August 17 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers vs. Sugar Land Space Cowboys

TACOMA RAINIERS (68-50) vs. SUGAR LAND SPACE COWBOYS (74-43)
Saturday, August 17 • 6:05 PM • Cheney Stadium • Tacoma, WA
RHP Casey Lawrence (8-8, 6.18) vs. RHP Rhett Kouba (2-3, 5.63)

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: After last night’s 8-2 victory, the Rainiers will look to secure the series win over the Space Cowboys tonight at Cheney Stadium. For Tacoma, righty Casey Lawrence (8-8, 6.18) will get the ball. Lawrence has faced Sugar Land just once in his career, allowing two runs over 6.0 innings in a 3-2 Rainiers’ victory on July 28th. The Space Cowboys will counter with fellow righty Rhett Kouba, who is 2-3 with a 5.63 ERA across 38.1 innings pitched. Kouba will face Tacoma for the first time this season, although he did pitch against them once last year, surrendering four runs over 3.0 innings in a 4-2 Rainier win on September 1st.

OVER THE WALL: Last night, the Rainiers belted three home runs, with Tyler Locklear (7), Jason Vosler (22), and Duke Ellis (3) all launching solo homers in the bottom of the second inning – the first time all year the team has recorded three long balls in a single frame. The three homers were one shy of the most in a game for Tacoma this season, just behind the four they hit on April 11th vs. Reno. Moreover, Locklear and Vosler became the fourth set of Rainiers to hit back-to-back homers in a game, becoming the first to do so since Brian Anderson and Vosler did so on May 23rd vs. Las Vegas. Speaking of Vosler, the homer, his 22nd of the season, put him one shy of his career high for home runs in a single season. The utility-man hit 23 in 2018, 12 with Double-A Tennessee Smokies and 11 with Triple-A Iowa Cubs as a member of the Chicago Cubs’ system.

BE LIKE MIKE: Since the calendar flipped to July, Tacoma catcher Michael Papierski has been on a tear. Dating back to July 1st, the switch-hitting backstop is slashing .322/.377/.424 with six doubles, 10 RBI, 10 runs scored, and seven walks across 17 games. In August, Papierski has taken his game to another level, recording multi-hit games in four of six contests this month for a .450 average (9 for 20).

GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION: Facing the Space Cowboys for the first time in his career last night, starter Blas Castano delivered one of his best games of the year. On Friday, the righty spun 6.0 scoreless frames, surrendering just four hits while striking out eight on the way to his fourth win of the season. The start is part of a larger stretch of success for Castano, who has logged a quality start in all three of his appearances in August, going 2-0 with a 2.37 ERA over 19.0 innings (22 strikeouts over that time).

AGE IS JUST A NUMBER: Despite being one of the oldest pitchers in professional baseball at 36 years of age, Tacoma starter Casey Lawrence has been a workhorse for the Rainiers, leading the PCL in innings pitched with 126.2. Moreover, with today’s start, Lawrence will tie Karl Kauffmann and Carson Seymour with 23 games started, once again the most in the league. However, Lawrence has been more than just an innings eater, giving the Rainiers some strong starts; the righty is currently coming off 5.0 innings of one-run ball in his last game and will look to build off that performance.

BEST OF THE PCL: The series between the Space Cowboys and the Rainiers pits the PCL’s best two clubs against each other. Entering Saturday, Sugar Land is 74-43 (.632) while Tacoma finds itself 68-50 (.576), by far the two best records in the league. Moreover, these teams also rank top two in the league in run differential, with the Rainiers at +100 and the Space Cowboys at +88. 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 Reno for the second-half spot.

BACK WITH A BANG: Since being optioned from Seattle, lefty Jason Vosler has recorded hits in five of six games (including three multi-hit performances), going 2-for-4 last night with a single, a homer, two RBI, and a run scored, securing his team-leading 32nd multi-hit game in just 95 contests with the Rainiers. Vosler has been at the center of the Rainiers’ offense this year, entering Saturday as the club’s leader in runs, hits, total bases, doubles, home runs, and RBI, as well as the top batter in average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage amongst qualified hitters. Vosler has not been just one of the best hitters for Tacoma but for the entire PCL. Entering play today, the veteran is top 10 in the league in RBI (third – 83), slugging percentage (fifth –.539), runs (75 – fifth), home runs (22 – fifth), total bases (202 – seventh), OPS (.898 – eighth), extra-base hits (45 – ninth), and hits (110 – tied ninth).

INGREDIENTS FOR SUCCESS: At 68-50, the Rainiers have done plenty of winning this season; however, two factors have been key to their success. For one, Tacoma is 48-23 (.676) when scoring first, compared to just 20-27 (.426) when failing to do so. Last night, the Rainiers jumped out to an 8-0 lead, getting off to a fast start. Second, Tacoma is a robust 62-29 (.681) 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 eight runs, giving Tacoma a 3-1 lead in the series.

SOLAK’S SURGE: Tacoma’s Nick Solak has been a hitting machine of late. The outfielder has been consistent all year long for Tacoma, hitting .327 (66-for-202) with an OPS of .895 in 63 games this season, but has really picked it up recently. The righty has recorded hits in seven of his past eight games, collecting multiple hits in four of those contests. On the year, Solak has recorded 18 multi-hit games, just one fewer than the number of games in which he has failed to record a hit, given at least one at-bat. Since getting more playing time over the last couple of weeks, he is hitting .395 through 12 games in August (15-for-38) with a double, four home runs, eight runs scored, and 16 RBI. Solak has walked 27 times compared to just 37 strikeouts in 236 plate appearances and is a perfect 8-for-8 in stolen bases.

AGAINST SUGAR LAND: The Rainiers and Space Cowboys continue their series tonight with the penultimate game of their six-game set; last night, Tacoma’s offense exploded for an 8-2 victory, taking a 3-1 lead in the series. On the year, each time is 5-5 in the series with two 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 19-21.

SHORT HOPS: Tacoma infielder Luis Urias went 3-for-4 last night with two singles, a double and two runs scored, notching his 15th multi-hit game as a Rainier…the Rainiers are now 11-3 in August, just one win shy of tying their total for the entire month of July…if the season ended today, these two teams would be the Pacific Coast League playoff matchup, playing a best-of-three series at Sugar Land for a chance to play for the Triple-A title in Las Vegas…Casey Lawrence will look to give Tacoma their fourth quality start in the first five games of the series against the Space Cowboys tonight; Lawrence has spun nine quality starts for the Rainiers this season...Samad Taylor became the second Rainiers’ player to have 40 stolen bases this year, moving into a tie for fifth all-time on the single-season franchise record for stolen bases.