Louisville Bats Notes: April 14

BATS & PIGS, ACT III: The Louisville Bats and Lehigh Valley IronPigs play game three of a four-game series Saturday night in Allentown. Last night continued the Bats' struggle in Eastern Pennsylvania, dropping their sixth straight road game to the IronPigs dating back to last season. The Pigs won 9-5 Friday after scoring 13 runs Thursday, with the 22 runs being the most Louisville has surrendered in a two-game span since May 27-28 last season, which also came at Coca-Cola Park against Lehigh Valley, with the Pigs scoring 27 combined runs in two games, winning 13-1 and 14-2.

HOME RUN QUARTET: Louisville blasted 4 home runs in last night's 9-5 loss, including a leadoff home run off the bat of Tyler Goeddel . The left fielder's homer to start the game was the first leadoff home run for a Bats player since current Bat Hernan Iribarren hit a leadoff bomb on July 19, 2016 at Columbus. Rosell Herrera would homer in the first as well, making him and Goeddel the first pair of Bats to homer in the first inning since Alex Blandino and Brandon Dixon went back-to-back on August 20, 2017 vs. Rochester. Louisville also got home runs yesterday from Steve Selsky and Mason Williams , tying their 2017 team-high of 4 homers in a game in just the eighth game of 2018.
FIRST IS (STILL) THE WORST: The Bats took a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning of last night's game, the fifth time through eight games this season that Louisville has scored first. Oddly enough, the Bats are just 1-4 when they score first in a game, and 2-1 when their opponent gets on the board first. In each of the first two games of the Lehigh Valley series, LOU has scored in the top of the first, only to ultimately lose the lead. Louisville's .200 winning percentage when scoring first ranks last in the IL. Last season, the Bats went 38-27 (.585) when scoring first, finishing last in the IL.
MULTI-HIT NICK: Through his first 8 games at the Triple-A level, Nick Senzel is batting .235 (8-for-34) with 3 runs scored, 2 doubles and a stolen base, with 9 strikeouts and 2 walks. Senzel has tabbed multi-hit games in each of his last two games, and four of the first eight of his Triple-A career. The infielder was rated as the #7 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball-America after being rated as the #9 prospect prior to the 2017 season. The former number two overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft is the first Top 10 B-A prospect to appear in a Louisville uniform before making his MLB debut since LHP Aroldis Chapman in 2011, and the first position player since OF Jay Bruce in 2008.
BATS AMONG LEAGUE LEADERS: Infielder Nick Senzel is tied for 3rd in at-bats (34), Rosell Herrera is tied for 2nd with 5 extra-base hits and 18 total bases, while starting pitcher Robert Stephenson leads the International League with 12.1 innings pitched.
MLB EXPERIENCE: On the 25-man roster as of Friday, April 13, Louisville had 11 players who played in the Majors at any point last season (Astin, Stephens, Stephenson, Turner, Kivlehan for Cincinnati; Crockett for Cleveland; Floro for Chicago (NL); Nicolino for Miami; M. Williams for New York (AL); Selsky for Boston; Sanchez for Atlanta. Other players on the roster with MLB experience include Ben Rowen (last appeared with MIL in 2016), Tony Cruz (KC, 2016), Hernan Iribarren (CIN, 2016) and Tyler Goeddel (PHI, 2016), bringing the total players with MLB experience on Louisville's roster to 15 out of 25.