May 19 - Mudcats Game Notes

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CAROLINA MUDCATS (MIL) at WINSTON-SALEM DASH (CHI)
Friday, May 19, 2017 | 7:00 PM 
Game 41, Away Game 14 
at BB&T Ballpark (5,500)
RADIO: WDWG, The Big Dawg 98.5 FM 
STREAMING AUDIO: www.carolinamudcats.com, TuneIn Radio
STREAMING VIDEO: MiLB.tv
Overall Record: CAR: 21-19; WS: 13-28
Streaks: CAR: W3; WS: L3
Last 10 Games: CAR: 8-2, WS: 2-8    
Home Record: CAR: 14-13; WS: 6-11
Road Record: CAR: 7-6; WS: 7-17
Division Record: CAR: 10-7; WS: 7-16    
Current Series: First game (of 4)
Season Series: CAR leads 3-0 (of 24)
CAR vs. OPP: 3-0 @CAR (13), 0-0 @OPP (11) 

UPCOMING PROBABLES:
FRI, 5/19, 7:00 PM: Carolina RHP Freddy Peralta (0-1, 3.00) at Winston-Salem RHP Dane Dunning (1-0, 4.76)
SAT, 5/20, 6:30 PM: Carolina RHP Conor Harber (1-3, 3.19) at Winston-Salem RHP Aron McRee (0-5, 3.66)
SUN, 5/21, 2:00 PM: Carolina RHP Corbin Burnes (4-0, 1.15) at Winston-Salem LHP Tanner Banks (4-1, 2.96)
ICYMI: Cooper Hummel fell a single shy of the cycle in his season debut, Cody Ponce worked through the seventh for the sixth time this year and the Mudcats hit three home runs while defeating the Wood Ducks 7-5 on Thursday afternoon at Five County Stadium. The Mudcats also won the series three games to one and finished at 6-1 in their home stand.
ABOUT THE LAST ONE: Cooper Hummel made his 2017 season debut yesterday and finished a single shy of the cycle while going 3-for-3 with a double, a triple, a home run, two runs and two RBIs. He doubled and scored a run in the third, tripled and drove in a run in the fourth, walked in the sixth and hit a two-run home run with two outs in the eighth. He also caught five pop outs, picked off a runner at first and reached base safely in all four of his at bats… The Mudcats set a new season high for home runs in a game with three yesterday (Stokes, Clark, Hummel). 
STARTING OFF: Freddy Peralta has tonight's series opening start vs. the Dash in Winston-Salem. Peralta enters tonight's game at 0-1 and with a 3.00 ERA over seven games and three starts this season for the Mudcats. Peralta is currently 2nd in the Carolina League in strikeouts (47) and leads the league in highest strikeouts/9ip ratio (14.62). He is also 5th among qualified Carolina League pitchers in lowest average against (.161) this season. Peralta last pitched on 5/14 vs. Winston-Salem and worked 3.0 innings out of the pen with six strikeouts and one earned run (five total) allowed on just two hits.
FRAME BY FRAME: The Mudcats set a franchise record for runs scored in the first inning with nine in Tuesday night's 11-2 win home versus the Wood Ducks. Carolina had scored just nine combined runs in the first all season (first 37 games) before plating nine in the first that night. The Mudcats have been outscored 30-18 and are batting a combined .199/.287/.312 (18 R, 27 H) in the first this season. They have also outscored opponents 23-9 in the second inning and 134-117 between the fourth and ninth innings this season. The Mudcats have been outscored 72-56 over the first three innings of games this season.
THE STREAK: Jake Gatewood was 0-for-4 on Monday night and snapped a 23-game hitting streak. The streak was the longest of Gatewood's career and matched the Carolina Mudcats franchise record for consecutive games with a hit, tying Bryson Myles of the 2013 Mudcats (7/15/13-8/11/13). Gatewood hit .372/.443/.628 (32-for-86) with 18 runs, 10 doubles, four home runs, 14 RBIs, 11 walks and a 1.071 OPS during the streak. The streak was the longest in MiLB this season (excluding Mike Tauchman's (AAA, ABQ) 28 game hit streak which began on 8/12/16 and ended on 4/9/17).
ALL OVER THE TOP 10: Jake Gatewood is currently 7th in the Carolina League in average (.320), 3rd in OBP (.405), 7th in SLG (.538), 6th in OPS (.929), 2nd in runs scored (30), 3rd in hits (47), tied for 1st in doubles (15), tied for 3rd in extra-base hits (20), tied for 5th in home runs (5) and tied for 7th in walks (21).
HOME SWEET HOME: The Mudcats have played a CL high 27 home games in 2017. They are currently 14-13 at home and still have 11 home games remaining on their first half schedule. A total of 27 of Carolina's first 40 games were scheduled to be played at Five County Stadium to start the season. 
WHERE THEY RANK: Isan Diaz is currently 8th in the Carolina League in hits (41), tied for 5th in extra-base hits (17) and 3rd in home runs (7)… Corbin Burnes leads the Carolina League in ERA (1.15) and is 2nd in WHIP (0.98). Burnes is also tied for 4th in innings pitched (47.0), 3rd among starters in average against (.196) and 2nd in fewest baserunners allowed/9ip ratio (8.81)… Cody Ponce leads the CL in innings pitched (51.0) and is 2nd in the league in lowest BB-IBB/9ip ratio (1.06)… Freddy Peralta is currently 2nd in the Carolina League in strikeouts (47) and leads the league in highest strikeouts/9ip ratio (14.62). He is also 5th among qualified Carolina League pitchers in lowest average against (.161) this season… Luis Aviles Jr. is tied for the CL lead in steals (12)… Troy Stokes Jr. is tied for 2nd in the CL in steals (11)… Trent Clark is currently 3rd in the CL in walks (26).
FURTHER RANKINGS: Corey Ray has the 8th highest K% (29.1%) among qualified Carolina League hitters this season… Trent Clark has the 9th highest K% (28.4%) among qualified Carolina League hitters this season… Jake Gatewood has the 2nd highest BABIP (.424) among qualified Carolina League hitters this season… Lucas Erceg has the 2nd lowest BABIP (.228) among qualified Carolina League hitters. 
OF LATE: Lucas Erceg is batting .154/.214/.286 over his last 22 games (14-for-91, 11 R, 3 2B, 3 HR, 10 RBI, 6 BB, 17 SO)... Isan Díaz is batting .316/.395/.622 since 4/22 and over his last 26 games (31-for-98, 17 R, 9 2B, 7 HR, 22 RBI, 13 BB, 25 SO)... Trent Clark started the season batting .180/.333/.311 over his first 19 games (11-for-61, 8 R, 2 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 15 BB) before going 5-for-6 with 3 RBI on 4/30 in Frederick. Clark is now batting .313/.408/.438 over his last 18 games since 4/30 (20-for-64, 17 R, 2 2B, 1 HR, 12 RBI, 11 BB).
PROSPECTS GALORE: The Mudcats currently have 10 players ranked on MLB.com's list of top 30 Brewers prospects; 4 of which ranking in the Brewers top 10. The plethora of top rated Brewers prospects with Carolina include outfielder Corey Ray, infielder Isan Diaz, outfielder Trent Clark and third baseman Lucas Erceg. Ray is currently ranked as the 2nd best prospect in the Brewers system by MLB.com, followed by Diaz (5), Clark (6) and Erceg (7). Each of which are also ranked in the top 10 among Brewers prospects according to both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus. Also ranking among MLB.com's top 30 Brewers prospects are pitchers Marcos Diplan (11), Cody Ponce (15), Kodi Medeiros (18), Freddy Peralta (19), Corbin Burnes (20) and infielder Jake Gatewood (25)