July 26 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers @ Oklahoma City Baseball Club

TACOMA RAINIERS (56-43) @ OKLAHOMA CITY BASEBALL CLUB (49-50)
Friday, July 26 • 5:05 PM PT • Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark • Oklahoma City, OK
LHP Jhonathan Diaz (8-2, 4.04) vs. RHP Walker Buehler (0-2, 4.12)

TONIGHT’S GAME: The Rainiers and Baseball Club will meet for game four tonight, with Tacoma regaining the series lead after last night’s win. Tacoma will send Jhonathan Diaz to the mound, set to pitch in his 18th game of the year and make his 17th start. Through his first 17 games, the southpaw is 8-2 with a 4.04 ERA, allowing 41 earned runs on 88 hits and 37 walks. He has struck out 88 batters over his 91.1 innings pitched, allowing opponents to hit .254 against him. Opposite Diaz will be Major League rehabber Walker Buehler taking the ball for his sixth rehab start with Oklahoma City this year. Buehler started the year on the injured list and made five rehab starts with the Baseball Club before getting activated on May 6. He made eight starts with Los Angeles (NL) before getting placed back on the injured list with right hip inflammation on June 19. Tonight will be his first appearance since then, as he will face the Rainiers for the second time this year. Buehler matched up against Tacoma in his first game back this year, allowing four runs (three earned) on three hits and two walks while striking out two over his 3.1 innings.

FILLING IT UP: Tacoma stole five more bases as a team last night, as four different players got at least one. Ryan Bliss led the way with two, as Samad Taylor, Duke Ellis and Nick Solak each added one. Bliss’ two swiped bases gave him 30 on the season with Tacoma, third among all qualified Pacific Coast League players. He is five behind second place and teammate, Taylor, who added to his total on the year last night. With those two each trailing Cade Marlowe, who has 43 and just got recalled by Seattle, Tacoma holds each of the top three base stealers in the league. The fifth (Jonatan Clase) and eighth (Leo Rivas) spots are also Rainiers’, giving them five in the top-10. Not yet a part of that list is Ellis, who already has 10 in his 11 games with Tacoma after stealing a base last night. Tacoma’s 208 stolen bases on the year are first in all of Triple-A, 53 more than second-place Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, with 155.

QUALITY STARTER: Casey Lawrence spun yet another quality start last night, earning his sixth win of the season. The right-hander moved to 6-7 with a 6.00 ERA through 19 starts with the Rainiers this season, allowing 74 earned runs on 136 hits and 32 walks. He has allowed 23 home runs, while striking out 79 batters over 111.0 innings. Lawrence leads all Triple-A pitchers in innings pitched and is tied for second in starts this year. Last night marked his ninth quality start of the season, accounting for nine of Tacoma’s 28 total quality starts this season.

STEPPING IN: Early on in the season, Joey Krehbiel had the set-up or high leverage role for Tacoma’s bullpen, typically pitching the eighth inning leading up to Brett de Geus getting the ball in the ninth. After de Geus struggled to start the second half, Tacoma has been in search of a closer to lock down the ninth inning, and Krehbiel has become that arm. The right-hander earned his sixth save of the season last night with a scoreless ninth inning, striking out all three batters he retired. It marked his second consecutive save, as he closed out the July 19th victory over Reno as well. His six saves are one short of the team-lead and tied for seventh among Pacific Coast League relief pitchers. The 31-year-old has been extremely reliable for the Rainiers this season, going 4-1 with a 3.35 ERA and just one blown save in a team-leading 37 appearances. He has allowed 15 earned runs on 28 hits and 16 walks, striking out 39 batters over 40.1 innings pitched, while opponents are hitting just .189 against him.

REPEAT TO BREAK THROUGH: Jhonathan Diaz takes the mound tonight, set to face the Baseball Club for the second time this season. In his first outing against Oklahoma City, on Opening Night back on March 29, the southpaw was dominant. He allowed just three hits and no walks, striking out five batters over his 5.0 innings. He didn’t receive a decision, as the game went scoreless into extra innings before the Rainiers came out on top. After that, Diaz won each of his next six starts, and enters play tonight with an 8-2 record. The 27-year-old is tied for the league lead with eight wins, but has been stuck there since June 16, going 0-1 over his last four starts. Diaz will look to repeat his performance from Opening Day to earn his ninth win of the season tonight.

MAKING AN IMPACT: When four of Tacoma’s top five hitters got their contracts selected or recalled by Seattle prior to this series, the Rainiers didn’t know where they were going to get offensive production from. They found out quickly on Tuesday night, when Kobe Kato, in his Triple-A debut, went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and three runs batted in. He also stole a base in the game, doing everything he could to help the Rainiers win the opener. In his second start last night, it was more of the same, as Kato again went 3-for-4 with a run scored, a triple and three runs batted in. Through his first two Triple-A games with Tacoma, the infielder is now batting .750, going 6-for-8 with four runs scored, a triple and six runs batted in.

AGAINST OKLAHOMA CITY: Tacoma and Oklahoma City will play game four of their six-game set tonight, matching up for the seventh time this season. After a win last night, Tacoma now leads the current series two games to one and the season series four games to two. The Rainiers also have the lead all-time over Oklahoma City by six games, at 97-91.

SHORT HOPS: The top four hitters in Tacoma’s lineup last night were held hitless, as they combined to go 0-for-18 with a run batted in, two walks and six strikeouts…the Rainiers were just 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position last night, stranding eight men on base…Tacoma’s bullpen tossed 2.1 scoreless innings, allowing just two hitters to reach base while striking out four…the Rainiers enter play tonight going 7-2 in nine Friday road games and 14-4 overall on Friday’s this year.