Louisville Bats Notes: 5-2-19

Game 28, Away 14
Louisville Bats (11-16) at Indianapolis Indians (13-12)
RHP Keury Mella (1-1, 4.78) vs. RHP Mitch Keller (2-0, 3.60)
7:05 PM | Thursday, May 2, 2019 | Victory Field
LISTEN: Nick Curran, 790 KRD; iHeartRadio.com; iHeart app

TONIGHT'S GAME: Louisville opens up a four-game series at Indianapolis on Thursday night at Victory Field, the second of four series at Indianapolis for the Bats this season. Louisville is coming off a series victory at Toledo, their third consecutive road series win. Right-hander Keury Mella, who threw 7.0 shutout innings in his outing two starts ago at Indianapolis, will toe the rubber for Louisville, set to oppose right-hander and Pirates top prospect Mitch Keller for the second time this season.
AGAINST INDIANAPOLIS: Louisville took 2 of 3 from Indianapolis in a road series from April 19-21, taking the first couple games of the series before ultimately falling in the finale by a 2-1 score in 11 innings. With the loss, the Bats barely missed out on the chance to win 3 consecutive games at "The Vic" for the first time since 2014-15. In the clubs' previous series this season, Bats starting pitchers Odrisamer Despaigne, Lucas Sims and Mella combined for an incredible 0.96 ERA, allowing just 2 earned runs in 18.2 innings, while walking just one batter with 27 strikeouts.
MEEP, MEEP: Louisville has won 3 consecutive series on the road, accounting for all of their series wins thus far in 2019. After losing their first series of the year at Toledo, Louisville has taken 2 of 3 at Columbus (4/8-4/10), at Indianapolis (4/19-4/21) and most recently at Toledo (4/29-5/1). - In 2018, Louisville did not win its first road series until June 15-17 at Toledo, going 0-7-1 in their first 8 series away from their home ballpark. LOU did end up winning 3 straight road series last year, when they took 2 of 3 from Rochester (7/16-7/18), swept 4 against Syracuse (7/19-7/22) and took 2 of 3 from Toledo (7/30-8/1).
TRANSACTIONS: On Wednesday, the Cincinnati Reds recalled right-handed relief pitcher Matt Bowman, optioning outfielder Phillip Ervin to Louisville. Bowman, who has 156 games of Major League experience with the St. Louis Cardinals heading into 2019, was very solid out of the Bats' bullpen, appearing in 10 games with a 2.93 ERA (5er/15.1ip) with an 0-1 record and one save. Ervin, who will be making his third stint with Louisville this season, has batted .200 (2-for-10) in 7 games with the Reds. The promotion for Bowman makes it the first transaction involving a pitcher that Louisville's had in 2019, going the first full month of the season with the same 13 pitchers from Opening Day on April 4.
O'GRADY RULES!: Bats first baseman Brian O'Grady put the team on his back in Wednesday's 4-3 win, going 3-for-4 with 2 runs, 2 RBI, a stolen base and the eventual game-winning home run in the top of the eighth, his fifth home run of the season and team-leading third go-ahead homer. The Bats are 4-0 this season when he homers. O'Grady also became the first Bat in 2019 with a home run and stolen base in the same game, last done before yesterday by Blake Trahan on August 18 last season as part of a 4-for-5 game at Charlotte.
LIFEGUARDS WANTED: The Bats allowed the Mud Hens to record 6 stolen bases on Wednesday, coming within one of the franchise-record 7 stolen bases allowed, which was already tied this season by the Columbus Clippers on April 17. Coming into play Thursday, Louisville has allowed 37 stolen bases as a team, most in the IL and 11 more than second-most Indianapolis with 26. The Bats have also had more stolen base attempts (46) against them than any other club, with Rochester's 33 being second-closest.
HOMERSPALOOZA: The International League has seen a surge in home run rate to begin the 2019 season, with a total of 416 home runs hit in the league through 354 games, coming out to 1.18 home runs/game. During the 2018 season, there were a total of 1,555 home runs in 1,948 games, coming out to 0.80 home runs/game. There has been an approximate 47.5% rise in home run rate between 2018 full season homers/game and homers/game so far in 2019, coming into play on May 2.