Once play resumed on Friday between Class High-A Peoria and South Bend, Cardinals catching prospect Leonardo Bernal gave Peoria a lead in its 9-6 win, then helped protect it.
When he stepped to the plate with two outs in the sixth inning of a 4-4 ballgame that was suspended in the fourth inning on Thursday because of rain, the switch-hitting catcher sent a 2-2 fastball from South Bend’s Aaron Perry to right field for a solo home run to break the tie. Bernal’s home run was his sixth of the year. He has four homers off right-handed pitchers as a left-handed hitter. Across 127 at-bats as a lefty vs. righties, Bernal has a .246 average and slugged .402 while batting .366 with a .585 slugging percentage as a righty vs. lefties.
The home run gave Bernal, who doubled on Thursday before play was halted, his fourth multi-hit performance in his last seven games played. He boosted his average from .259 to .274 in that stretch.
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In the seventh inning when South Bend’s Brett Bateman singled to lead off the frame and stole second base two batters later, Bernal’s heads-up defensive play quieted a potential scoring threat.
Bernal blocked a 2-2 breaking pitch from Peoria righty Zane Mills that bounced in the dirt to prevent a wild pitch. His effort to keep the ball in front of him, pop up to chase it down, and scoop it up as it bounced towards the third base line forced Bateman to stop sprinting for third base and retreat to second.
As Bateman reversed course after he had gone nearly halfway to third, Bernal threw down to second baseman Dakota Harris, who covered the second base bag. The 20-year-old catcher’s throw was on time and accurate, allowing Harris to tag Bateman for the inning’s second out.
Elsewhere across the Cardinals farm system:
Right-handed pitcher Max Rajcic, Class AA Springfield: Rajcic continued to chip away at his ERA by securing his second consecutive quality start. The 2023 Cardinals minor league pitcher of the year kept Northwest Arkansas to one run over 6 1/3 innings as he struck out five batters and walked three. The only run the 22-year-old allowed was on a two-out single in the sixth inning from Northwest Arkansas’s Gavin Cross. Rajcic (pronounced like “magicâ€) escaped potential damage in the fourth inning when the Naturals had runners on second and third base following a double from Rodolfo Duran and after a fielding error by Springfield’s R.J. Yeager allowed Cross to reach first base with one out in the frame. After Cross stole second base to put two runners in scoring position, Rajcic struck out Dillon Shrum, swinging on a curveball, and got Peyton Wilson to line out to third baseman Jacob Buchberger to end the inning. Rajcic’s effort in Springfield’s 4-0 home loss to Northwest Arkansas at Hammons Field lowered his ERA to 4.91 over 58 2/3 innings. The former sixth-round pick from the 2022 MLB draft had a 7.28 ERA after his first seven starts of the year.
Left-handed pitcher Zack Thompson, Class AAA Memphis: The lefty struck out seven batters and continued to see his fastball velocity tick up but had his outing end as he threw 36 pitches and allowed five hits, which included two solo home runs, in the fourth inning vs. Norfolk. Thompson, whose fastball averaged 93.3 mph and topped out at 96.6 mph, allowed solo home runs to the first two Norfolk batters he faced to begin the fourth frame. He recorded a strikeout, allowed a single, and induced a ground out to the next three batters he faced before issuing a walk and back-to-back two-out singles to the three that followed. Thompson’s evening ended after 78 pitches (51 strikes) and 3 2/3 innings in Memphis’s 9-2 road loss to Norfolk at Harbor Park. The seven runs allowed by Thomspon are the most he’s surrendered in nine games (eight starts) in the minors this season. He is 2-2 with a 3.86 ERA and 46 strikeouts across 37 1/3 innings for the Redbirds.
Infielder Dakota Harris, Class High-A Peoria: Harris, the Cardinals’ 11th-round pick in the 2023 MLB draft, gave Peoria an insurance run on a solo home run in the continuation of Thursday’s game and homered again as part of a two-RBI effort in the Chiefs’ 9-2 win over South Bend at Dozer Park. The two homers in the two separate games pushed Harris’s season total to six in 43 games. The 22-year-old infield prospect’s three RBIs continued his torrid start to June. He has a .533average and 11 RBIs in 30at-bats this month after batting .167 with one RBI in 54 at-bats in May.