Sod Poodles End Slide With Offensive Outburst

Amarillo, Texas (June 18, 2024) – Amarillo broke out of their offensive drought in a big way to open the series against the San Antonio Missions on Tuesday night. Amarillo racked up a season-high 16 runs and 21 hits in the 16-4 victory. Seven players ended with multi-hit games, led by Matt Beaty's four hits.

San Antonio struck first blood, scoring two runs off Amarillo starter Dylan Ray. The Amarillo right-hander and D-backs' no. 9-rated prospect bounced back after allowing a one-out single and home run to retire the next two batters to limit the damage to just two. The offense quickly erased the deficit in the home half of the first. Consecutive doubles started the ballgame for Amarillo. A.J. Vukovich swapped places with Jancarlos Cintron in scoring position and would later score on Beaty's one-out RBI single to knot things up at 2-2.

Ray worked around a pair of Missions base runners in the second to leave them both stranded. Amarillo added more runs in the second. Six hits - all singles - led to five more runs including Beaty's second RBI single in as many innings as Amarillo batted through the lineup. As he continues to work back from an injury that sidelined him for the first part of the season, Ray struck out the first two batters he faced in the third ahead of a two-out single that ended his outing after 2.2 IP and 52 pitches. Gerardo Gutierrez took over on the mound and faced just two batters, ending the third with a strikeout of his own.

Jamison Hill made his first relief appearance of the year and saw one run come across in the top of the fourth. After a walk loaded the bases, a wild pitch brought San Antonio's third run home before Hill worked out of the inning with back-to-back strikeouts. The offense continued to pour it on in the bottom of the fourth.

With two outs, Amarillo rattled off five-straight hits highlighted by a two-RBI double off the bat of Caleb Roberts as the Amarillo lead grew to 11-3. Back out for his second inning of work, Hill surrendered a one-out solo home run and left a walk stranded to keep Amarillo ahead by seven runs. Vukovich quickly got the run right back as he clobbered an opposite-field home run for his third hit and RBI of the ballgame.

Roberts doubles home two to push us into double digits! pic.twitter.com/Aq4U9ia4N6

— Amarillo Sod Poodles (@sodpoodles) June 19, 2024

Hill's long relief appearance came to a close as he turned the ball over to John Matthews in the sixth after a four-strikeout performance and 77 pitches over 2.2 IP. After seeing a double greet Matthews out of the bullpen, the right-hander collected a strikeout to leave two more Missions stranded on base. Another two-out rally helped to push the lead out to nine runs. Singles off the bat of Jesus Valdez and Cintron were followed by a fielding error to put Vukovich on base for the fourth time in the game and made it 13-4.

Matthews was tasked to face just two batters before Amarillo once again called to the bullpen. Conor Grammes worked a 1-2-3 seventh and then passed the ball to Will Mabrey in the eighth. Three straight one-out walks loaded the bases for San Antonio. The southpaw left all three Missions on base as he earned two strikeouts to get Amarillo out of the inning without any damage done against him.

With position player Jarryd Dale on the mound for San Antonio in the eighth, Tim Tawa collected his 13th home run of the season with a three-run shot to push Amarillo to a season-high 16 runs. Josh Green became the seventh Amarillo pitcher used as he worked the ninth. The right-hander followed up a leadoff single by collecting his first strikeout and the 13th overall for Amarillo arms. He then induced a double-play ball to close out the game and bring an end to the seven-game slide.

Dingers are dingers 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/CsjNLvhXLi

— Amarillo Sod Poodles (@sodpoodles) June 19, 2024

The series will continue on Wednesday with LHP Spencer Giesting making his Double-A debut on the mound after being promoted for High-A Hillsboro earlier today. The Missions will send RHP Jared Kollar (5-2, 3.10 ERA) to the bump.

NOTES:

VUKULAR: A.J. Vukovich started the series with a three-hit night, finishing a triple shy of the cycle and reaching base four times. The D-backs no. 15-rated prospect had his bat cool off a bit after a four-hit night in the second game of the Frisco series. He went just 1-for-14 over the final four games against the RoughRiders. His three-hit night in the series opener against the Missions on Tuesday gives him his 15th multi-hit game of the year while his three RBI on Tuesday were the seventh time he has racked up a multi-RBI game. Vukovich is Amarillo's all-time RBI leader with 137 after Tuesday and remains three in front of Tim Tawa who also added three RBI against the Missions to start the series. In 186 career games with Amarillo, Vukovich has put together 14 games with at least three hits with Tuesday being the fourth time this season.

Oppo Taco Tuesday feat A.J. Vukovich pic.twitter.com/Q0G1TJd2sv

— Amarillo Sod Poodles (@sodpoodles) June 19, 2024

MATT'S BETTER: Matt Beaty put together a four-hit night to match the Amarillo season-high for hits in a game by a single player. Beaty ended the night 4-for-5 with four singles, a run, two RBI, and a walk. It was the first 4-hit game for Beaty since April 11th, 2023, when he did so as a member of Triple-A Sacramento against the Reno Aces. Over his last 89 games spread across four teams, including 28 games on an MLB roster, Beaty had only had one game with more than two hits. He has had 16 multi-hit efforts over the same period, including two 2-hit games with Amarillo this year. Over his 775 career games in professional baseball, Tuesday night was his 14th career game with 4+ hits. He set his career-high with a 5-hit game on August 29, 2015, with then Single-A Great Lakes in the Dodgers farm system during his first pro season.

Beaty extends the lead! pic.twitter.com/Q1diivUGHD

— Amarillo Sod Poodles (@sodpoodles) June 19, 2024

ALL NINE: Tuesday marked just the second game this year in which all nine Amarillo starters had recorded a hit in the same game. Seven of the nine recorded multi-hit performances, including each of the first five batters in the lineup for Amarillo. The top five in the order combined to go 15-for-27 (.556) with four of the team's five total XBH and drove in 10 of the 16 runs for Amarillo. The Amarillo order on Tuesday put together the first 20+ hit game of the year, breaking the previous single-game high of 16. It was just the sixth time in franchise history in which Amarillo has had a 20-hit game and the first since August 18, 2022, on the road in Midland.The six hits in the second inning were the most hits Amarillo has had in any single inning for a game this year.

MULTI MELENDEZ: D-backs no. 8-rated prospect Ivan Melendez made it multi-hit games in four of his last seven games played after finishing 2-for-4 with a RBI on Tuesday against the Missions. He is up to 14-multi hit games on the year with five coming in his last 11 games played since the calendar turned to June.

RISPY BUSINESS: Amarillo pitchers limited damage against the Missions by holding San Antonio without a hit with runners in scoring position. The Missions finished the game 0-for-9 with RISP and left 12 runners on base for the game.

KING OF THE HILL: Jamison Hill made his first relief appearance of the season for Amarillo on Tuesday and just the fourth overall relief outing in his 68 career games. Hill ate up 2.2 IP for Amarillo on the mound, doing so with 77 pitches. It was 22 more pitches than he had thrown in any other relief appearance of his career and more pitches than he had in three of his 12 starts for this year. With four strikeouts, Hill now sits just 11 shy of 300 for his professional career.