July 27 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers @ Oklahoma City Baseball Club

TACOMA RAINIERS (57-43) @ OKLAHOMA CITY BASEBALL CLUB (49-51)
Saturday, July 27 • 5:05 PM PT • Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark • Oklahoma City, OK
RHP Emerson Hancock (4-1, 2.06) vs. RHP Bobby Miller (0-1, 3.95)

TONIGHT’S GAME: The Rainiers and Baseball Club will meet for game five tonight, as Tacoma will go for the series win after back-to-back victories. The Rainiers will send Emerson Hancock to the mound, entering play tonight with a 4-1 record and a 2.06 ERA through nine starts. In his 52.1 innings with the Rainiers, the right-hander has allowed just 12 earned runs on 45 hits and 18 walks, striking out 37 batters along the way. He is coming off his best start of the year, a complete game shutout in Sunday’s finale against Reno. Opposite Hancock will be right-hander Bobby Miller toeing the rubber for the Baseball Club, coming into tonight’s game with an 0-1 record and a 3.95 ERA through three starts. Miller has allowed seven runs (six earned) on 13 hits and nine walks while striking out 10 batters over 13.2 innings with Oklahoma City. Opponents are hitting .255 against him over his three starts this year, but he is coming off a start in which he allowed just three hits to Round Rock on July 20.

LAST TIME OUT: Emerson Hancock had a special outing his last time on the mound, delivering the first complete game of his career. The right-hander tossed nine shutout innings against Reno in the series finale on Sunday, scattering nine hits and two walks along the way. His nine hits allowed tied a season high, but Hancock struck out three batters and induced three double plays to get out of trouble. With the stellar performance, the 25-year-old moved to 4-1 with a 2.06 ERA through nine starts with Tacoma this year. He will face Oklahoma City for the first time in his career tonight, looking to replicate the success he showed on Sunday against the Aces.

KEEP ON CLIMBING: Tacoma moved to a season-high 14 games over .500 with their win last night, as their overall record is now 57-43 on the season. This is the best overall mark in the Pacific Coast League West Division, four games better than Sacramento. It is also the second-best mark in the entire PCL, trailing just Sugar Land, who won the first half and currently holds a record of 64-35. The Rainiers have been a top team in the league all season long, never being a game under .500 all year. They have the best run differential in all of Triple-A, at 106 runs. They enter play tonight trailing Reno in the second half standings by 2.5 games, going 14-11 through their first 25 games of the second half.

SOLE LEADER: Jhonathan Diaz earned his ninth win of the season last night, snapping a four-start span without a win dating back to June 16. Diaz allowed just one earned run, working around four hits and five walks with seven strikeouts to get through his 6.0 innings. The southpaw now holds the sole lead among Pacific Coast League pitchers for wins with nine, tying him at the top of the Triple-A leaderboard with three other pitchers from the International League. The 27-year-old leads the team in wins (9) and strikeouts (95), coming in second in starts (17) and innings pitched (97.1).

STARTS AT THE TOP: After the top four hitters in Tacoma’s lineup combined to go 0-for-18 with six strikeouts in Thursday’s game, they were much more productive last night. Each of the top two hitters, Ryan Bliss and Duke Ellis, had nearly identical lines. They each went 2-for-4 with a run scored, a run batted in, a walk and two stolen bases, while Bliss struck out twice compared to none for Ellis. Spencer Packard, hitting out of the four-hole, delivered three hits and two runs batted in as well.

PERFECT: At the start of the second half, Tacoma had difficulty closing out games, blowing seven save opportunities over their first three series. They seemed to have gotten back to their roots the last two series, however, as they have gone 3-for-3 in save opportunities since the All-Star break. After Joey Krehbiel earned his sixth of the year Thursday night, Cody Bolton closed out his second game of the season with Tacoma last night. The right-hander spun a perfect ninth inning, striking out all three batters he faced. Bolton needed 17 pitches (11 strikes) to get through the outing, lowering his ERA to 2.30 in his 17 games with the Rainiers this season.

MAKE IT THREE: Tacoma has now won back-to-back games against Oklahoma City for the first time this season, and a big reason why is their starting pitching. The Rainiers have gotten back-to-back quality starts from Casey Lawrence and Jhonathan Diaz. On Thursday, Lawrence allowed three earned runs on five hits and one walk while striking out four batters in 6.2 innings. Last night, Diaz earned the win by allowing just one earned run on four hits and five walks, striking out seven batters in 6.0 innings. Tonight’s starter, Emerson Hancock, will look to follow suit and put Tacoma in a good position to win their third straight game and take the series over Oklahoma City. The 25-year-old has thrown five quality starts out of his nine this year for the Rainiers.

AGAINST OKLAHOMA CITY: Tacoma and Oklahoma City will play game five of their six-game set tonight, matching up for the eighth time this season. After back-to-back wins, Tacoma leads the current series three games to one and will go for the series victory tonight. They lead the season series five games to two and the all-time series over Oklahoma City by seven games, at 98-91.

SHORT HOPS: With two double plays last night, Tacoma has now turned 99 on the season, compared to 83 for their opponents…after five stolen bases on Thursday, Tacoma added six more last night, as four different players stole at least one bag; their 214 stolen bases are the most among all Triple-A teams, as the second place team (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre) has 157 this season…Kobe Kato came through with another hit last night, giving him seven hits through his first three Triple-A games.