September 10 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers @ Oklahoma City Baseball Club

TACOMA RAINIERS (76-62) @ OKLAHOMA CITY BASEBALL CLUB (71-67)
Tuesday, September 10 • 4:05 PM PT • Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark • Oklahoma City, OK
RHP Casey Lawrence (10-10, 5.95) vs. RHP Tony Gonsolin (0-0, -.--)

TONIGHT’S GAME: Tacoma and Oklahoma City will play the first of a six-game series tonight, with Casey Lawrence taking the ball for the Rainiers. Lawrence enters tonight’s game leading the team in both wins and innings pitched, coming in with a 10-10 record and a 5.95 ERA through his 26 starts. He has allowed 99 earned runs on 176 hits and 43 walks, striking out 100 batters over his league-leading 149.2 innings pitched. The right-hander has surrendered 32 home runs, as opponents are hitting .289 against him. Opposite Lawrence will be Tony Gonsolin toeing the rubber for Oklahoma City, making his first start of the 2024 campaign. The 2020 World Series Champion has had a rough go the last couple of years, spending the majority of that time on the injured list. He went on the 15-day IL on Aug. 19 last year with right forearm inflammation and was transferred to the 60-day on Aug. 27, ending his season. This year, on Feb. 9, he was placed back on the 60-day IL after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Tonight will be his first game action since Aug. 18, 2023.

COMING DOWN TO IT: We have reached the final two weeks of the regular season and both Tacoma and Oklahoma City are very much in second half playoff contention. The Rainiers are currently in second place, 3.5 games behind Reno entering play today. Oklahoma City is just two games behind Tacoma, coming into tonight’s contest with a record of 31-32 in the second half, 5.5 games out of first place. This week between the two teams could decide a lot in who will go face Sugar Land for the PCL championship.

LOSING THEIR LEADER: After leaving Tuesday’s game early with an injury, Jason Vosler came back into Tacoma’s lineup for the finale against Albuquerque on Sunday. In that game, he went 3-for-5 with two runs scored, a home run and drove in two runs as well. The game extended his team lead in several categories, including hits (129), doubles (23), home runs (28) and RBI (98). Unfortunately, Vosler was designated for assignment by Seattle yesterday, meaning he is on waivers and will not be eligible to play for Tacoma for at least the first couple games of this series in Oklahoma City. The Rainiers’ offense will have to find a way to keep producing without their offensive leader in the lineup.

A BIRTHDAY WIN: Blas Castano got the starting nod on Sunday, the same day as his 26th birthday. His first professional outing on his birthday was a special one, as the young right-hander tossed five no-hit innings. Castano allowed a hit in the sixth that was followed by a home run, marking the only two hits or runs he surrendered all day. He tossed a quality start, Tacoma’s 40th quality start of the year, going 6.0 innings with one walk and eight strikeouts.

STAY HOT: Tacoma’s offense has been on fire in their last two games, collecting 15 hits in each contest. Despite only scoring two runs on Saturday, they came through with 13 runs in the finale on Sunday. Over those two games, the offense is 12-for-25 with runners in scoring position, clubbing six doubles and four home runs. They had six players record multi-hit efforts on Saturday and four in Sunday’s game, including four three-hit efforts. In the series finale, Dominic Canzone, Jason Vosler and Tyler Locklear each collected three hits, scoring eight of the 13 runs on their own.

THE RETURN OF KATO: Kobe Kato will return with Tacoma to the site in which he made his Triple-A debut back in July. In his debut on July 23, the infielder went 3-for-4 with three runs scored, three runs batted in and a hit by pitch. He recorded a hit in all five games at Oklahoma City, hitting .556 (10-for-18) with eight runs scored, two doubles, a triple and seven runs batted in. Kato has a hit in all seven games with Tacoma this year and will look to keep it going against the Baseball Club tonight.

LOCKED IN: Tyler Locklear struggled from Aug. 18 to Sept. 4 with Tacoma, hitting just .036 (1-for-28) with 12 strikeouts over that span. He was dealing with an injury, getting more days off than he is used to, as Locklear is usually an everyday player for the Rainiers. Since rejoining the lineup on an everyday basis, Locklear has started to heat back up. Seattle’s No. 6 ranked prospect has a hit in each of his last four games, recording two or more in three of the four contests. The 23-year-old is hitting .444 (8-for-18) with five runs scored, two doubles, a triple and five runs batted in with just one strikeout since Sept. 5.

SET A NEW ONE: Dominic Canzone went 3-for-5 with three runs scored, a home run and two runs batted in against Albuquerque on Sunday. His three hits raised his average to .351 (26-for-74) in his 19 games with Tacoma, clubbing five doubles and five home runs over that stretch. He also extended his hitting streak to nine games, tying his season long with the Rainiers. Since Aug. 30, the outfielder is hitting .361 (13-for-36) with two doubles, two home runs and six runs batted in. He went hitless in his first game since being optioned to Tacoma back on Aug. 29, marking the only game with the Rainiers this season in which he has not recorded a hit, hitting safely in 18 of his 19 games played. A hit today would set a new season-long hitting streak for him and put him three games away from tying the longest of any Rainiers’ player this season.

AGAINST OKLAHOMA CITY: Tacoma and Oklahoma City will play the first of their six-game series tonight and game 10-of-15 in the season series. The Rainiers hold a 5-4 series lead over the Baseball Club but enter tonight’s game with a two-game losing streak. After taking two-of-three from Oklahoma City at home in the season opening series, the Rainiers and Baseball Club split their most recent series from July 23-28. Through the first nine games, both teams have scored exactly 45 runs despite Oklahoma City recording 17 more hits (82-65) and six more home runs (10-4) than the Rainiers. Tacoma holds a slight lead in the all-time series record over the Baseball Club, at 98-93 entering tonight’s game.

SHORT HOPS: Sunday was Tacoma’s first game not committing an error since May 30, as they had committed at least one error in eight straight games before Sunday…the Rainiers are 0-1 in road games in the month of September and 3-4 in the month overall entering play tonight…Jake Slaughter went with a double, a home run and four runs batted in on Sunday, extending his hitting streak to a season-long six games with Tacoma…the Rainiers are 4-1-7 in road series this year, looking for their first series win away from home since taking five-of-six from Reno back from Aug. 6-11.