September 21 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers vs. Round Rock Express

TACOMA RAINIERS (80-68) vs. ROUND ROCK EXPRESS (71-75)
Saturday, September 21 • 6:05 PM • Cheney Stadium • Tacoma, WA
RHP Casey Lawrence (10-11, 6.13) vs. LHP Avery Weems (0-1, 11.57)

TONIGHT’S GAME: Tacoma and Round Rock are set to play game five of their six-game series tonight, with the series even at two games apiece. The Rainiers will send veteran Casey Lawrence to the mound, set to make his 29th and final start of the year. He is 10-11 with a 6.13 ERA through his first 28 starts, allowing 109 earned runs on 192 hits and 47 walks compared to 104 strikeouts in 160.0 innings pitched. Lawrence will make his second start and third career outing against Round Rock tonight. Opposite Lawrence will be Avery Weems toeing the rubber for the Express, set to make his first start of the season for Round Rock. The southpaw is 0-1 with an 11.57 ERA in three games this year, allowing three earned runs on five hits including a home run. He hasn’t walked anybody, striking out two batters in his 2.1 innings. Tonight will be his first start of the 2024 season but his 51st professional start, as he made 17 for Double-A Frisco in 2022.

RARE COMPANY: With his home run in the sixth inning last night, Jason Vosler etched his name in franchise history. The deep fly was Vosler’s 30th of the season, becoming just the eighth player in franchise history to swat 30 home runs in one year. He is on the verge of becoming just the second player in Tacoma’s history to hit 30+ home runs, drive in 100+ runs and hit over .300, joining Kelvin Moore, who did so in 1981.

SETTING RECORDS: Last season, Tacoma drew 384,498 fans to Cheney Stadium, setting a new franchise record. They averaged 5,267 over 73 openings in the season, accounting for 81% of Cheney Stadium’s fixed-seating capacity of 6,500. The previous record of 378,518 stood from 2011, the first season after the ballpark’s remodeled configuration. Last night, the Rainiers drew 6,254 fans, giving them a total of 387,714 to break last year’s record. The record-setting performance comes through 71 games, as Tacoma is averaging 5,461 fans at Cheney Stadium this year, good for 84% of their capacity.

HAD THEIR CHANCE: The Rainiers dropped last night’s game 4-3 in 11 innings, missing out on multiple opportunities to win the game. In the seventh inning, Tacoma tied the game 3-3 and had the bases loaded with no outs. The middle of the lineup was due up, but Round Rock’s pitchers locked in, striking out Tacoma’s 3-5 hitters to keep the game tied. Later in the game, Joey Krehbiel delivered a scoreless 10th inning and the Rainiers started their half with the winning run on second. They got the winning run to third with one out, but a pop out and fly out ended the scoring threat. In all, Tacoma went just 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, stranding 10 men on base.

LAST TIME OUT: Tonight’s game will be the final start of the season for veteran Casey Lawrence, who enters play tonight with 1605.1 minor league innings under his belt. The right-hander is 10-11 with a 6.13 ERA through 28 starts this year. He has pitched 160.0 innings, leading the team in wins, games started, and innings pitched coming into the game. He also is among Pacific Coast League leaders in ERA (8th, 6.13), wins (T-2nd, 10), games started (T-2nd, 28), innings pitched (1st, 160.0), batting average against (7th, .295), WHIP (6th, 1.49) and winning percentage (6th, .476). Tonight will be his 105th game and 97th start of his long minor league career that began back in 2010.

BACK-TO-BACK: Jason Vosler clubbed his 30th home run of the year last night and second in as many games for Tacoma. He has now hit home runs in back-to-back games five times this year for the Rainiers, as the team has done so 21 times. Despite getting back-to-back long balls 21 times this year, no player has hit home runs in three straight games, something Vosler will try to accomplish tonight.

FOUR TO TIE: Tacoma stole just one base in last night’s extra-inning defeat, putting them four from tying and five from breaking the modern-era PCL record of 281. After three stolen bags in the opener, they didn’t steal a single base in Wednesday’s game but got four on Thursday to put them back on track. Entering last night’s game, Tacoma needed to average two stolen bases per game through the final three contests to break the record, but only got one last night. They were thrown out once as well, meaning two a game in the final two games would only tie the 1981 Albuquerque Dukes.

AGAINST ROUND ROCK: Tacoma and Round Rock will play game five of their six-game series tonight and game 11 of 12 overall between the two teams this season, with the Rainiers currently holding a 7-3 series lead. Tacoma took five-of-six from Round Rock at Dell Diamond back from June 11-16 but have split the current series at home after last night’s loss. They enter play tonight leading the all-time series by 18 games, at 61-43.

SHORT HOPS: Last night was Tacoma’s 20th home night loss of the season, moving to 68-50 overall in night games this year and 46-27 overall at Cheney Stadium this year…the Rainiers dropped to 3-2 at home and 4-6 overall in extra-innings with last night’s loss…last night’s game was the longest of the year for Tacoma by three minutes; it was the third time this season in which they have played an 11-inning contest.