Braylon Payne stole the spotlight Friday night, and the 19-year-old kept doing what premium prospects do: forcing his way into the conversation. Payne launched his latest home run and, yes, the teenager is still a teenager, as he entered Timber Rattlers stratosphere. The strikeout rate is there at 29.6%, but the production keeps matching the hype.
Payne wasn’t the only Brewers prospect making noise. Daniel Dickinson continued to show the cleaner version of his game, adding a single and his 41st steal in 51 attempts after most of his 20 errors had piled up earlier in the season. Frederi Montero, who has spent most of the year grinding through a tough offensive season at first base, gave Wilson a much-needed positive note as well with his 11th homer, plus a single and a walk.
There was plenty of pitching worth sorting through, too. Hayden Robinson looked encouraging again, and the note here is a big one: he appears well past his 2024 UCL elbow surgery.
Over his last four outings, including three starts, he has logged 17 innings with 12 hits, three earned runs, six walks and 16 strikeouts. Miqueas Mercedes also worked, though he handed out five free passes, including four walks and a hit by pitch.
Ethan Dorchies, another 19-year-old, had a rougher night in five innings, surrendering two home runs and 12 baserunners while still grinding through 88 pitches to get his work in. Both homers came on off-speed pitches down and in to left-handed hitters.
Ryan Birchard, meanwhile, opened his outing by striking out the side in the seventh, then fanned the first batter he saw in the eighth before things turned into a single, double, strikeout, two-run single sequence. Sam Garcia later came in for the final out, though the game archive showed it was not an injury move.
On the position-player side, Marco Dinges reached base twice with a single and a walk, and José Anderson was picked off after Brailyn Antunez was caught stealing. The Shuckers, though, had a rough night in a 7-0 loss to the Clingstones: just three singles, four walks, 15 strikeouts, and an 0-for-7 line with runners in scoring position. Biloxi’s video wasn’t there, so the Friday-night Mark Coley II interview was the fallback.
In another game, the Crew and the Blue went back at it after Friday’s 5-4 Blue win, and this time the Crew came out on top again. The Blue offense never had a hit that wasn’t a single, but it still created pressure through 12 free passes, including 11 walks and one hit by pitch, plus six steals in six tries.
The Crew also benefited from one of the sharper combined pitching lines of the year from 17-year-old southpaw Alexander Mercedes and 17-year-old right-hander Daniel Munoz. Boston had seven at-bats with runners in scoring position and couldn’t cash in once.
The Gold had their own wild finish. They led 1-0 after five, then piled on nine unanswered runs over the next inning and a half, only to watch Cincinnati answer with six of its own in the final frame.
Three Gold pitchers combined for six walks, a hit by pitch and a wild pitch in that inning, along with hits, before a strikeout finally ended it with the bases loaded and the score at 9-7. No Brewer had a multi-hit game, but everyone chipped in.
Angeni Fernandez, who plays CF/LF/2B and was in center field here, celebrated his 17th birthday early Saturday morning by hitting his third home run of the season, his last one as a 16-year-old, and he did it with a sweet .837 OPS. Brandon Sproat is set to make his Nashville debut Sunday.
In Other News...
Tyrone Taylor Just Reopened A Brewers Debate Fans Hate Hearing
Tyrone Taylors name still carries a little extra weight in Milwaukee, and for good reason. After five years with the Brewers, he was dealt from the Mets to the Cubs in the same move that sent Clay Holmes to Chicago and brought top prospect Jefferson Rojas into the conversation, instantly dropping a familiar face into one of baseballs most uncomfortable rivalries for Brewers fans. Taylor also knows exactly how much this matchup can seep into the atmosphere at American Family Field, where Cubs supporters show up in enough numbers to turn a home game into something closer to a split crowd.
That is what makes his latest comments land with a little more sting for Brewers followers who already dislike hearing about the Cubs in any context. The rivalry has long been one of the most charged in the division, and Taylor has seen enough of both sides to talk about it with some perspective. His history against Chicago only adds another layer, because when a player with Milwaukee roots starts revisiting that matchup, it tends to reopen the same old debate about just how much the Cubs still loom over the Brewers season. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Suddenly Have A Shortstop Problem They Didnt Want
The Brewers shortstop depth got tested in a hurry after rookie Cooper Pratt was forced onto the 10-day injured list with a hamstring issue. Pratt had been giving Milwaukee a lift since his MLB debut, which made his sudden absence especially frustrating for a club that has been leaning on young infield help and trying to keep its roster moving without much margin for error.
Milwaukee responded by bringing in utility man Jihwan Bae on a Minor League contract and getting him onto the active roster to fill the gap. Bae had recently been in Triple-A Syracuse after time in the Pirates and Mets organizations, giving the Brewers a quick-stop option while they wait to see how long Pratt is out and whether the rookie can regain the form that had earned him a bigger look. [Read more 🡒]