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Tucker caps first professional season with career-best performance
If former Northview standout Braydon Tucker could have scripted a better finish to his first full professional season, it would have likely gone very similar to what took place on Saturday night in Aberdeen, Maryland.
Taking on the Aberdeen IronBirds, the High-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, Tucker put together his best start since being signed as an undrafted free agent by the Philadelphia Phillies last summer.
The hard-throwing right-hander fired a career-best seven shutout innings. He worked around six hits and one walk while striking out eight batters, another career high for the former Knight, to pick up his fourth win of the season while also lowering his ERA to 3.02.
And despite Jersey Shore finishing the season 17 games above the .500 mark (74-57) and in second place in the South Atlantic League’s North Division, the BlueClaws fell a few games short of qualifying for the playoffs, bringing an end to their year.
Tucker started the season with the Clearwater Threshers, the Low-A affiliate of the Phillies, in April and turned some heads in the organization by posting a 2.94 ERA over 64.1 innings, earning a promotion to High-A Jersey Shore following the All-Star break.
He continued to throw the ball well the rest of the summer, and even got stronger down the final stretch.
At Jersey Shore, he threw 41.2 more innings to put him at 111 for the season, a 13-inning increase from 2023 at Lipscomb University and at Low-A Clearwater. Between both stops in 2024, Tucker posted a 9-4 record and a 3.16 ERA while holding opposing hitters to a .237 batting average against him.