September 4 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers vs. Albuquerque Isotopes

TACOMA RAINIERS (73-60) vs. ALBUQUERQUE ISOTOPES (54-79)
Wednesday, September 4 • 6:05 PM • Cheney Stadium • Tacoma, WA
RHP Casey Lawrence (10-9, 6.08) vs. RHP Tanner Gordon (3-3, 4.74)

TONIGHT’S GAME: Tacoma and Albuquerque will play game two of their six-game series tonight, with Casey Lawrence toeing the rubber for the Rainiers. Lawrence leads the team with 10 wins, entering play tonight with a 10-9 record and a 6.08 ERA through 25 starts. Over that span, he has allowed 97 earned runs on 171 hits including 31 home runs, walking 43 with 93 strikeouts over his 143.2 innings pitched. Opposite Lawrence will be Tanner Gordon getting the starting nod for the Isotopes, going 3-3 with a 4.74 ERA through his first nine starts this year. Gordon has allowed 23 earned runs on 51 hits and 12 walks, striking out 38 batters over his 43.2 innings. The right-hander will face Tacoma for the first time this season and of his career.

SOLAK TO SEVEN: For the third time this season, outfielder Nick Solak is on a six-game hitting streak entering play tonight. Solak is hitting .364 (8-for-22) with two runs scored, an RBI and three walks compared to two strikeouts over the streak that dates back to Aug. 27. The 29-year-old has been a hitting machine all year long for the Rainiers, entering play tonight with a batting average of .308 through 77 games this year, good for second on the active roster. His 77 hits are fourth on the active roster, averaging one hit per game on the season. A hit tonight would give him his longest hitting streak of the season, hitting safely in seven consecutive games.

FIRST TIME OUT: Trevor Kelley struggled in his return to action last night, allowing three earned runs on two hits and a hit batter, recording just one out along the way. The right-hander has been a high-leverage arm for the Rainiers all year and recently went on the temporarily inactive list. His last game prior to last night was back on Aug. 25 against Sacramento, not pitching in a game for over a week. The outing raised Kelley’s ERA from 3.04 to 3.59 in his 46th game of the season.

TIME FOR REVENGE: Entering this season, Casey Lawrence had Albuquerque’s number in his limited games against them. In four games (three starts) throughout his career, Lawrence had allowed just four earned runs on 16 hits in 24.2 innings, striking out 19 batters compared to just three walks. It didn’t continue in his first start of the season against the Isotopes, allowing a career-high 11 earned runs on 10 hits including two home runs. He walked four and struck out two over his 4.1 innings back on July 10. Lawrence will look to bounce back against the Isotopes in tonight’s start, trying to get back in the win column.

NOT AGAIN: Tacoma lost yet another lead in their loss to Albuquerque last night, leading 3-1 after five innings and losing the game by a final score of 9-3. That has been a common theme for the Rainiers in their recent cold stretch, as they have held leads in five of their last six games. They led 6-4 after six innings in El Paso on Aug. 28 and lost 9-8, led 3-0 after five innings the next day and lost 5-3. Their lone win came on Aug. 31 when they led 3-1 after four innings, allowed the Chihuahuas to come back and tie it but ended up scoring three in the final inning to win 6-4. In the finale against El Paso on Sunday they led 4-1 after four innings, allowed two runs in the fifth but still led until a five-run seventh inning put them down 8-4 where it stayed. Similarly, the Rainiers led 3-1 after five innings last night, were tied 3-3 after seven and lost 9-3 after back-to-back three run frames for Albuquerque.

SLOW THEM DOWN: Greg Jones and Zac Veen combined to go 5-for-10 with five runs scored, a double, two home runs and three runs batted in in the opener last night. Leading things off, Jones went 2-for-5 with two runs scored, a home run and two runs batted in, increasing his average on the year to .263. Veen, in just his ninth game at Triple-A, registered his third multi-hit effort. The young outfielder went 3-for-5 with three runs scored, a double, a home run and a run batted in. The top two hitters for Albuquerque’s lineup took the game over and will need to be slowed down tonight if the Rainiers want to end their losing streak.

AGAINST ALBUQUERQUE: Tacoma and Albuquerque will play their final series of the season this week and the first at Cheney Stadium this year. In their first six games of the year at Rio Grande Credit Union Field at Isotopes Park, the Isotopes took four-of-six from Tacoma. It was a well-played series, as four of the six games were decided by one run. Tacoma outscored Albuquerque 48-44 because of one big nine-run victory. After a loss in the opener last night, Tacoma enters tonight trailing the season series 2-5, the all-time series 270-288-1 and on a two-game losing streak to the Isotopes.

SHORT HOPS: Logan Warmoth knocked his first home run of the season for Tacoma last night, recording his second multi-hit game of the year with the Rainiers…despite allowing both inherited runs to score last night, Josh Fleming retired the first batter he faced, going a perfect 12-for-12 in that category this year for Tacoma…Dominic Canzone has recorded at least one hit in 13 of his 14 games with Tacoma this season.