Memphis drops finale 13-4, still earns road series split at Charlotte

Memphis had a 2-0 lead and a series split within reach before Charlotte’s seven-run third inning turned Sunday afternoon into a 13-4 rout at Truist Field. The final score was ugly, but the larger story from the six-game set was harder to dismiss: Memphis still went home with a road split after spending most of the week looking like the more explosive club.

That tension defined the trip. The Redbirds opened with a 9-4 win on April 7, then dropped game two 7-3 before winning 4-1 in the third game to become the first professional baseball team to 10 wins in the 2026 season. Memphis then lost a wild 9-8 extra-inning game after erasing a 7-0 deficit with four home runs, and answered with a 6-4 extra-inning victory on Saturday night. By the time the finale arrived, the Redbirds had already shown enough punch to stay competitive in every direction, even when the game tilted late.

Sunday’s loss, though, exposed the fragility that can lurk beneath a productive week. Leo Bernal got Memphis rolling with an RBI double, and Nelson Velázquez followed with an RBI single for a quick 2-0 lead. Velázquez was 2-for-4 and the only Memphis hitter with a multi-hit game, which made the collapse more striking once Charlotte started stacking traffic and forcing the Redbirds into a long defensive grind.

Hancel Rincón, making his first career Triple-A start, could not hold the lead. He allowed six runs, three earned, on four hits, two walks and one strikeout, and Charlotte seized control with that seven-run third inning. The Knights never looked back, turning what had been a manageable game into the kind of lopsided finish that can distort the value of a series if the rest of the week is ignored.

Memphis did get scoreless relief from Chris Roycroft and Tink Hence, but the finale still served as a reminder that the Redbirds are living on both upside and volatility. With a 28-man Opening Day roster that included eight of the Cardinals’ top 30 prospects, this team was built to develop talent while surviving constant personnel churn. That makes the split meaningful: one bad game in Charlotte was a warning sign about how quickly a bullpen can unravel, but it was not enough to erase a week that still left Memphis standing on the right side of the scoreboard.