June 8: Mudcats vs. Red Sox Game Notes

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SALEM RED SOX (BOSTON RED SOX) at CAROLINA MUDCATS (MILWAUKEE BREWERS)
Saturday, June 8, 2019 | 5:00 PM | Game 61, Home Game 30 | Five County Stadium | Zebulon, NC
RADIO: WDWG, The Big Dawg 98.5 FM
STREAMING AUDIO:carolinamudcats.com via TuneIn Radio
STREAMING VIDEO: MiLB.tv
Overall Record: CAR: 34-26; SAL: 19-39
Streaks: CAR: W1; SAL: L1
Last 10 Games: CAR: 5-5, SAL: 1-9
Home Record: CAR: 17-12; SAL: 9-18
Road Record: CAR: 17-14; SAL: 10-21
Division Record: CAR: 17-14; SAL: 12-19
Current Series: Tied 1-1 (of 4)
Season Series: CAR leads 4-2 (of 15)
CAR v. OPP: 1-1 @CAR (7), 3-2 @OPP (8)

UPCOMING PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS...
SAT, 6/8 vs. SAL, 5:00 PM: Salem LHP Enmanuel DeJesus (3-4, 4.41) at Carolina RHP Dylan File (5-4, 3.94)
SUN, 6/9 vs. SAL, 2:00 PM: Salem RHP Kutter Crawford (3-5, 3.30) at Carolina RHP Nelson Hernandez (6-3, 5.18)
MON, 6/10 at FRE, 7:00 PM: Carolina RHP Matt Smith (1-5, 4.05) at Frederick TBA
TONIGHT: Following last night's 7-6 series tying victory, the Mudcats continue a seven game, eight day, home stand tonight with game three of a four game series versus the Salem Red Sox at Five County Stadium. Carolina evened the current series at 1-1 with last night's victory while also taking a 4-2 lead in the overall season series between the two teams. Tonight's game is the third of four versus Salem and the seventh of 15 overall games between the two teams this season. It is also the seventh of eight first half meetings between Salem and Carolina. The Mudcats are currently 4-1 in the current home stand; having swept the Frederick Keys in three straight earlier this week.
ICYMI: Mario Feliciano hit his league leading 14th home run, Payton Henry had a two-run double, Braden Webb worked through a victorious quality start and the Mudcats scored five in the sixth while taking their first lead in a 7-6 series tying victory versus the Salem Red Sox on Friday night at Five County Stadium. The Mudcats were down 2-0 after the fifth before rallying back with five in the sixth and two in the seventh while taking a five run lead in the game. Salem eventually came back with four in the ninth, but Carolina held for the victory while evening the series at 1-1 with two games left to go in the home stand and series.
ABOUT THE LAST ONE: Mario Feliciano homered for his fourth straight game after connecting on a two-run blast in the seventh inning of last night's victory. Feliciano has totaled five home runs over his last four games and leads the CL in homers this season with 14... Braden Webb worked through his first quality start while earning his first win in last night's victory. His quality outing (6.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 8 SO) was his first since his final start of 2018 with Double-A Biloxi on 8/31 vs. Birmingham (6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 10 SO).
TONIGHT'S CAROLINA MUDCATS STARTING PITCHER...
Dylan File: 5-4, 3.94 ERA, 11 GS, 59.1 IP, 4 HR, 7 BB, 57 SO, 1.21 WHIP
Last outing... 6/2 vs. FRE: W, 8.0 IP, 7 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO, 95 pitches
Matched career high w/8.0 IP in last outing on 6/2 vs. FRE.
CL Ranks: 2nd in SO (57), 1st in BB/9 (1.06), 1st in K/BB (8.14).
SUPER MARIO: Mario Feliciano took over sole possession of the top spot on the Carolina League leader board for home runs this season after connecting on his 10th and 11th homers on 6/3 versus Frederick at Five County Stadium. Including 6/3, Feliciano has homered in four straight games (five homers over his last four) while bringing his league leading homer total to 14 on the season. Feliciano is batting .432/.457/.977 with a 1.434 OPS over his last 11 games (19-for-44, 14 R, 4 2B, 1 3B, 6 HR, 13 RBI, 1 BB, 10 SO). 

OH HENRY!: Rob Henry has hit safely in four straight games and has totaled at least two hits three of those same four. Henry is batting .538/.600/.615 with a 1.215 OPS over his last four games (7-for-13, 4 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 4 SB)... Payton Henry has hit safely in five straight games and is batting .444/.500/.833 with a 1.333 OPS during the streak (8-for-18, 6 R, 4 2B, 1 HR, 6 RBI).INVEST IN SILVA:Eddie Silva has raised his average from .203 on 5/22 to .234 entering tonight's game while slashing .321/.410/.547 with a .957 OPS over his last 15 games (17-for-53, 8 R, 6 2B, 2 HR, 10 RBI, 3 BB, 9 SO). The Brewers signed Silva as a non-drafted free agent last year on 6/27/18; Silva attended Florida International University.
SPELLS RELIEF:Matt Hardy is 1-0 with a 0.61 ERA with a 0.75 WHIP and 11.7 K/9 over his last six appearances (14.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 BB, 19 SO)... J.T. Hintzen owns a 2.00 ERA and 11.0 K/9 over his last five appearances (9.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 BB, 11 SO).
THE LONG BALL: The Mudcats have totaled 54 home runs (2nd in the CL behind Fayetteville's 55 HR) this season. They've also combined to total 10 homers over their last four games (five of which from Mario Feliciano) and are on pace for 125 homers this season. The franchise record for homers in a season is 131 by the 2004 Mudcats. The franchise low is 39 and was set by the 1991 Mudcats; more recently the 2016 Mudcats totaled just 56 homers as a team (3rd lowest in franchise history).
WHERE THEY RANK: Mario Feliciano is currently 1st in the CL in home runs (14), 1st in RBI (45), 1st in slugging (.545), 2nd in OPS (.880), 2nd in extra-base hits (26) and 1st in total bases (115)... Ryan Aguilar is currently 7th in the CL in OBP (.390), tied for 3rd in walks (37) and tied for 4th in runs (39)... Matt Hardy is tied for 1st in the CL in wins (6) and tied for 1st in games (20)... Rodrigo Benoit is tied for 1st in the CL in games (20) and 3rd in the CL in saves (9)... Clayton Andrews is currently 4th in the CL in saves (8)... Noah Zavolas is currently 8th in the CL in earned run average (3.47), 1st in innings pitched (70.0) and 7th in WHIP (1.24). Zavolas is additionally 7th in the CL in FIP (3.33), 4th in xFIP (3.39) and 2nd in K/BB (5.20) per fangraphs.com... Dylan File is currently 2nd in the CL in strikeouts (57), 5th in WHIP (1.21) and 7th in innings pitched (59.1). His also tied for 3rd in the CL in FIP (2.92), 1st in xFIP (3.08), 1st in BB/9 (1.06), and 1st in K/BB (8.14) per Fangraphs.
BACK STOP SPLITS: Payton Henry and Mario Feliciano have split catching duties this season with Henry totaling 31 games behind the plate and Feliciano catching 29 games. Henry, meanwhile, has caught back-to-back games twice this season on 4/14 & 4/15 and 6/3 & 6/4.... The Carolina pitching staff is 19-12 and has totaled a 3.34 ERA (3.0 BB/9, 8.8 SO/9) in games caught by Henry... Carolina's pitchers are 15-14 with a 4.70 ERA (3.3 BB/9, 8.0 SO/9) in games caught by Feliciano.
ALL THE Ks: Carolina batters have combined to total a Carolina League high 650 (3rd in MiLB) strikeouts this season. The Mudcats are on pace to set a league and franchise record for strikeouts again as they are on pace for 1,506 strikeouts this season. Carolina batters combined to total a CL and franchise record 1,311 strikeouts last season; breaking the previous CL and franchise record of 1,245 SO set by Carolin in 2017.
PEAKING: At 34-26, the Mudcats are currently eight games above .500 and 8.5 games back of first place in the CL Southern Division standings. Carolina has been as high as 11 games above .500 once (5/21) and 10 games above four times (5/18, 5/20, 5/22, 5/24) this season. Before this season, the last time a Mudcats team sat at least 10 games above .500 overall was on 7/27/08 when the then-Southern League affiliated Mudcats were 58-48 in the overall standings. That 2008 team was also at 27-17 in the second half on 8/4/08 and finished the year at 80-60 overall. 
THE SKIPPER: Manager Joe Ayrault is in his third season as Manager of the Mudcats and his eighth season overall as Manager of Milwaukee's High-A affiliate. Ayrault is currently second on Carolina's all-time managerial wins list and second all-time in games managed in Carolina...
MANAGER W L PCT G SEASONS
David Bell 176 239 .424 415 2009-11 (3)
Joe Ayrault 172 164 .512 336 2017-Present (3)
THE MUDCATS HAVE…
... played in Zebulon, NC since 1991 (29th season).
... played in the Carolina League since 2012 (8th season).
... been an affiliate of the Brewers since 2017 (3rd season).
... operated under the ownership of the Brewers since Oct. 2017.
... not made the playoffs since the 2008 season.
... not made the playoffs during their Carolina League era.