Louisville Bats Notes: 5-4-19

Game 30, Away 16
Louisville Bats (11-18) at Indianapolis Indians (15-12)
RHP José López (2-2, 5.63) vs. RHP Dario Agrazal (1-0, 2.70)
7:05 PM | Saturday, May 4, 2019 | Victory Field
LISTEN: Nick Curran, 790 KRD; iHeartRadio.com; iHeart app

TONIGHT'S GAME: Louisville and Indianapolis continue a four-game series at Victory Field with the Indians taking the first 2 games of the series on Thursday and Friday. Louisville has fallen to a season-high 7 games below the .500 mark, also tying the furthest back they have been from the IL West Division lead at 6.5 games. Tonight, right-hander Jose Lopez looks to get the Bats back on track on Kentucky Derby day.
AGAINST INDIANAPOLIS: Indianapolis has won the last 3 matchups between the clubs since Louisville took the first 2 games of their last series from April 19-21. Last night's 7-5 Indy win, totaling 12 runs, equaled the amount of runs scored in the entire 3-game series during the clubs' previous series. Louisville came into the current series winning each of its last 3 road series, hoping to salvage at least a tie, down 0-2 with 2 games remaining in the 4-game set.
VANMETER TIES FRANCHISE RECORD: Louisville third baseman Josh VanMeter continued his sensational start to the 2019 season, going 3-for-4 with 2 home runs on Friday, his fourth multi-homer game of the season. He is already tied for the most multi-homer games in franchise history since 1982, with Brandon Cromer (1999) and Mike Hessman (2013).
- VanMeter leads the IL in home runs (13), RBI (31), runs (26), total bases (81), slugging percentage (.757) and OPS (1.189). His 13 home runs already match the 2016 team leader for the entire season, when Scott Schebler led the Bats with 13 homers. In 2015, Yorman Rodriguez led the Bats with 10 home runs during the entire season.
BROTHERS OF DESTRUCTION: VanMeter and Brian O'Grady are ranked first and second in the IL in both slugging percentage and OPS coming into play Saturday, toting 1.189 and 1.146 marks, respectively. The pair picked up right where they left off in 2018, when O'Grady (1.056 OPS) and VanMeter (1.026) in August became the first Bats teammates to both have a 1.000 OPS in the same calendar month since Yonder Alonso and Juan Francisco in July 2010.
TRANSACTIONS: On Saturday the Bats added to their roster RHP Matt Bowman and OF Phillip Ervin, both of whom were optioned by the Cincinnati Reds. In addition to the Reds' contract selection of No. 1 prospect Nick Senzel, who made his Major League debut on Friday night, OF Courtney Hawkins was released. In his first career stint at Triple-A, the former first round pick of the White Sox appeared in 15 games for the Bats, hitting .167 (9-for-54) with 2 home runs and 4 RBI.
PINCH ME, I MUST BE HITTING: In Friday night's 7-5 loss, both Kyle Wren and Sherman Johnson came through with pinch-hit singles. Pinch hitters for Louisville this season are now batting .273 (3-for-11), with Johnson accounting for the lone home run and 2 RBI back on April 12 vs. Gwinnett. Yesterday marked the first time LOU registered 2 pinch hits in the same game in over a year, when Brandon Dixon and D.J. Peterson both hit pinch-hit doubles in a 5-4 win at Lehigh Valley on April 15, 2018.
DERBY DAY PATTERN: Since 2010, the Bats have alternated results on Kentucky Derby day, going 4-5 (L-W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L) over their past 9 games on the same day as the Kentucky Derby. Last season, the Bats lost on Derby by an 8-3 score at Norfolk.
FEEL SO CLOSE: In each of the first 5 matchups betweent the Bats and Indians this year, the game has been decided by 2 or fewer runs. It's the first time LOU has played in games decided by 1 or 2 runs in 5 straight matchups against a given club since 2016-2017, when Louisville and Toledo had 8 straight matchups decided by 1 or 2 runs, starting on August 24, 2016 and going through May 15, 2017.