Louisville Bats Notes: 5-31-19

Game 54, Away 27
Louisville Bats (22-31) at Norfolk Tides (22-29)
RHP Keury Mella (3-4, 5.36) vs. RHP Tyler Herb (3-2, 5.06)
7:05 PM | Friday, May 31, 2019 | Harbor Park
LISTEN: Nick Curran, 790 KRD; iHeartRadio.com; iHeart app

SOUTH TOUR CONTINUES: The Bats continue their six-game road trip with a three-game series against the Norfolk Tides, coming off a series victory against the Durham Bulls. Four of the Bats' 5 series wins have come on the road this season, including the series win over Durham, which was the Bats' first series win against an IL South team on the road since 2017. Tonight, right-hander Keury Mella will take the mound as Louisville enters play winning 4 of its last 5 contests.
AGAINST NORFOLK: Louisville and Norfolk meet in a three-game series, which will be the final series between the clubs in 2019. In the first meeting, the Tides took 2 of 3 from the Bats from April 26-28, including playing in the highest scoring game in Louisville Slugger Field history in the series opener, which Norfolk won by a 16-14 score.
BUZZIN' FOR A DOZEN: Phillip Ervin went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs and a double in Thursday's 11-6 win, his second game in a row with 2 homers. The multi-homer effort is the Bats' 12th this season, breaking a tie with the 1999 RiverBats for the most individual multi-HR efforts in a season in franchise history.
- While Louisville has achieved just about every home run feat there is this season, Ervin did become the first Bat with multi-HR games in back-to-back apps since Mike Hessman accomplished the feat in his first 2 games of the 2013 season on April 4-5.
A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: Louisville easily paces the International League with 12 individual multi-homer games, with the next closest team being Gwinnett with 8. Buffalo, Durham, Indianapolis, Rochester and Toledo are all tied for fewest in the league with one.
STREAK ME, STREAK ME: Christian Colón went 1-for-4 with a walk, extending his team-high hitting streak to 11 games. Meanwhile, Brian O'Grady (9) and Aristides Aquino (8) both extended their season-high hit streaks as well. By going hitless in the series opener at Durham, Rob Refsnyder had his hit streak interrupted, but has hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games.
NEW BIG-INNINGS: Louisville scored 6 runs in the top of the ninth last night against Durham, tying their season-high for most runs scored in an inning. It's been done by the Bats 3 times this season, all occurring in their last 5 games.  
TRANSACTIONS: The Reds optioned LHP Wandy Peralta and RHP Lucas Sims to Class AAA Louisville. Peralta, who is 5-1 with a 2.49 ERA (20er/72.1ip) in 50 career apps with Louisville, will make his 2019 Bats debut when first appearing in the uniform, going 0-1 with a 4.87 ERA (11er/20.1ip) in 24 big league apps this season. Sims returns to LOU after a brief but impactful stay in the bigs, getting the win for the Reds this past Tuesday, striking out 9 in 7.1 innings. Despite missing his last Triple-A start, the right-hander still paces the International League with his 63 strikeouts.
EVEN ROAD: After last night's win, the Bats are now 13-13 away from Louisville Slugger Field. Of the Bats' 5 series victories this season, 4 have come on the road, winning 2 of 3 at Columbus (4/8-4/10), Indianapolis (4/19-4/21), Toledo (4/29-5/1) and Durham (5/28-5/30). Their lone series win at home came against Charlotte, taking 2 of 3 from May 10-12.
LAST DAY OF MAY: Louisville will play its final game in May today, with a 12-15 record since May 1. As an offense, LOU is batting .277 in May, a 22-point improvement from their .255 average in April. In the run category, LOU has been remarkably consistent, averaging 4.88 (127r/26g) runs per game in April, while averaging 4.89 (132r/27g) runs per game in May. On the flipside, their pitchers' ERA has gone up over a half-run, from 4.99 in April to 5.58 so far in May.
FiRST LEFTY: Thursday's starting pitcher Juan Martinez was the first left-handed pitcher to start for the Bats this season, in the team's 53rd game of the season. At the end of May last season, Louisville had a southpaw as their starting pitcher in 20 of their first 50 games.