Louisville Bats Notes: 7-20-19

Game 99, Away 51
Louisville Bats (38-60) at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (56-42)
RHP Tejay Antone (2-3, 4.44) vs. RHP Deivi Garcia (1-0, 5.40)
6:35 PM | Saturday, July 20, 2019 | PNC Field
LISTEN: Nick Curran, 790 KRD; iHeartRadio.com; iHeart app

TONIGHT'S GAME: The Bats will try to clinch the series win against the RailRiders, also vying for their fourth consecutive win, which would set a new season-high. Louisville used an incredible 6-run ninth inning to eventually win 8-6 in 10 innings. In the opener, they also tied a franchise record with 4 home runs in one inning. Tonight, right-hander Tejay Antone will go for his third quality start in a row.
AGAINST SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE: Louisville and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre played for the first time in 2019 last night, with Louisville improving to 4-6 in extra innings with the win and the RailRiders falling to 8-2 in extras. Last season, the teams played in extras once on May 31, with LOU winning 5-4 in 11 innings on a Blake Trahan walk-off single, with Trahan also recording the game-winning 2-run single last night.
FRIDAY RECAP: Louisville trailed Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 6-0 going into the ninth inning, in danger of suffering their third shutout loss of the season. The Bats had other ideas, tying the game to send it into extra innings. Here's how they did it:
Aristides Aquino led off the inning with a homer off Dan Jennings, his 23rd home run of the season and LOU's first run of the ballgame. Two batters later, Alex Blandino hit a solo shot of his own to make it 6-2. Sherman Johnson followed that up with a double, prompting a mound visit.
Trahan doubled to bring the tying run on deck, with catcher Stuart Turner set to come up to the plate. Instead, Jody Davis elected to pinch hit Chadwick Tromp, who homered in his first game off the injured list on Thursday. Tromp hammered a pinch-hit three-run homer to make it a 6-5 game.
THEN THEY GOT THE CROOK: SWB brought in a new pitcher, J.P. Feyereisen, to face Narciso Crook, who belted a game-tying homer to go back-to-back with Tromp, making it a 6-6 game. Crook has been the hottest Louisville hitter of late, batting .600 (9-for-15) with 3 triples, 3 HR and 8 RBI on the road trip. His 5-game extra-base hit streak has been topped only by Brian O'Grady (6; 5/22-5/27) this season, and he also owns 2 of the 3 performances with a triple and homer in the same game for LOU (Nick Longhi, 4/14 vs. GWN).
FOUR SCORE AND MANY RUNS LATER: Louisville's 4 home runs (Aquino, Blandino, Tromp, Crook) in the ninth inning tied a franchise record for most in a single frame, done previously by the 2000 RiverBats on June 16, 2000 at Ottawa. In that game, LOU beat the Lynx 17-6 with 4 homers (Steve Soderstrom, D.T. Cromer, Brooks Kieschnick, Mike Bell) in the third inning.
LAST NIGHT'S PLACE IN HISTORY: Before overcoming a 6-run deficit to win 8-6 last night, LOU's largest comeback win this season was 5 runs, occurring twice (May 27 vs. Toledo and June 30 vs. Columbus). The 6-run hurdle was the most Louisville's trailed in an eventual victory since May 20, 2011, when LOU trailed 6-0 at Durham in an eventual 9-8 win.
MOVIN' ON UP: Louisville is 5-4 since the All-Star break, 8-8 in the month of July and 10-8 since June 29. With a win in their next game, the Bats will have their first 4-game winning streak since July 31-August 3, 2018 at Toledo (7/31-8/1) and at Columbus (8/2-8/3). The Bats have tied their season-high 3-game winning streak on 5 occasions: (4/9-4/11; 5/4-5/7; 5/29-5/31; 7/2-7/4; 7/17-pres).
GRIMM MAKES BATS DEBUT: Reliever Justin Grimm had an up-and-down Bats debut on Friday, his Reds organization debut after coming over in a trade from the Dodgers. Grimm, who came in with the bases loaded, allowed a grand slam to Zack Zehner as his first batter, with 3 of the runs being charged to Eric Stout. Grimm would strike out 3 over 1.1 innings, but also threw 4 wild pitches in his second inning of work.