Happy Memorial Day, everyone. A 3:34 p.m. check of the radar does not portend good things. There’s a pretty big swath of rain moving southwest to northeast that looks like it’s going to crush us, and the wind is going crazy outside. My guess: At least a 70 percent chance that there’s going to be a delay tonight.

(And I just heard the call for a tarp pull over the walkie talkies ...)

Salem chose not to take batting practice today, so Lynchburg got some extra time on the field taking infield and in the cage taking swings.

Today’s lineups:

SALEM (30-20)

Peter Hissey cf (.258, 0 HR, 14 RBI, 9 SB)

Oscar Tejeda 2b (.321, 8 HR, 29 RBI, 7 SB)

Will Middlebrooks 3b (.315, 3 HR, 19 RBI, 3 SB)

Ryan Lavarnway c (.301, 11 HR, 41 RBI, 1 SB)

Mitch Dening rf (.264, 0 HR, 16 RBI, 3 SB)

Alex Hassan dh (.221, 2 HR, 16 RBI, 2 SB)

Drew Hedman lf (.248, 0 HR, 14 RBI, 2 SB)

Ryan Dent ss (.210, 2 HR, 19 RBI, 4 SB)

Jon Hee 1b (.229, 0 HR, 6 RBI, 0 SB)

Alex Wilson RHP (2-1, 3.38 ERA, 9 APP, 9 GS, 45 1/3 IP, 35 H, 17 ER, 12 BB, 44 K)

LYNCHBURG (21-29)

Josh Fellhauer lf (.286, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 3 SB)

Cody Puckett 2b (.288, 6 HR, 21 RBI, 5 SB)

Alex Buchholz 3b (.287, 1 HR, 25 RBI, 5 SB)

Carlos Mendez 1b (.305, 0 HR, 9 RBI, 4 SB)

Kevin Coddington c (.667, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB)

Neftali Soto dh (.261, 6 HR, 27 RBI, 0 SB)

Kyle Day rf (.254, 3 HR, 11 RBI, 2 SB)

Miguel Rojas ss (.213, 0 HR, 11 RBI, 6 SB)

Efrain Contreras cf (.207, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 0 SB)

Mark Serrano RHP (2-2, 3.24 ERA, 8 APP, 8 GS, 41 2/3 IP, 37 H, 15 ER, 9 BB, 40 K)

Some notes:

—Now they just pulled the tarp back off. Odd. On the radar, the giant blob of rain coming from Martinsville seemingly broke up over Smith Mountain Lake. I’ll trust head groundskeeper Darren Johnson on this one. He’s the zen master of the radar.

—With Lance Janke throwing five innings in relief of Brad Boxberger Sunday, he won’t be able to make his scheduled start against Salem tomorrow. So James Avery will fill that role as the blister on his throwing hand has healed enough that he can go. Wednesday’s starter is listed as TBA, and the Hillcats roster has only 24 players right now. I assume the Reds will either send someone down from Carolina or bring someone up from Dayton to make that start on Wednesday. Either that, or Jordan Hotchkiss might get another spot start.

—I was having a discussion with Hillcats broadcaster Scott Bacon the other day about Lynchburg’s quirky hitting statistics. If you’ll remember last year, the Hillcats struggled to hit .250 as a team but they managed to score runs and come up in big spots. This season, the Cats rank second in the Carolina League with a .274 team BA but rank just sixth in runs with 204. So what gives?

* As a team, the Cats are hitting .283 leading off an inning. With runners on base, that number drops to .276. With runners in scoring position, it falls to 243. With runners in scoring position and two outs, it drops to .215. And with the bases loaded, the team is batting .159. So for the most part, the team does a lot of damage in low pressure situations.

* The worst offenders individually? Carlos Mendez is hitting .367 leading off an inning but .163 with RISP. Neftali Soto is batting .357 leading off but .167 with RISP.

* Alex Buchholz is the reverse. He’s batting .206 with no one on and .420 with RISP. He’s hitting .462 with RISP/2out and .667 with the bases loaded.

—Former Reds great Eric Davis is at the stadium today. Davis is a special assistant to Reds general manager Walt Jocketty and previously worked with the club during spring training as a special instructor. Davis twice was named baseball’s comeback player of the year and won three Gold Gloves and posted seven 20 homer/20 stolen base seasons.

—Salem is 5-2 against Lynchburg so far and 2-1 against the Cats at City Stadium.

—Lynchburg was 2-10 in day games before Sunday’s win over Frederick. The Cats snapped a skid of nine straight day-game losses Sunday.

—UTIL Cody Puckett hit his team-leading 18th double Sunday and now ranks second in the Carolina League in the category. He leads the circuit in extra-base hits (26) and is tied for fourth in slugging percentage (.538).

—In a three-game series against Potomac last weekend, Salem struck out 43 times, including 20 times during Saturday’s 11-inning game.

—Salem starter Alex Wilson hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 16 1/3 innings pitched.

AROUND THE ORGANIZATION
Monday’s score
AA—Jacksonville (Marlins) 3, Carolina (Reds) 1
Former Hillcat Devin Mesoraco hit his second home run in two days with his new club.
Mudcats’ record: 23-28, 4th SL North, 7 GB

Sunday’s scores

MLB—Houston 2, Cincinnati 0 (10)
Mike Leake threw six scoreless innings but the Reds fail to support the rookie.
Reds’ record: 30-21, 1st NL Central, 1 game ahead of St. Louis

AAA—Louisville (Reds) 9, Gwinnett (Braves) 6
Wladimir Balentien hit two home runs and drove in four runs for the Bats.
Bats’ record: 23-27, 4th IL West, 8 1/2 GB

HiA—Lynchburg (Reds) 7, Frederick (Orioles) 2
Lance Janke gave the Hillcats five clutch innings out of the bullpen to lift Lynchburg.
Hillcats’ record: 21-29, 4th CL North, 8 GB

LoA—West Michigan (Tigers) 7, Dayton (Reds) 4
Note: Today’s Dayton game was postponed by rain
Henry Rodriguez drove in two runs for the Dragons.