July 28 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers @ Oklahoma City Baseball Club

TACOMA RAINIERS (57-44) @ OKLAHOMA CITY BASEBALL CLUB (50-51)
Sunday, July 28 • 4:05 PM PT • Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark • Oklahoma City, OK
RHP Michael Mariot (6-5, 5.21) vs. RHP Ben Casparius (2-2, 3.65)

TONIGHT’S GAME: Tacoma and Oklahoma City will meet for the series finale of their six-game set tonight, with the Rainiers leading three games to two. Tacoma will send Michael Mariot to the mound, in search of his second win of the series. Back in the opener on Tuesday, the veteran spun five scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and three walks while striking out three to earn the win. On the year, he is 6-5 with a 5.21 ERA for the Rainiers, allowing 45 earned runs on 72 hits and 19 walks while striking out 66 batters over 77.2 innings. Opposite of Mariot will be Ben Casparius taking the ball for the Baseball Club, set to make his 11th start of the year. He enters play tonight with a 2-2 record and a 3.65 ERA, allowing 18 earned runs on 32 hits and 24 walks while striking out 46 batters over 44.1 innings pitched. Casparius has spent time on the temporarily inactive list and the injured list with Oklahoma City this season, as this will be just his third start since June 18. The right-hander has not gotten through four innings once in those three outings, reaching 3.2 on July 21 against Round Rock.

CLOSE IT OUT: After blowing the lead last night, Tacoma will go for the series win again tonight. If they can win tonight against Oklahoma City, it would give them their fourth series win away from home this year and their 12th series victory of the season. The Rainiers have yet to tied a road series, winning three and losing the other six, while going 8-1-0 in their nine series at home so far.

NO STOPPING KATO: Since joining Tacoma’s roster from the Arizona Complex League Mariners on Tuesday, Kobe Kato has made a huge impact. The second basemen has at least one hit in all four games, with multiple hits in three of the four. He is hitting .563 (9-for-16) with six runs scored, two doubles, a triple and seven runs batted in through his first four games with Tacoma. He has also stolen four bases over that span, fitting right in with the Rainiers’ speedy offense. In each of his first two Triple-A games, Kato collected three hits, going 3-for-4 to start of his Triple-A career.

GLOVE WORK: Both Tacoma and Oklahoma City had four errors in last night’s game, combining for eight total errors between the two teams. Even with all of those errors, just three of the 13 runs allowed were unearned to the pitchers. Four errors tied the season high for an opponent against the Rainiers and set the season high for errors in a game for Tacoma. Their previous high was three errors in a single game, done three times.

KEEP ON RUNNING: Entering the finale tonight, Tacoma has already swiped 20 bases in this series against Oklahoma City. They have been running more as the series has gone on, as they stole just one in the opener and three on Wednesday. Since then, they stole five on Thursday, six on Friday and five more last night. Tacoma entered Tuesday’s game with 199 stolen bases as a team this year and now have 219 entering play tonight. Their 219 stolen bases lead all of Triple-A, leading the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders by 54, with 165. The next closest team from the Pacific Coast League is Albuquerque with 132, trailing Tacoma by 87.

NOT AGAIN: With a one-run lead in the ninth, Tacoma allowed two runs to lose the game. It marked their eighth loss of the season when leading after seven innings and sixth loss of the year when leading after eight. The two runs allowed in the ninth were part of six unanswered runs from Oklahoma City after the Rainiers held a 6-1 lead after four innings. They were the 60 and 61st runs allowed by Tacoma in the ninth, compared to just 31 runs the Rainiers have scored in the ninth. They are getting out scored by 30 runs in the ninth inning this year, and 31 runs for Tacoma in the ninth is the lowest of any inning this year, with the next closest being 61 in the eighth.

SHUT DOWN: Despite taking a loss last night, Tacoma got another scoreless inning from reliever Trevor Kelley, as the right-hander worked around a hit and a walk with two strikeouts. Kelley has the longest active streak without allowing an earned run, now reaching 13 consecutive outings dating back to June 13. Over that stretch, Kelley has allowed 15 hits and six walks, striking out 21 batters over 14.2 innings.

AGAINST OKLAHOMA CITY: The Rainiers and Baseball Club will play the sixth and final game of their series tonight, with Tacoma leading the series three games to two. Despite dropping last night’s game in walk-off fashion, they still lead the season series five games to three and the all-time series 98-92.

SHORT HOPS: Kobe Kato now has an extra-base hit in each of his last three games, tripling on Thursday before doubles in each of the last two games…Tacoma lost their sixth game of the year when leading after eight innings this year last night, marking the fifth such loss in the second half; they now have 23 blown saves compared to 17 converted saves this season.