July 30 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers vs. Salt Lake Bees

TACOMA RAINIERS (57-45) vs. SALT LAKE BEES (50-51)
Tuesday, July 30 • 12:05 PM • Cheney Stadium • Tacoma, WA
RHP Blas Castano (2-1, 4.66) vs. LHP Reid Detmers (3-4, 6.49)

TODAY’S GAME: Tacoma and Salt Lake will play the first of a six-game series today, set to be the final series of the season between the two teams. The Rainiers will send Blas Castano to the mound, set to make his fifth start of the year. Castano enters play today with a 2-1 record and a 4.66 ERA, coming off his worst start of the year. In his last outing against Oklahoma City, the right-hander allowed six runs (five earned) on 10 hits and three walks while striking out one over 3.0 innings. Today will be the second time he has faced Salt Lake, as he allowed just one earned run on three hits and two walks while striking out five over 6.0 innings back on July 1. Getting the start for Salt Lake opposite Castano will be Reid Detmers. Detmers comes into play today with a record of 3-4 and a 6.49 ERA, allowing 31 earned runs on 48 hits including 13 home runs. He has walked 14 batters while striking out 55 over his 43.0 innings with the Bees. The southpaw faced Tacoma once this season, back on July 6, suffering the loss. In the outing, he allowed five earned runs on six hits and two walks while striking out six over 6.0 innings.

NOT AGAIN: Tacoma got walked off by Oklahoma City in each of their last two games, holding leads into the ninth inning and losing both contests. The two losses forced a series split against the Baseball Club, as Tacoma led the series 3-1 entering play on Saturday. Late losses have been a huge problem for the Rainiers in the second half of the season, allowing 21 ninth inning runs over 27 games in the second half. Their opponent hasn’t had an at-bat in seven of those games, so really, it is 21 runs allowed over 20 ninth inning opportunities. In the first half of the season, Tacoma was great in games in which they held a late lead, going 35-2 when leading after seven innings and 37-1 when leading after eight. They had allowed four opponent walk off wins over the first 75 games of the season. Entering play today it is a different story, as the Rainiers are 47-8 when leading after seven innings, 49-7 when leading after eight innings and have been walked off nine times. In just 27 games in the second half, they have blown six games when leading after eight innings and have been walked off more times (5) than they had over their first 75 games (4) of the season. Tacoma has allowed 64 runs to score in the ninth inning this year, the third-most of any inning, getting outscored by 33 runs in that frame, at 64-31. In the second half alone, the Rainiers have nine blown saves from six different pitchers.

WATCH OUT: Tacoma and Salt Lake have played each other 18 times coming into play today, and over the course of those 18 games, a couple of players have really stood out in the series. For Salt Lake, Bryce Teodosio and Jack Lopez have crushed Rainiers’ pitching. Each having played in 17 of the 18 total games, Teodosio is hitting .383 (23-for-60) while Lopez is hitting .338 (22-for-65). Teodosio has scored 10 runs, hitting four doubles, five triples and two home runs while driving in 12 along the way. He has also gone eight-for-nine in stolen base attempts. 50% (5-of-10) of his triples this year have come against Tacoma in 20% (17-of-83) of his games. Lopez has scored 14 runs clubbing six home runs and driving in 13, hitting six of his 11 deep balls on the year against Tacoma. On the other side, Michael Papierski has fared well against Salt Lake pitching, leading Tacoma with a .333 (10-for-30) batting average in nine games. He has scored seven runs, hitting three doubles and a home run while driving in seven and taken three walks compared to four strikeouts against the Bees.

HOME SWEET HOME: Tacoma comes back to Cheney Stadium to start this series against Salt Lake, marking just the seventh and eighth home games of the month. The Rainiers are coming off a stretch in which they played 15 of their last 18 games away from home. Starting with this series against the Bees, the Rainiers will now be at home for three of their next four series, playing 16 home games in the month of August compared to just eight in July. Tacoma is 31-14 at Cheney Stadium, going 8-1-0 in their nine home series so far.

ALL EYES ON THE OFFENSE: Defense may win championships, but the Rainiers offense has put on a show in their wins against Salt Lake this season. Tacoma is 11-2 on the season against the Bees when they have been able to tally five or more runs. They have averaged 7.2 runs in their 11 wins as opposed to just 3.3 runs in the seven losses to Salt Lake. With only four of the games being decided by a single run, the Rainiers success in this matchup has hinged on their ability to convert on opportunities with runners on base.

CAN’T STOP 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 five games he has played, with multiple hits in three of the five. He is hitting .556 (10-for-18) with eight runs scored, two doubles, a triple and seven runs batted in through his first five 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 his Triple-A career.

COMING IN HOT: While Salt Lake sits tied at the bottom of the Pacific Coast League West overall standings, they have been the hottest team in the league to start the second half of the season. After finishing below .500 with a record of 32-42 during the first half, the Bees find themselves on a 10-game win streak with their last loss coming July 13 in a shootout with the Sacramento River Cats. Back-to-back sweeps of Las Vegas and El Paso position Salt Lake at the top of the second half standings with an 18-9 record posting a league-high 176 runs since June 26.

AGAINST SALT LAKE: Tacoma and Salt Lake are set to play game one of the series and game 19 of the season between the two teams. The Rainiers enter play today with an 11-7 overall record, going 5-4 against Salt Lake here at Cheney Stadium. They also lead the all-time series against the Bees, holding a record of 400-384-1, coming into play today having won each of their last two games.

SHORT HOPS: Tacoma now has 24 blown saves compared to 17 converted saves this season, blowing save opportunities in each of their last two games…the Rainiers got three quality starts last week, with two more outings coming just one inning shy of qualifying…Tacoma enters play today with a 14-13 record in the second half, recording nine blown saves in the second alone; had they converted all of those save opportunities, they would be atop the standings with a record of 23-4 in the second half.