August 16 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers vs. Sugar Land Space Cowboys

TACOMA RAINIERS (67-50) vs. SUGAR LAND SPACE COWBOYS (74-42)
Friday, August 16 • 7:05 PM • Cheney Stadium • Tacoma, WA
RHP Blas Castano (3-2, 5.20) vs. RHP Ryan Gusto (6-3, 3.80)

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: After winning their second straight game last night, the Rainiers will look to make it three in a row over the Space Cowboys tonight. Blas Castano will toe the rubber for Tacoma, set to make his eighth start of the year for the Rainiers. Castano enters tonight’s game with a 3-2 record and a 5.20 ERA through those seven starts, allowing 21 earned runs on 40 hits and 13 walks. He has struck out 36 batters over his 36.1 innings, allowing opponents to hit .282 against him. Tonight will be his first career start against Sugar Land, having faced Salt Lake in four of his seven games with Tacoma this year. Opposite Castano will be Ryan Gusto taking the ball for the Space Cowboys, set to pitch in his 23rd game (20th start) of the season. Gusto is 6-3 with a 3.80 ERA this year, allowing 46 earned runs on 101 hits and 41 walks while striking out 104 batters over 109.0 innings. He leads the team in both starts and innings pitched and has been effective over that span, limiting opponents to a .247 batting average against him. In his one game against Tacoma this year back on June 25, Gusto earned the win, tossing seven scoreless frames. He allowed just four hits and two walks while striking out six in the outing.

IN-SPEIERING: Rainier reliever Gabe Speier was dominant again last night, retiring the side in order on nine pitches (six of which were strikes). Since being sent down to Tacoma, Speier has been lights-out, throwing scoreless innings in seven of his eight appearances. Moreover, Speier has not allowed a baserunner in five of his eight outings with the Rainiers, has maintained a WHIP of 1.00, and converted his only save opportunity, adding another key arm to Tacoma’s bullpen.

BUDDY SYSTEM: With his two-run homer last night, Jake Slaughter is up to seven deep flies in 58 games played with the Rainiers. Of those seven homers, all but one have occurred with a man on base, with Slaughter’s blast on July 14th at Albuquerque his only solo shot with Tacoma. In addition to his two-run homer, Slaughter lined a double to left as well last night, helping secure his 15th multi-hit game as a Rainier.

BLISS-TERING: In his first few games since being optioned to Tacoma on Tuesday, utility-man Ryan Bliss has been on a roll at the plate, a key reason for Tacoma’s two-games-to-one lead this series. So far, the righty is hitting .417 (5-for-12) with two doubles, a homer, two RBI, one run scored, and a stolen base through the first three contests of this series, logging an extra-base hit in each of them. Bliss’ performance in this series is part of a larger stretch the righty has been on, dating back to May 1st. Since then, Bliss is slashing .306/.402/.531 in 37 games with Tacoma, collecting 17 extra-base hits (nine doubles and eight home runs), 29 RBI, and 26 runs scored while going 22-for-26 in stolen base attempts over that time.

THIRD TIME’S A CHARM: After going 0-2 with a 6.55 ERA across 11.0 innings pitched against Sugar Land this year, Tacoma starter Michael Mariot secured his first victory against the Space Cowboys last night. He surrendered four runs on five hits, all of which came in the fifth inning, over 5.0 innings. The righty started strong, tossing 4.0 no-hit innings to begin his start. He also ended up one strikeout shy of tying his season high (8 –May 23rd vs. Las Vegas) en route to a 5-4 Rainier win.

LATE INNING ZEROS: The Rainiers’ bullpen has been dominant of late, currently amid a 9.0 inning scoreless streak (dating back to the eighth inning of Tuesday’s game against Sugar Land). Over the course of this streak, seven relievers (Josh Fleming, Gabe Speier, Trevor Kelley, Chris Devenski, Eduard Bazardo, Carlos Vargas, and Joey Krehbiel) have combined to allow just six baserunners (three singles, one double, one walk, and one hit batter) while retiring 10 via strikeout. These late-inning arms have been key to Tacoma’s early success this series, as all three games have been decided by one run.

BEST OF THE PCL: The series between the Space Cowboys and the Rainiers pits the Pacific Coast League’s best two clubs against each other. Entering Thursday, Sugar Land is 74-42 (.638) while Tacoma finds itself 67-50 (.573), by far the two best records in the league. Moreover, the two teams appear to be very evenly matched, with each owning a +94-run differential (the best in the league by 37 runs) and the first three games of this series all ending up as one-run affairs. In terms of postseason aspirations, the Space Cowboys have already secured their bid, winning the first half by 5.0 games with a record of 49-26 (.653). The Rainiers will look to join Sugar Land in the playoffs and enter today 0.5 games up on both Las Vegas and Reno for the second-half spot.

AGAINST SUGAR LAND: The Rainiers and Space Cowboys continue their series tonight with the fourth game of their six-game set. Last night, Tacoma rallied for a 5-4 victory, taking a 2-1 lead in the series. On the year, Sugar Land leads the series 5-4, with three games to play. Although Tacoma has played hundreds of games against many of its PCL opponents, the Rainiers have faced Sugar Land less than 50 times, as the two sides first squared off in 2021. Tacoma has gone 1-1-1 in the three season-series so far (3-3 in 2021, 3-9 in 2022, and 8-4 in 2023), trailing the all-time series 18-21.

TOP SPOT, TOP RESULTS: When hitting in the top spot in the order, Rainier outfielder Rhylan Thomas has gone 8-for-20 (.400) with six runs scored – compared to .315 (6-for-19) when hitting elsewhere. Overall, Thomas is now hitting .345 (20-for-58) in 15 games with Tacoma, collecting hits in 13 of those contests (including a 12-game hit streak to begin his tenure as a Rainier). Moreover, Thomas has been key to jumpstarting Tacoma’s offense, scoring runs in eight of his past nine games (and 11 in his 15 appearances as a Rainier).

INGREDIENTS FOR SUCCESS: At 67-50, the Rainiers have done plenty of winning this season; however, two factors have been key to their success. For one, Tacoma is 47-23 (.671) when scoring first, compared to just 20-27 (.426) when failing to do so. Last night, the Rainiers jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, getting off to a fast start. Second, Tacoma is a robust 61-29 (.679) when scoring four or more runs in a game, compared to an abysmal 6-21 (.222) when being held to three runs or less (ironically, one of these wins came on Wednesday night of this series). Last night, the Rainiers pushed across five runs, just enough for a 5-4 win and a 2-1 lead in the series.

SHORT HOPS: Tacoma is 7-3 at home on Friday’s this season, going 16-5 overall in their best day of the week…last night was the Rainiers’ 32nd comeback win of the season and their second in a row against Sugar Land…Tacoma was out-hit 7-6 last night, but still managed to win, improving to 17-36 when being out-hit this year…the Rainiers are now 10-3 in the month of August, just two wins shy of their total for the entire month of July…Tacoma is a season-high 17 games over the .500-mark entering play tonight after back-to-back wins against the Space Cowboys…Trevor Kelley recorded his 400th career minor league strikeout as part of a scoreless eighth inning last night.