Louisville Bats Notes: June 16

BATS GO FOR SERIES WIN: The Louisville Bats and Toledo Mud Hens continue a three-game weekend series at Fifth Third Field. The Bats won 5-2 Friday night, winning in the series opener for the third straight series against Toledo. LOU won on a strong pitching performance from RHP José López . Louisville now owns an 8-12 record in series openers this season, and 4-5 on the road.

AGAINST TOLEDO: Louisville and Toledo will play for the 11th time tonight, with the Mud Hens going 6-4 thus far. The Hens have outscored the Bats 50-39 and outhomered LOU 15-3. Six of those 15 home runs came in a single game on May 13 (the last time these teams played), a Louisville Slugger Field record for most home runs in a game hit by a team. Last night, the Bats won their third straight series opener in series against the Hens.
SENZATIONAL IN THE LEADOFF SPOT: Infielder Nick Senzel is making a case for "greatest leadoff-hitter of all time" with his sixth straight multi-hit game from the top spot in the batting order. Last night he went 2-for-5 with a double and run scored. In his first 6 career games batting leadoff, Senzel is now batting .500 (14-for-28) with 4 runs, 4 doubles, 5 RBI and a stolen base. His batting average heading into play Saturday is .302, the first time it's been above the .300 mark prior to a game since April 8 (.308).
DO IT WELL: Right-hander José López went 7.0 scoreless innings in last night's win, the longest scoreless outing by a Bats pitcher this season. Lopez now owns the 3 longest scoreless outings by Louisville pitchers in 2018, previously tossing 6.0 inning scoreless outings on April 22 vs. Syracuse and May 27 vs. Durham. The right-hander's 7.0 scoreless innings are the most shutout innings tossed by a LOU starter since Amir Garrett tossed a 7.0-inning complete game shutout in game two of a doubleheader on September 3, 2017 at Columbus.
ROAD SERIES WIN?: With a win tonight and/or Sunday, the Bats would have their first road win of the season and their first since taking two of three from the Durham Bulls from August 7-9 last season. LOU has gotten off to a franchise-worst start of 7-20 away from Louisville Slugger Field in 2018.
HERRERA REACHES FOUR TIMES: Dilson Herrera went 1-for-2 with 3 walks, part of the 7 walks the Bats drew last night. The walks were one shy of the team-high 8 that LOU has drawn twice this season, and most recently on June 8 at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. It was Herrera's first game with 3 walks since May 29, 2016 with Class AAA Las Vegas against the Memphis Redbirds.
TWO IN THE TOP SIX: Dilson Herrera (2nd, .424) and Nick Senzel (6th, .396) rank in the top six in batting in the month of June among International League batters. Herrera is 14-for-33 with 4 doubles, one home run, 9 RBI, 12 walks and 7 strikeouts in the month. Senzel is 21-for-53 with 5 runs, 7 doubles, 9 RBI, 6 walks and 7 strikeouts.