September 12 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers @ Oklahoma City Baseball Club

TACOMA RAINIERS (76-64) @ OKLAHOMA CITY BASEBALL CLUB (73-67)
Thursday, September 12 • 5:05 PM PT • Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark • Oklahoma City, OK
RHP Nick Payero (0-0, -.--) vs. LHP Zach Logue (0-0, -.--)

TONIGHT’S GAME: The Rainiers and Baseball Club will play game three of their six-game series tonight, with Oklahoma City leading the series 2-0 after two walk off, extra-inning wins. Nick Payero will get the starting nod for Tacoma, set to make his 13th start of the year and first career Triple-A start. Payero is 3-1 with a 3.30 ERA in 19 minor league games so far this year, with Advanced-A Everett being the highest level in which he has played in his career. Opposite Payero will be Zach Logue toeing the rubber for Oklahoma City, making his first start for the Dodgers organization. The southpaw went 5-6 with a 2.68 ERA in 23 games (12 starts) with Triple-A Gwinnett, allowing 27 earned runs on 70 hits and 27 walks while striking out 86 batters in 90.2 innings. He was designated for assignment by Atlanta on Sept. 1, sent outright to Gwinnett on Sept. 5 and elected free agency that day.

LATE SCRATCH: Tonight’s originally scheduled starter for Tacoma was right-hander Emerson Hancock, who was scratched in place of Nick Payero. Hancock is 7-3 with a 3.43 ERA in 17 starts for the Rainiers, tossing quality starts in nine of his 17 games for the club. The former first round selection allowed just 36 earned runs on 85 hits and 37 walks, striking out 66 batters over his 94.1 innings with Tacoma this year. In his place, Payero will be making his Triple-A debut tonight, pitching above Advanced-A for the first time in his professional career.

DID THEIR PART: Tacoma’s relievers were great in yesterday’s loss, throwing 4.2 scoreless innings to keep the Rainiers in it. Carlos Vargas, Gabe Speier and Chris Devenski combined to throw 4.0 perfect innings, striking out five of the 12 batters they faced. Jonathan Hernandez followed starter Rob Kaminsky and didn’t allow either of his two inherited runners to score, walking a batter but working out of the jam. The final reliever to pitch for Tacoma, Joey Krehbiel, retired the first batter he faced, but allowed a walk and single that drove in the winning run. Their walk-off single was the only hit Tacoma’s bullpen allowed and the one unearned run that scored, the automatic extra-inning runner, was the lone run allowed by the five pitchers as well.

SOMETHING ABOUT BRICKTOWN: Joey Krehbiel suffered the loss yesterday, allowing the game winning run to score in the bottom of the 10th inning. The right-hander is now 5-3 on the year for the Rainiers, with two of his three losses coming at Oklahoma City. Prior to yesterday’s defeat, Krehbiel’s most recent loss was back on July 27 at Oklahoma City. In that game, he allowed two runs (one earned) on a hit and two walks in 0.1 innings pitched, while yesterday, he allowed an unearned run on a hit and a walk in 0.1 frames.

ON A ROLL: Jake Slaughter enters tonight’s game riding an eight-game hitting streak, his longest of the season. The infielder has been riding a hot stretch since Aug. 21, hitting safely in 14 of his 16 games since the 21st. He has recorded a hit in eight of his nine games in the month of September, hitting .345 (10-for-29) with three doubles, a home run, six runs batted in and the same number of walks as strikeouts, with five. Slaughter’s previous long hitting streak this year was six games, done twice from March 29 – April 10 with Iowa to start the year and Aug. 21-30 with Tacoma.

DEJA VU: In the series opener on Tuesday, Tacoma was trailing 5-3 with one out in the ninth inning, when Dominic Canzone used a two-run single to tie the game and send it to extras. The Rainiers scored a run in the 10th inning but allowed two in the bottom half, getting walked off by a score of 7-6. Yesterday, down 6-4 in the ninth, Canzone struck again, this time with a two-run home run. Unfortunately, it led to the same result as Tuesday, as Tacoma got to extras but lost 7-6 via another walk off.

GET THEM IN: Tacoma went just 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position yesterday, stranding 11 men on base in their extra-inning defeat. In a one-run, extra-inning loss, a single hit in those situations could’ve turned the loss into a victory. In Tuesday’s one-run extra-inning loss, Tacoma went 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position, leaving nine men on base.

AGAINST OKLAHOMA CITY: After yesterday’s loss, the Rainiers are now 5-6 against the Oklahoma City Baseball Club this year, entering game three of their current six-game series and game 12-of-15 overall between the two teams. Tacoma and Oklahoma City have been extremely evenly matched this season, as the Baseball Club has now outscored the Rainiers by two runs through their first 11 games played. Despite losing their last four games to Oklahoma City, Tacoma still holds the all-time series lead over the Baseball Club by three games, at 98-95.

SHORT HOPS: Dominic Canzone has extended his hitting streak with dramatic ninth inning, game-tying hits in each of the last two games; his streak sits at 11 games entering play tonight, two short of tying Jason Vosler’s season-long 13-game streak from June 25 to July 10…the Rainiers dropped to 3-5 in extra-innings with yesterday’s loss, going 1-4 in extra-inning road games; Tacoma is being outscored 13-9 in extra-innings this year…Tacoma is still in search of their first road win in the month of September, going 0-3 in their first three contests away from Cheney Stadium this month...the Rainiers committed three errors for just the sixth time this season in yesterday’s loss, going 2-4 in such games.