MEMPHIS, Tennessee – The division-champion Memphis Redbirds picked up their fourth-straight win and returned to 40 games over .500 with a 3-2 win over the Iowa Cubs (Cubs) Tuesdaynight at AutoZone Park.
Memphis is now 88-48 on the season, with the 88 wins tied with the 1929 and 1937 Memphis Chickasaws for the 13th-most victories in 119 seasons of professional baseball in Memphis. The Redbirds are 42-17 in their last 59 games.
Tyler O’Neill homered for the second time in two games in the first inning, with the two-run shot putting the Redbirds ahead, 2-0. After Iowa tied the game with two runs in the third,Gabriel Lino hit a solo home run in the fifth inning, his first as a Redbird, to give Memphis a lead it would not relinquish.
Matt Pearce tossed 7.0 solid innings to earn his fourth win of the season, giving up the two runs on nine hits.
With an Arturo Reyes strikeout in the eighth inning, the Redbirds set the franchise record for pitching strikeouts in a season, bettering the 2012 club’s 1100 by one. Reyes earned his first save of the season by pitching the eighth and ninth innings.
Aledmys Diaz made two stellar defensive plays at second base to help the win, cutting down a runner at the plate in the first inning and then keeping a ground ball up the middle in the infield to hold the potential tying run at third base in the eighth.
The Redbirds finish the regular season with two more games against Iowa tomorrow (6:35 p.m.) and Thursday (7:05 p.m.) and four games at Colorado Springs Friday–Monday, before the playoffs begin at AutoZone Park on Wednesday, Sept. 6, with game one presented by Coca-Cola, and Thursday, Sept. 7.
