June 30 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers @ Sugar Land Space Cowboys

TACOMA RAINIERS (45-35) @ SUGAR LAND SPACE COWBOYS (52-28)
Sunday, June 30 • 4:05 PM PT • Constellation Field • Sugar Land, TX
RHP Michael Mariot (4-4, 5.98) vs. LHP Eric Lauer (1-2, 7.13)

TONIGHT’S GAME: Tacoma and Sugar Land will close out the series with the sixth and final game tonight. The Rainiers will send Michael Mariot to the mound for his second start of the series. Mariot suffered a loss in the opener back on Tuesday, entering play tonight with a 4-4 record and a 5.98 ERA through 14 games (11 starts) for the Rainiers this season. The right-hander has allowed 37 earned runs on 55 hits and 11 walks while striking out 50 batters over his 55.2 innings pitched. Opposite Mariot will be Eric Lauer taking the ball for Sugar Land, set to make his 15th appearance and 12th start of the year overall. The southpaw spent eight games (six starts) with Triple-A Indianapolis, going 2-2 with a 5.52 ERA over that span before getting released and signed by Houston to a minor league contract. In his six games (five starts) with the Space Cowboys, Lauer is 1-2 with a 7.13 ERA, allowing 19 earned runs on 36 hits and eight walks while striking out 26 batters in 24.0 innings.

COULDN’T ADD ON: Tacoma started the game with two runs in the first inning thanks to a two-run triple off the bat of Jason Vosler. Unfortunately for the Rainiers, that is all they would score the rest of the game, eventually losing 3-2. They had opportunities to bring more runs in but couldn’t push anything else across the plate and it cost them when Sugar Land scored two in the ninth to win it. Despite going 1-for-9 last night, Tacoma is hitting .252 with runners in scoring position on the season.

GO FOR THE SPLIT: The Rainiers come into play tonight trying to earn a series split after dropping three of the first five games. The series could have already been won by Tacoma had they closed out two of the three games they have lost. On Thursday, they were up three runs entering the eighth and allowed six runs to lose by three. Last night, they led Sugar Land with three outs to go and couldn’t close it out, allowing two runs in the ninth to drop yet another game. The Rainiers could easily be 4-1 entering play tonight, but instead are 2-3 entering the series finale.

TOO MUCH SWING AND MISS: Tacoma lost by one run last night, stranding eight men on base and going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. As a team, the Rainiers struck out nine times, with six of the nine strikeouts coming from Jonatan Clase and Tyler Locklear, who were each sat down three times. Clase has struck out at least once in each of his last nine games dating back to June 20, striking out multiple times in five of the nine games with 19 total strikeouts over that span. In his first series since returning to Tacoma, Locklear has now struck out 10 times with at least one in all five games and three in two of his last three games.

TO BE EXPECTED: As he has done all season, Nick Solak came through with two hits in last night’s loss to the Space Cowboys. Solak has played sparingly this year for Tacoma, playing in just 38 of their 80 total games so far this season. When he has played, however, he has gotten hits, as the outfielder is now hitting .325 (39-for-120). Last night was his first game since last Sunday against Las Vegas, when he went 3-for-5 with a double and three runs batted in. Last night, he went 2-for-4 with a double, extending his hitting streak to a season-long six games. Solak has been extremely impressive this season, playing once or twice a week and being one of the team’s better hitters. The 29-year-old has 16 walks compared to 19 strikeouts and in a perfect 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts.

ANOTHER ONE: Emerson Hancock delivered yet another good start last night, not allowing a run over 5.1 innings pitched. He allowed five hits and three walks while striking out two over that span, throwing 41 of his 75 pitches for strikes. With the outing, Hancock lowered his ERA on the year to 1.64, allowing just seven earned runs in 38.1 innings this year. In seven starts with Tacoma this year, opponents are hitting just .193 against the former first round pick.

TOUGH SERIES: Brett de Geus suffered his second blown save and loss of the series last night, allowing two earned runs in the ninth to lose the game. de Geus is Tacoma’s saves leader this season with seven, but has now blown two this series and four on the season. In his two games pitched against Sugar Land this week, the right-hander has now allowed eight earned runs on eight hits including two home runs. He has walked two and struck out none in his lone inning of work. The last two games have raised his ERA on the year from 4.79 to 7.89, as he has moved to 0-3 and 7-for-11 in save opportunities.

AGAINST SUGAR LAND: The Rainiers enter play tonight trailing the current series three game to two and the all-time series 19-16 after last night’s walk-off loss. Tacoma will look to earn a series split with a victory tonight, as they enter play outscoring the Space Cowboys by four runs, at 26-22 through the first five games.

SHORT HOPS: Joey Krehbiel pitched in back-to-back games for the first time this season the previous two nights; he now leads the team and is tied for fourth among Pacific Coast League pitchers with 30 appearances this season…the Rainiers dropped to 37-4 when leading after seven innings and 39-2 when leading after eight innings after last night’s loss…last night was the fifth time an opponent has walked off Tacoma this year.