July 23 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers @ Oklahoma City Baseball Club

TACOMA RAINIERS (54-42) @ OKLAHOMA CITY BASEBALL CLUB (48-48)
Tuesday, July 23 • 5:05 PM PT • Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark • Oklahoma City, OK
RHP Michael Mariot (5-5, 5.57) vs. LHP Alec Gamboa (2-4, 2.19)

TONIGHT’S GAME: The Tacoma Rainiers and Oklahoma City Baseball Club will play the first of a six-game series tonight, with Michael Mariot getting the start for the Rainiers. Mariot enters tonight’s game with a 5-5 record and a 5.57 ERA through his first 17 games (14 starts) this year. The right-hander has allowed 45 earned runs on 68 hits and 16 walks, striking out 63 batters over 72.2 innings pitched. In nine games against Oklahoma City in his career, Mariot is 1-1 with a save and a 3.65 ERA, allowing five earned runs on 14 hits and one walk while striking out 12 over 12.1 innings. Opposite Mariot will be Alec Gamboa taking the ball for the Baseball Club. The southpaw enters tonight’s game with a 2-4 record and 2.19 ERA through 13 games (five starts) for Oklahoma City, allowing just nine earned runs on 29 hits and 13 walks over 37.0 innings. He has struck out just 27 batters over that span, but is limiting opponents to a .215 batting average against him. Gamboa faced Tacoma out of relief back on March 30 in the second game of the year, allowing one earned run on one hit and one walk while striking out two in his lone inning of relief. He enters play tonight having not allowed a single run over his last 15.0 innings pitched.

OFF THE ROSTER: Tacoma is expected to lose four of their top five hitters for this series against Oklahoma City. Yesterday, Seattle announced they were selecting the contract of Jason Vosler, who has been not only Tacoma’s leader but also a league leader in many statistical categories. Vosler was leading the team in hits (101), doubles (17), home runs (20), RBI (79), multi-hit games (29) and multi-RBI games (22). Cade Marlowe, Tyler Locklear and Leo Rivas are also all expected to make the trip back to Seattle, leaving Tacoma’s roster. Marlowe leads the team in games played (90), tied for the lead in walks (55) and led both the league and Tacoma in stolen bases with 43. Locklear has split his time with Seattle and Tacoma, but in 31 games with the Rainiers, started as the three-hitter twice and the cleanup man the other 29 times. He hit .264 (32-for-121) over that span, including seven doubles, two triples, four home runs and 18 runs batted in. Rivas had been the Rainiers’ leadoff hitter for the last two weeks, and leaves Tacoma riding a 30-game on-base streak. It was the longest active streak in the PCL and tied for the second longest streak of the season. Over those 30 games, Rivas hit .337 (34-for-101) with 32 runs scored, eight doubles, a triple and two home runs. He drove in 15 runs and walked more than he struck out, drawing 32 walks compared to 25 strikeouts, getting on base at a .493 clip. The switch hitter raised his average to .296 on the year and was tied for the team-lead in walks while leading the league in on-base percentage, at .441. He also started 61 of Tacoma’s 96 games at shortstop, providing consistency at that position.

ONE MORE FOR 200: The Rainiers have led Triple-A in stolen bases all season, and they padded their lead with four more swiped bags in Sunday’s finale against Reno. They are expected to lose two of their top base stealers, with Cade Marlowe (43) and Leo Rivas (24) each going to Seattle. Tacoma enters their current series tonight with 199 stolen bases on the year, needing one more to reach the 200-mark.

WHAT AN OUTING: Emerson Hancock delivered a complete game shutout on Sunday, marking the first time any pitcher for Tacoma has done that in a nine-inning game since Casey Lawrence did so back on June 5, 2018, at Memphis. Hancock needed just 105 pitches to get through nine frames, throwing 74 of them for strikes. He worked around nine hits and two walks with three strikeouts and three double plays turned behind him. The right-hander moved to 4-1 with a 2.06 ERA with the nine scoreless innings, giving up just 12 earned runs over 52.1 innings in nine starts with Tacoma this year. Hancock has now thrown 15.0 scoreless innings against Reno this season, allowing just 13 hits and two walks compared to eight strikeouts.

KEEP IT GOING: Tacoma is coming into their current series having won three straight games against the second half first place Reno Aces, sweeping them in the three-game set out of the All-Star break. The three games were played at Cheney Stadium, marking just the fourth, fifth and sixth games of the month at home for Tacoma. They now go back on the road, where they are 23-28 this year and just 4-5 in July. The Rainiers will look to bring their winning ways on the road with them for their six-game series with the Baseball Club.

TIE IT, BREAK IT: Tacoma comes into tonight’s game on a three-game winning streak, taking all three of their games against Reno out of the All-Star break. The Rainiers have the chance to tie their season-long four-game winning streak with a victory tonight. They have gotten to four wins in a row four times this season, most recently from June 19-22. A win tonight would not only tie their season long winning streak, it would also push them 13 games over the .500-mark for the first time this year. Tacoma is currently 12 games over .500, at 54-42, marking the third time this season they have been 12 games better than even. The last time came on July 9 when they were 50-38 and before that was June 22 when they were 43-31.

AGAINST OKLAHOMA CITY: Tacoma and Oklahoma City will meet for the first of a six-game set tonight and the first of 12 remaining games here at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The Rainiers return to face Oklahoma City for their final road trip of the season from Sept. 10-15. The two teams kicked off the season against each other back on March 29, playing a three-game series at Cheney Stadium. Tacoma took the series 2-1, as both teams scored 15 runs. They enter play tonight leading the current season series 2-1 and the all-time series 95-90.

SHORT HOPS: Tacoma’s defense has turned three double plays in each of their last two games played, turning 94 on the year while hitting in 81…despite being in third place in the Pacific Coast League West Division and fourth overall in the second half, Tacoma has the best run differential (+29) of any PCL team this half…the Rainiers are just 4-5 in road games in July entering play tonight, having gone 5-1 at home this month.