The strong start to Tink Hence’s return to the Double-A level continued on Thursday when the right-handed Cardinals pitching prospect allowed one run on four hits and struck out six batters in his start for Class AA Springfield.
Hence, who entered the start with an ERA below 1.00 following his first two starts, began his road outing against Amarillo by facing two batters over the minimum in his first three innings of work. The lone run the 21-year-old gave up came on a solo homer to Amarillo’s Deyvison De Los Santos in the fourth inning of Springfield’s 6-3 loss to the Sod Poodles, the Diamondbacks Double-A affiliate. The home run was the first Hence has allowed this season and was the second run that’s been charged to Hence in his first three starts.
After walking a batter and inducing a flyout to begin the sixth inning, Hence exited the game after reaching a career-high 83 pitches. Through 15 1/3 innings, the righty has a 1.17 ERA, 16 strikeouts, and has allowed two walks. He’s kept hitters to a .132 batting average and maintained a 0.59 WHIP over his three starts.
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Here are other notable performances from around the Cardinals farm system:
Right-handed pitcher Gordon Graceffo, Class AAA Memphis: Coming off his first winning decision of the year, Graceffo delivered six innings of one-run ball and collected a season-high eight strikeouts to improve his record to 2-1. Against Gwinnett, Graceffo collected 14 swings-and-misses on his 95 pitches. Nine of the whiffs came via his fastball while four were on his slider, per Statcast. The righty’s fastball averaged 92.2 mph and reached a maximum velocity of 95.3 mph. With his first quality start of the year, Graceffo lowered his ERA to 4.34 over 18 2/3 innings. The 24-year-old has fanned just over 25% of the batters he’s faced.
Infielder Thomas Saggese, Class AAA Memphis: With a pair of doubles in four at-bats against Gwinnett, Saggese improved to 15-for-52 (.288 average) through 14 games with Memphis. The first of Saggese’s two doubles jumped off his bat with a 107 mph exit velocity and plated two runs in the Redbirds’ 3-1 road win. Since going hitless in his first two games to begin the year, the Cardinals’ top infield prospect is slashing .333/.380/.489 with four doubles and a home run in 45 at-bats. His two-hit game against Gwinnett extended his hitting streak to six consecutive games.
Left-handed pitcher Cooper Hjerpe, Class High-A Peoria: In four innings, the former first-round pick struck out seven batters and kept Quad Cities limited to two hits, a walk, and no runs as Peoria’s starter. Hjerpe threw 36 of his 57 pitches for strikes in the 1-0 loss. The lefty induced eight swings-and-misses and secured five of his eight strikeouts as swinging strikeouts — the last three of which came against the final three hitters he faced. The start was Hjerpe’s longest of the first three he’s made to begin 2024. He was knocked out of his season debut after 2/3 of an inning and followed that by allowing three runs on eight hits in an April 12 start against Beloit. Across 7 2/3 frames, Hjerpe has struck out 13 batters and walked five.
Catcher Sammy Hernandez, Class Low-A Palm Beach: As Palm Beach’s leadoff hitter in a 9-2 win over Lakeland, Hernandez went two-for-four with two doubles and two RBIs. The 19-year-old, who began his spring as the youngest player in Cardinals big league camp, collected both RBIs with a two-out double in the first inning after he fell behind 0-2 in the count to Lakeland’s Jake Miller. The two-hit game improved Hernandez to a .414 average and 1.196 OPS through his first 37 plate appearances of 2024. The teenage catching prospect has five doubles, a triple, and six walks in his first eight games.