Louisville Bats Notes: 4-23-19

Game 20, Home 10
Durham Bulls (7-10) at Louisville Bats (8-11)
7:00 PM | Wednesday, April 24, 2019 | Louisville Slugger Field
LISTEN: Nick Curran & Jim Kelch, 790 KRD; iHeartRadio.com; iHeart app
HUMP DAY MIDDLE GAME: The Louisville Bats play the second game of a three-game series vs. Durham and a six-game homestand on Wednesday night. Tonight will be the 10th game of the season played at Louisville Slugger Field, celebrating its 20th season. Tonight, right-hander José López (1-1, 4.50) will look to get the Bats back on track after losing 2 straight and tying a season-high 3 games below .500.

AGAINST DURHAM: Louisville and Durham will meet 6 times this season, for this series at Louisville Slugger Field and a 3-game set at Durham Bulls Athletic Park from May 28-30. Last season, Louisville went 3-7 against the Bulls, 3-4 in 7 home games and 0-3 on the road, being swept from May 15-17 at Durham. The Bats will need to rattle off back-to-back victories in order to win their first series against the Bulls since August 2017, when they took 2 of 3, and their first at Louisville Slugger Field since taking 3 of 4 from June 15-18, 2014.
SENZEL MAKES 2019 DEBUT: Top prospect Nick Senzel made his season debut with Louisville on Tuesday, batting leadoff and playing center field. He lined a sharp single into left field in his first at-bat, finishing the night 1-for-5 with 3 strikeouts. The No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 draft, Senzel played 44 games with the Bats in 2018, batting .310 with 6 home runs and 25 RBI in his debut at the Triple-A level. His season was cut short on June 22 after suffering an injury to his right index finger, which required surgery. He had been sidelined since sustaining a sprained right ankle in a spring game on March 25.
STRIKING FIRST: Durham scored 2 runs in the top of the first inning in last night's game, the eighth time in Louisville's 9 home games this season that its opponent was the first to score. The Bats' opponent has also scored in the first inning in 7 of 9 games at Louisville Slugger Field this season. On the road, Louisville's opponent has scored first in just 3 of 10 games, with LOU scoring in the first inning in 3 road contests.
ON-BASE MACHINE: Louisville infielder Christian Colón went 2-for-2 with 2 walks in Tuesday's 9-2 loss, reaching base 4 more times in his first season with the Reds organization. He is currently batting .361 (25-for-69) this season, tied for the league lead in hits (25) with Durham's Jake Cronenworth. Colon is in sole possession for the IL lead in walks (15) and stolen bases (8), nearly halfway to his career-high 17 stolen bases he registered with Double-A Northwest Arkansas back in 2011.
KEPT IT IN PLAY: Louisville Slugger Field had its first game of the 2019 season without a home run on Tuesday night, snapping an 8-game home run streak to start the season. In 2018, there were just 10 home runs hit at LSF through the ballpark's first 10 games, with 27 homers hit already this year going into the 10th game of the season.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: Louisville's 9-2 loss on Tuesday was just its third loss of the season by more than 3 runs. The seven-run deficit was the Bats' worst loss by run differential since July 16 at Rochester last season, losing by a 13-6 score. The only game this season where the score was decided by more than 7 runs was on April 10 at Columbus, when the Bats defeated the Clippers by an 8-0 score.