Lookouts 1-0. That was the only hit the Wahoos bullpen allowed on Friday.

In the top of the ninth inning against another former first round pick, Pensacola got the tying run in scoring position against Nick Howard S, 3). After a walk to Riley Mahan, the Wahoos used Jhon Nunez as a pinch runner, who advanced to second on a wild pitch. The game came to end after Howard struck out Peyton Burdick to end the game.

Saturday night will feature another star-studded pitching matchup at AT&T Field. LHP Jake Eder (1-1, 0.61) will face LHP Nick Lodolo (2-0, 1.01). Eder has the second-lowest ERA in all of MiLB, and Lodolo was the seventh overall pick in 2019 out of TCU.

Coverage of tomorrow’s game is available on ESPN Pensacola and bluewahoos.com. First pitch is slated for 6:15 PM CT.