Three Stars: August 20 vs. Memphis

The Isotopes (65-63) walked off with a 6-5 win over the Memphis Redbirds (66-61) as Ivan De Jesus, Jr. socked his second home run of the night, a two-run shot, in the bottom of the ninth inning to claim the victory for Albuquerque.

A frenetic ninth inning began with the ‘Topes up 4-1, but Memphis put up four in their half of the ninth on the strength of an RBI single from Andrew Brown, a groundout from Tyler Greene that scored Brown, and finally, a two-run homer from Nick Stavinoha that put the Redbirds up, 5-4. But the ‘Topes rallied against Memphis reliever Jess Todd, with Brad Coon leading off the bottom of the ninth with a broken-bat single to right. That brought in De Jesus, who had hit a solo homer in the fifth inning, and the Puerto Rican delivered again as he smashed an 0-2 pitch from Todd over the wall in left field to win the game for the ‘Topes.

Here are tonight’s Three Stars of the Game for your Isotopes:

1. Ivan De Jesus, Jr., 2B (2-for-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI, BB, two runs scored)

A two-homer game will certainly get you a star, but a two-homer game that includes the game-winning jack that capped one of the most exciting Isotope victories of the season? That’s NUMBER ONE material, there.

2. Mike Parisi, P (6.2 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 8 K)

The former Long Island Duck put up a strong outing despite ending up with a no-decision. 70 of Parisi’s 107 pitches went for strikes and his lone hiccup came in the seventh as an Adron Chambers RBI triple chopped Albuquerque’s edge to 2-1.

3. Tim Federowicz, C (3-for-4, HR, 2 RBI, two runs scored)

Federowicz’s fourth homer of the season, a two-run shot in the eighth, extended the ‘Topes lead to 4-1 and, considering the pitcher-driven proceedings of the previous seven frames, gave them what appeared to be solid insurance. Little did we know how wild the ninth would be…

For a full recap of tonight’s contest, head over to AlbuquerqueBaseball.com!