Louisville Bats Notes: September 3

THE GRAND FINALE: The Louisville Bats and Indianapolis Indians meet for the final game of the 2018 season on Labor Day at Louisville Slugger Field. The Bats won in a dominant effort on Sunday night, winning by a 10-4 score backed by 3 home runs. Today, right-hander José López makes the start for the Bats in their season finale as the Bats look to win the series and their fifth home game in a row.

AGAINST INDIANAPOLIS: The Bats and Indians finish up the 2018 season with a pair of games at Louisville Slugger Field. Louisville leads the season series 10-9 coming into play Monday, with the Indians finishing 6-4 against the Bats at Victory Field. Overall, the Bats have outscored the Indians by a 80-70 advantage, while LOU has outhomered IND, 13-11. After going just 8-15 against the Indians last season, the Bats have a chance to go over .500 against them in a season for the first time since 2016, when they finished 14-12 against the Indians.
HOME WINNING STREAK: The Bats have won 4 straight home games for the first time since May 31 to June 3, winning vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (5/31) and vs. Gwinnett (6/1-6/3). If the Bats are victorious in today's finale, they will have 5+ straight home wins for the first time since May 21 to June 2, when they won 6 straight home games vs. Columbus (5/21), Gwinnett (5/30-6/1) and Lehigh Valley (6/1).
TRANSACTIONS: Today the Bats added outfielder Daniel Sweet to their roster. In 90 games between Class A Advanced Daytona and Double A Pensacola this season, he is batting .223 (56-for-251) with 14 doubles, 2 triples, 6 home runs, 31 RBI, 9 stolen bases and 35 walks. Outfielder Preston Tucker was traded back to the Atlanta Braves yesterday, after appearing in just 2 games with Louisville. Tucker came to Cincinnati from Atlanta in a July 30 trade, along with RHPs Lucas Sims and Matt Wisler in exchange for outfielder Adam Duvall .
TEN FOUR: Not only did Gabriel Guerrero go yard, but so did Steve Selsky (10) and Brian O'Grady (8). Selsky's 10th home run of the season makes him the fourth different Bats player to reach double-digit homers this season, joining Guerrero (17), D.J. Peterson (16) and Josh VanMeter (11). It's the first time the Bats have had 4+ different players hit 10+ home runs in the same season since 6 different Bats hit 10 or more during the 2011 season: Daniel Dorn (18), Jeremy Hermida (17), Devin Mesoraco (15), Juan Francisco (15), Todd Frazier (15) and Yonder Alonso (12).
THE FINAL FRONTIER: The Bats play their final game of the 2018 season today. Since 2010, the Bats own an impressive 6-2 record in the final game of the season, including rattling off 4 straight victories in the last game from 2013-16. Last season, LOU lost at Columbus by a 6-2 score in the season's final game on September 4.
LEADING THE LEAGUE: The Bats are currently tied with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the IL lead with 36 triples, and rank second with a .261 team batting average. LOU last finished in the top two in batting average in 2011, when they hit .266 as a club, trailing only Durham's .271 average that year. Louisville last led the league in triples during the 2008 season, when they clubbed a Bats franchise-most 60 triples that season, 13 more than next-closest Rochester.