Memphis Redbirds 5, Charlotte Knights 4 (Statcast box)
The Knights (55-61) took a 4-3 lead going into the ninth, but the bullpen couldn’t handle the pressure: A walk and a home run in the top of the ninth off of Elvis Peguero was the difference in this one.

Owen White was responsible for the first four innings, and gave up four hits in his scoreless outing, with two walks and four strikeouts. The offense had scored enough by then to put White in position to hand the ball off with a win secured, but the bullpen couldn’t rise to the occasion, giving up two runs in the seventh and the ninth — with both Fraser Ellard and Peguero getting hit with a blown save, and the L going to Elvis.

The offense racked up nine hits as a team, but wasn’t as efficient with runners in scoring position (1-for-7, while leaving 10 on base). Will Robertson had another solid night at the plate, with two hits including a two-run homer in the sixth that took the lead. The Knights had re-taken the lead back in the bottom of the eighth after Korey Lee poked a single to lead off the inning before scoring on an RBI base hit from Jacob Gonzalez to make it 4-3.

Outside of those two batters, Dominic Fletcher also mashed a triple, and Matt Hogan also had a multi-hit game. But otherwise it was the same old story, where the Charlotte bullpen ruins the fun.

Birmingham Barons 9, Pensacola Blue Wahoos 0
The Barons (68-43) posted 12 hits for nine runs behind excellent pitching that gave up just three hits in a runaway blowout, 9-0.

The Birmingham offense was on fire: Five of its 12 hits were for extra bases, and it went 5-for-15 with runners in scoring position. In fact, it had so many base runners that the Barons still left eight on base. Both William Bergolla and Braden Montgomery exploded for three hits each, and combining for five RBIs with two and three driven in, respectively. Bergolla and Montgomery got the party started in the top of the second, as they smoked back-to-back base hits to take a 3-0 lead. Wilfred Veras was on the same wavelength as his teammates, and his two hits were both for extra bases — a triple in the fifth and a double in the seventh, to drive in two runs.

The best part was that the pitching was just as solid, and Connor McCullough set the tone for the first four innings, giving up just one hit while walking and striking out two. This was McCullough’s third outing with the Double-A squad, and so far he has been solid with just two runs given up in 12 innings.

Lefthander Jake Palisch picked up right where Connor left off, and filled the long relief role perfectly without allowing a single runner, but striking out one. Palisch ultimately earned the W after Andrew Dalquist and Jared Kelley closed down the last two innings to seal the third win in a row for the Barons.

Asheville Tourists 10, Winston-Salem Dash 1
The Dash (43-66) struggled on the mound with 11 hits given up, and weren’t much better at the plate with just one run scored against the Tourists (46-63). All five Winston-Salem pitchers gave up at least one run, and though they struck out 10 Asheville batters there were also eight walks — and three of the 10 runs were from a wild pitch, throwing error on a pickoff attempt, and a walk.

Christian Oppor had the start and lasted three innings, giving up one run each in the second and third innings, with two hits and two walks while striking out three. The lefty ended up receiving his sixth loss of the season. The seventh inning is where things continued to fall off the rails, and righthander Seth Keener allowed four runs (two earned) on two hits, three walks, and three strikeouts. Two errors in the inning, including one from Keener himself, led to the two unearned runs, but Keener was having trouble with his control regardless, as he also hit a batter.

The rest of the bullpen struggled just the same, and two more runs were scored in the eighth and one more in the ninth for the Tourists’ final runs. There wasn’t any support, either. Jeral Perez had two hits on the day, but Cole McConnell drove in the lone Dash run of the game in the bottom of the sixth. The inning ended on the same play, however, as McConnell was thrown out at second while attempting to stretch his hit into a double. Winston-Salem did go 2-for-5 with runners in scoring position, but they weren’t even close to having enough base runners to come back, and eventually came to terms with the 10-1 loss.

Even the Dash Twitter admin didn’t want to deal with it:

Augusta GreenJackets 5, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 1
The Cannon Ballers (52-59) have scored just one run in consecutive games, dropping their fifth game in a row. Kannapolis was able to put up eight hits to Augusta’s nine, but they could only go 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left seven on base.

Lefthander Kaleb Sophy made his 14th start of the season but could not get a handle on his command, lasting just one out before being replaced by Jake Peppers. Sophy hit the first batter of the game, walked the next and allowed the first run of the game on a wild pitch before walking two more and making his exit. Peppers wasn’t too bad for the next 2 2/3 innings, though he gave up a solo homer in the third to extend Augusta’s lead to two.

Kanny cut the lead in half in the bottom of the third on an RBI single from George Wolkow, who had two hits Thursday along with Ely Brown; the two extra-base hits came from Arxy Hernández (triple) and Adrian Gil (double). Outside of one other base hit from Grant Magill, the Ballers bats were otherwise flat, and the bullpen was still having a hard time keeping things under control. Righthander Jake Curtis took four innings total, though he let up three more runs in the fourth to make it 5-1. The GreenJackets were able to hold on and serve Kanny their fifth straight L.