Louisville Bats Notes: July 3

INDEPENDENCE DAY EVE: The Bats and Indians face off tonight with right-hander Homer Bailey on the mound for Louisville, set to make his fourth Major League rehab start this season. Last night, Indianapolis won 7-1 in the opening game of a four-game split series. Tonight will wrap up the Louisville Slugger Field portion of the split series, with the two IL West clubs heading to Victory Field to finish it out.

AGAINST INDIANAPOLIS: Louisville and Indianapolis have met 9 times this season, with IND owning a 6-3 advantage. The Indians have outscored the Bats 37-26, with both teams hitting 5 home runs. It's the first time the clubs will play each other in back-to-back series since the end of the 2016 season, when they played 4 at Victory Field on September 1-3 (DH on 9/1), and closed out the season with 2 at LSF from September 4-5.
SENIOR CIRCUIT: Before Monday night's game against Indianapolis, Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Bats had not played a National League affiliated team since facing the Gwinnett Stripers on June 3. The 25 games between facing NL-affiliated clubs is the longest gap for Louisville since starting the 2017 season with 45 consecutive games against AL-affiliated teams before traveling to Lehigh Valley (PHI) on May 26.
REHAB STATS: RHP Homer Bailey , who is set to make his fourth rehab start (6/11, 23, 28) for Louisville this season, is the fifth MLB rehabber to pitch for the Bats in 2018, along with RHP Anthony DeSclafani (5/25, 30), LHP Brandon Finnegan (4/9) and RHPs David Hernandez (4/20, 23, 25) and Kevin Shackelford (4/22), who have now combined for 10 rehab outings for Louisville this season. The rehabbers have compiled an 8.41 ERA, with 33 earned runs in 35.1 innings on the mound. The Bats are just 2-8 as a club when a pitcher makes a rehab outing.
GAME #80: Tuesday night marks the Bats' 80th game of the 2018 season. Last season at the 80-game mark, Louisville was 32-48. In 2016, LOU owned a 39-41 record after 80 games. The Bats were last above the .500 mark after 80 games in 2011 when they were 44-36.
7-1 ODDS: Louisville played in its sixth 7-1 game last night, going 2-4 in games that have ended in a 7-1 score. It's tied for the most common game result for LOU this season, with games resulting in 3-1 scores also occurring 6 times this season. The Bats own a 3-3 record in games that have ended in a 3-1 score.
CURSED WHEN FIRST: Louisville led 1-0 after Gabriel Guerrero's RBI triple scored Dilson Herrera . IND would tie the game in the third before erupting for a 6-run eighth to win 7-1 and drop the Bats to 21-17 when scoring first in a game this season, ranking last in the IL with their .553 winning percentage in those games.
QUACKENBUSH NAMED IL PITCHER OF THE WEEK: The International League announced Monday that right-handed relief pitcher Kevin Quackenbush was named Pitcher of the Week for June 25-July 1.
-He made 3 appearances (6/27, 6/30, 7/1) for Louisville during the week, recording saves in each of the games. In 3.1 innings, he allowed no runs, 2 hits, walking none and striking out 3, one strikeout in each appearance.
-His 14.0 strikeout-to-walk ratio (2 BB, 28 K) ranks best in the IL (min. 20 IP) and his 11 saves are tied for second in the IL.
-He, along with fellow RHP Tanner Rainey , were named to the IL All-Star roster.
-He's the first Louisville Bat to win IL Pitcher of the Week since RHP Daniel Wright (5/16-5/22/2016), and the first relief pitcher to win the award since Scranton RHP Jonathan Holder (8/22-8/28/2016).