August 21 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers vs. Sacramento River Cats

TACOMA RAINIERS (71-50) vs. SACRAMENTO RIVER CATS (63-58)
Wednesday, August 21 • 7:05 PM • Cheney Stadium • Tacoma, WA
RHP Michael Mariot (8-5, 5.27) vs. RHP Trevor McDonald (1-2, 3.15)

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: Tacoma and Sacramento will play game two of their six-game series tonight, with the Rainiers holding a 1-0 series lead after last night’s win. Michael Mariot will take the ball for the Rainiers, set to make it 20th start of the year in his 23rd game for Tacoma. Mariot is 8-5 with a 5.27 ERA over that span, allowing 59 earned runs on 98 hits and 24 walks, striking out 87 over his 100.2 innings pitched. In two games (one start) against Sacramento this year, the right-hander is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA, tossing seven scoreless innings. He has allowed just three hits and one walk while striking out five over that span. Opposite Mariot will be Trevor McDonald toeing the rubber for the River Cats, set to pitch in his fifth game and make his fourth start of the year. The right-hander is 1-2 with a 3.15 ERA, allowing seven earned runs on 20 hits and three walks while striking out 18 over his 20.0 innings pitched. McDonald is San Francisco’s No. 14 ranked prospect by MLB.com and is pitching at his fourth level this season.

MR. 1,000: Manager John Russell secured his 1,000th career managerial victory with last night’s 2-0 win over Sacramento. Russell started managing back in 1995 with Appy League Elizabethton and eventually made it all the way up to the big leagues. He skippered the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2008-10 before coming back down to Triple-A Tacoma last season. His most successful season at the helm came in 2006 with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he went 84-58. Tacoma won 77 games last year and has 71 victories with 29 games left to play entering tonight.

STELLAR PITCHING: Both starters last night threw the ball extremely well, as Emerson Hancock and Mason Black had dueling no-hitters through five innings. Hancock ended up earning the victory, allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out five over 6.2 shutout innings. On the other side, Black allowed just one earned run on one hit and four walks, striking out three over his 5.2 innings. Hancock’s outing was part of a bigger picture for Tacoma, as their starting rotation has now gone 10 straight games throwing at least five innings, dating back to Aug. 9. In six of those 10 games, they have gone six or more innings, delivering six quality starts in their last 10 outings.

CHENEY MAGIC: Tacoma won their 40th home game of the season last night, moving to 40-18 at home while going 31-32 on the road. They moved to 6-1 through the first seven games of this two-week homestand, winning a season-long six games in a row entering play tonight. The Rainiers have been stellar at home all season, not dropping a single series in front of the Cheney Stadium faithful. They are 9-2-0 in their 11 series here at home, going 4-1-6 in road series. In 58 games at home this year, they have a +79-run differential (377-298), better than any other Pacific Coast League team’s overall run differential. They are hitting .269 with a 4.88 team ERA at home while hitting .264 with a 5.04 ERA on the road, where they hold a +28-run differential (361-333).

ALL OF THE OFFENSE: Samad Taylor accounted for the majority of Tacoma’s offense last night, as the utility-man went 2-for-4 with a run scored, a double and a run batted in out of the two-hole. Taylor was the only player for either team to record a multi-hit game, collecting two of Tacoma’s three hits and two of the six total hits in the game. The 26-year-old collected Tacoma’s first hit of the game and scored their first run in the sixth inning, breaking the scoreless tie.

SHUT IT DOWN: Joey Krehbiel closed out the victory for the Rainiers last night with a scoreless ninth inning, striking out two of the three men he faced. The right-hander earned his 10th save of the year with the outing, leading the team and good for second among qualified Pacific Coast League pitchers. Krehbiel has converted each of his last four save opportunities dating back to August 9, allowing two earned runs on three hits and one walk while striking out five over that span. Krehbiel has been a high leverage, late inning reliever all year long for Tacoma, leading all Rainiers’ pitchers in games played with 46. He is 5-2 with a 3.65 ERA over those 10 games, allowing just 20 earned runs on 35 hits while striking out 48 batters in 49.1 innings. Krehbiel is limiting opponents to a .193 batting average against him.

KEEP ON WINNING: With last night’s victory, Tacoma has now won a season-long six straight games entering tonight’s game. Six wins in a row matches their longest streak from last season, a feat they accomplished twice. They moved to a season-high 21 games over the .500-mark, at 71-50, having gone 9-1 in their last 10 games. The last time Tacoma lost consecutive games came on July 27-31, when they lost four in a row. Since then, they have won 14-of-17, including taking five-of-six in back-to-back series. Despite all of the winning, they are still only 0.5 games up in the second half standings, as Reno has won seven games in a row to keep pace.

AGAINST SACRAMENTO: The Rainiers and River Cats are set to play game two of their six-game series at Cheney Stadium, with Tacoma leading the series 1-0. Entering play tonight, Sacramento holds an 8-5 advantage over Tacoma in the season series, taking four-of-six games in each of the first two series. Both of those were played at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, as this is the first meeting between the two teams in Tacoma and the last series between the two teams this season. Sacramento leads the all-time series by 10 games, at 256-246.

SHORT HOPS: Ryan Bliss went 0-for-1 last night, but still found a way to contribute, as he drew three walks and stole two bases out of the leadoff spot…the Rainiers are now 6-0 in games that Seby Zavala hits eighth and 7-0 in games that Duke Ellis hits ninth…after allowing runs in each of his first two outings, Josh Fleming has now thrown four consecutive scoreless outings; in each of his last two games he has come in with runners on base and stranded them, allowing just one hit over his last 3.0 innings.