Louisville Bats Notes: May 24

GRAND FINALE BEFORE THE HOMESTAND: The Louisville Bats and Indianapolis Indians meet Thursday for the final game of a four-game series at Victory Field. For the Bats, it's the final game of their longest road trip of the season, a 10-gamer that started on May 15 in Durham. LOU improved to 2-7 on the road trip with Wednesday's 10-2 win, with its longest homestand (10 games) of the season starting this Friday, May 25 against the Durham Bulls (5/25-5/28), Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (5/29-5/31) and Gwinnett Stripers (6/1-6/3).

AGAINST INDIANAPOLIS: Last season, the Bats went just 8-15 against the Indians, 4-7 in their home ballpark. The defending IL West Champions outscored Louisville 117-64 in the 23 contests. In an interesting International League scheduling quirk, Louisville and Indianapolis did not have their first scheduled game against each other until June 22, playing all 23 of their matchups from that point on. After the clubs' first series of the season concluded at Louisville Slugger Field on May 10, the Bats are just 2-10 and today will try to tie their first series since then.
OFFENSIVE ATTACK: The Bats scored a season-high 10 runs in Wednesday's game, with their 8-run win being the largest run differential they have won by this season. A few notes on Louisville's impressive showing on offense at Victory Field yesterday:
Double Digits: Louisville finally cracked into double digits in the run column, the first time it's scored 10+ runs in a game since August 20 last season vs. Rochester in a 13-6 win. It's the latest into a season that Louisville has scored at least 10 runs in a game for the first time since the 2012 season, when LOU finally reached double digits in the run column on June 16 vs. Rochester (W 11-5) in the team's 70th game of the season.
Biggest Lead: Before yesterday's 10-2 rout of the Indians, LOU's largest lead it's held in a game was on April 11 vs. Columbus, when the Bats led by 7 runs with an 8-1 advantage, before ultimately winning the game 8-2. Yesterday's 8-run cushion was the Bats' largest lead since August 20, 2017, when they led 13-5 at one point. The 8-run margin of victory is the best in a Bats win since July 6, 2017, when the Bats beat the Toledo Mud Hens, 9-1.
VANMETER'S HUGE GAME: Louisville second baseman Josh VanMeter had an excellent day at the dish Wednesday, going 3-for-5 with a double, three-run home run and 4 RBI, with his hit, run (2) and RBI total tying team highs for LOU batters this season. He became just the third Bats hitter to record 4 RBI in a game this season, joining Mason Williams (5/1 at COL) and Tony Cruz (5/3 at NOR).
RAINEY RECALLED TO CINCINNATI: The Cincinnati Reds recalled RHP Tanner Rainey to the Majors yesterday, set to make his third stint with the big league club. He made his first 2 Major League appearances during his first stint with the Reds from April 10-12, and did not appear in a game with CIN in his most recent stint, May 4-5, while he was filling LHP Amir Garrett 's roster spot while he was on the bereavement list. At the time of his promotion on May 23, Rainey has currently allowed the lowest batting average to opposing hitters (.109, 6-for-55) among IL relievers.
CURSED FOR FIRST, BUT GLAD TO COME BACK: Louisville briefly trailed in Wednesday's ballgame after Indianapolis leadoff hitter Max Moroff homered off Robert Stephenson to start the game. LOU's comeback victory marked its eighth of the season, meaning they now have more come-from-behind victories (8) as a club than they do victories when scoring first in a ballgame (7), owning the league's worst winning percentage in the latter scenario at .318 (7-15).