8/24: Mudcats vs. Hillcats Game Notes

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LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (CLEVELAND INDIANS) at CAROLINA MUDCATS (MILWAUKEE BREWERS)
Saturday, August 24, 2019 | 5:00 PM | Game 130, Home Game 65 | Five County Stadium (6,500) | Zebulon, NC
RADIO: WDWG, 98.5 FM
STREAMING AUDIO:carolinamudcats.com via TuneIn Radio
STREAMING VIDEO: MiLB.tv
Overall Record: CAR: 63-66; LYN: 58-66
Streaks: CAR: W1; LYN: L1
Last 10 Games: CAR: 3-7, LYN: 3-7
Home Record: CAR: 35-29; LYN: 25-32
Road Record: CAR: 28-37; LYN: 33-34
Division Record: CAR: 24-41; LYN: 21-25
Current Series: CAR leads 1-0 (of 3)
Season Series: CAR leads 10-5 (of 17)
CAR v. OPP: 6-2 @CAR (10), 4-3 @OPP (7)

UPCOMING PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS...
SAT, 8/24 vs. LYN, 5:00 PM: Lynchburg LHP Kirk McCarty (3-5, 5.55) at Carolina LHP Aaron Ashby (2-6, 3.70)
SUN, 8/25 vs. LYN, 2:00 PM: Lynchburg RHP Juan Mota (2-3, 3.98) at Carolina RHP Christian Taugner (5-9, 5.33)
MON, 8/26 vs. FAY, 7:00 PM: Fayetteville TBA at Carolina TBA
TONIGHT: Following last night's series opening victory, the Mudcats continue their final home stand (seven games) of the 2019 season tonight with the middle game of a three game series versus the Lynchburg Hillcats at Five County Stadium... Tonight's game is the second in the series and the penultimate of 17 total games between the two teams this season. It is also the eighth of nine second half meetings between the two teams. After last night's 7-3 victory, Carolina now leads the season series 10-5, while going 6-2 against Lynchburg at Five County Stadium and 4-3 versus the Hillcats in Lynchburg.
ICYMI: Leugim Castillo hit a solo home run in the fifth, Rob Henry drove in the go-ahead runs with a clutch two-run single with two-outs in the sixth, Peter Strzelecki earned a victory with four strikeouts over two scoreless frames and J.T. Hintzen earned his first save as the Mudcats defeated the Hillcats 7-3 on Friday night at Five County Stadium. The Mudcats were down 2-0 early in the game before coming back with a run in the fifth on Castillo's home run and took the lead an inning later on Henry's two-out, two-run single to center. Carolina then extended its lead with four more runs in the seventh with one coming on a RBI single from Brice Turang and another on a two-out RBI double from Eddie Silva.
CAROLINA'S STARTING PITCHER(S)...
Aaron Ashby: 2-6, 3.70 ERA, 11 GS, 58.1 IP, 49 H, 29 BB, 49 SO, 1.34 WHIP
Last start, 8/18 at LYN: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO, 34 p.
Rated as the No. 8 prospect in the MIL system per MLBpipeline.com.
Led Midwest League in strikeouts (80) before promotion to High-A.
TRAGIC NUMBER: Carolina's elimination number to finish in second place (and in a potential playoff spot assuming Down East wins the second half) remained at two after last night's game. The Mudcats have failed to reached the playoffs in seven consecutive Carolina League seasons and 10 straight seasons overall.
WHERE THEY RANK: Mario Feliciano is currently 1st in the CL in home runs (19), tied for 1st in RBI (79), 1st in slugging (.477), 5th in OPS (.801), 7th in hits (119), tied for 1st in runs (62), 1st in extra-base hits (47) and 1st in total bases (208)... Payton Henry is tied for 3rd in the CL in home runs (14) and 3rd in RBI (74)... Matt Hardy is currently tied for 8th in the CL in wins (7) and 10th in games (36)... J.T. Hintzen is currently tied for 4th in the CL in games (39)... Cody Beckman and Michael Petersen are both currently tied for 6th in the CL in games (38)... Noah Zavolas is currently 2nd in the CL in ERA (2.98), 2nd in innings pitched (133.0) and 1st in WHIP (1.14). Zavolas is also 2nd in the CL in FIP (3.21), 1st in xFIP (3.36), 1st in BB/9 (1.56) and 1st in K/BB (4.43)... Matt Smith is currently 3rd in the CL in ERA (3.65), 6th in WHIP (1.27) and 2nd in K/BB (2.97).
OF LATE: The Mudcats have gone just 12-28 since 7/10 and since starting the second half at 12-8 over their first 20 games (6/20-7/9) following the All-Star break... They have also gone just 8-20 since 7/24... The Mudcats have also combined to hit just .213 with 3.2 R/G and a run differential of -34 runs since 7/10. 
HEATING UP:Pat McInerney has hit safely in five straight games and is batting .400/.429/.600 with a 1.029 OPS during the streak (8-for-20, 3 R, 4 2B, 2 RBI). McInerney also went 6-for-12 with three doubles during Carolina's previous three games in Myrtle Beach... Mario Feliciano has hit safely in six straight games and is batting .292/.320/.458 with a .778 OPS during the streak (7-for-24, 2 2B, 1 3B, 1 RBI). He has also hit safely in five straight games since missing five games from 8/12 through 8/17 with hand injury.
MVP: Mario Feliciano was named the 2019 Carolina League Most Valuable Player on 8/22. Feliciano is the first Mudcats player to win the MVP award since the Mudcats joined the Carolina League for the 2012 season. Feliciano, however, is the fifth player overall in team history to be named league MVP as Mark Johnson (1994), Jason Kendall (1995), Gaby Sanchez (2008) and Dave Sappelt (2010) were all named Southern League MVP during Carolina's Double-A and Southern League era (1991-2011). Feliciano also earned post-season All-Star honors at catcher.
P.O.Y.: Noah Zavolas was named the 2019 Carolina League Pitcher of the Year on 8/22. Zavolas is the second Mudcats pitcher in team history to earn the Carolina League's Pitcher of the Year award, joining Cody Anderson who won the same award following the 2013 season. Former Mudcats pitcher Travis Wood was additionally named the Southern League's Most Outstanding Pitcher during his 2009 season with Carolina. Zavolas also earned post-season All-Star honors at starting pitcher.
EXCLUSIVE COMPANY: CL MVP Mario Feliciano currently leads the league in home runs and is tied for the CL lead in RBI this season. The last Mudcats player to finish a season as the league leader (tied with Mobile's Paul Goldschmidt) in homers was Neftali Soto who homered 30 times for the then-Southern League affiliated Mudcats in 2011... Carolina has never had a player finish the season as the league leader in both homers and RBI. However, George Canale led the Southern League in RBI (102) and was second in the home runs (21) in 1995; Mark Johnson led the SL in homers (23) and was third in RBI (85) in 1994.
RECORD SETTING: Payton Henry has totaled a Mudcats franchise record 22 hit by pitches this season. Henry has also tied the team record for double plays hit into (18) this season... The Carolina offense has combined to total a CL high and franchise record 97 hit by pitches this season; previous high was 73 HBP in 2010 and 2013.
STREAKS OF NOTE: Phil Bickford has pitched through 21.2 consecutive scoreless innings (6 BB, 31 SO, 12.9 SO/9) and 11 straight scoreless appearances from 7/9 through 8/21 (21.0 IP, 6 BB, 31 SO, 13.3 SO/9)... Rob Henry started the season with six home runs over his first 16 games, but has not homered since 4/19 in Salem while going 73 straight games without a home run.
ALL THE Ks: The Carolina offense has combined to total a Carolina League high 1,304 strikeouts this season (5th most in MiLB). The Mudcats are on pace to set both a CL and franchise record for most strikeouts for the third straight season... Carolina batters combined to total a CL and franchise record 1,311 strikeouts last season; breaking the previous CL and franchise record of 1,245 SO set by Carolina in 2017... Carolina has also totaled 351 more strikeouts than hits; the third highest such difference in MiLB.
THE TOP 30: The Carolina roster currently features five of Milwaukee's Top 30 prospects (as rated by MLBPipeline.com) including No. 1 INF Brice Turang, No. 2 OF Tristen Lutz, No. 8 LHP Aaron Ashby, No. 9 C Mario Feliciano and No. 16 C Payton Henry.
THE MUDCATS HAVE…
... played in Zebulon, NC since 1991 (29th season).
... played in the Carolina League since 2012 (8th season).
... been an affiliate of the Brewers since 2017 (3rd season).
... not made the playoffs since the 2008 season.
... not made the playoffs during their Carolina League era.
... operated under the ownership of the Brewers since Oct. 2017.