Louisville Bats Notes: 5-23-19

Game 46, Home 23
Indianapolis Indians (24-18) at Louisville Bats (18-27)
RHP José López (2-2, 5.31) vs. Eduardo Vera (2-3, 5.52)
7:00 PM | Thursday, May 23, 2019 | Louisville Slugger Field
LISTEN: Nick Curran& Jim Kelch, 790 KRD; iHeartRadio.com; iHeart app

SERIES FINALE: The Bats and Indians wrap up their three-game series at Louisville Slugger Field on Thursday night. Right-hander José López takes the mound for the Bats as they look to win their second straight series finale after winning at Buffalo on May 19 to avoid a series sweep, which they will try to do today.
AGAINST INDIANAPOLIS: Louisville and Indianapolis are scheduled to meet a total of 23 times this season, with Thursday being the 10th matchup of the year. LOU owns a 4-5 record against Indy, 4-3 at Victory Field and 0-2 so far at Louisville Slugger Field. Christian Colón is batting .353 (12-for-34), Brian O'Grady .318 (7-for-22) and Blake Trahan .300 (9-for-30) in action against the IL West Division foe this season.
ROUNDTRIPPERS: Louisville hit 3 more home runs last night, bringing their season total to 49 homers through the team's first 45 games. Yesterday was the sixth time this season (4/7, 4/11, 4/26, 4/29, 5/19, 5/22) that the Bats homered 3 or more times in a game, already surpassing the club's total from 2018, when they homered 3+ times on 5 occasions.
GOLDEN HOME RUN…  A MONTH EARLIER?: Coming into play Thursday, the Bats have hit 49 home runs as a team. In 2018, Louisville did not hit its 50th homer of the season until June 23 in the team's 70th game of the year. That blast was a two-run shot off the bat of Steve Selsky in the bottom of the first inning in a 13-12 victory over the Norfolk Tides.
O'GRADY RULES!: First baseman Brian O'Grady hit 2 home runs on Wednesday, his third multi-homer game of the season, and his second in his last 3 games. The multi-HR game was Louisville's ninth as a team this year, with Josh VanMeter (4), Sherman Johnson and Nick Longhi owning the others. O'Grady and VanMeter alone, with 7 combined, have more multi-HR games this season than the entire 2018 Bats team did with 6. The 9 individual multi-HR games are the most for the Bats in a season since they had 10 in 2010.
CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR: The Bats have lost each of the first 2 games of their series with the Indians by 4-3 scores, falling to 6-10 in one-run games this season. Each of the team's last 4 losses have come by one run, with each of the last 3 coming by an identical 4-3 score.
SPEAKING OF SAME SCORE…: It's the first time Louisville has played in back-to-back games that have resulted in the same score since June 1-2, 2018, when the Bats defeated the Gwinnett Stripers at home by 3-1 scores in back-to-back contests.
WALKING HEADS: Yesterday was the third game this season that Louisville failed to draw a walk, falling to 1-2 on the season in those games. The Bats won their home opener against Gwinnett on April 11 by a 7-6 score without drawing a walk, and went 1-10 when failing to draw a walk last season.
EXTRA NUMBER OF EXTRAS: Louisville played in its seventh extra innings game on Wednesday, leading the league. The next-closest teams are Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Toledo, with those teams playing in 6 extra innings contests apiece. Louisville is 3-4 in extras this season, 2-1 at home and 1-3 on the road.