Louisville Bats Notes: 7-28-19

Game 106, Home 54
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (60-45) at Louisville Bats (42-63)
RHP Jesús Reyes (0-4, 5.66) vs. RHP Chance Adams (4-2, 4.26)
2:00 PM | Sunday, July 28, 2019 | Louisville Slugger Field
LISTEN: Nick Curran & Jim Kelch, 790 KRD; iHeartRadio.com; iHeart app

SUNDAY MATINEE: The Bats and RailRiders will meet for their final clash of the 2019 season, with Louisville going for their first series sweep of the season. The Bats are also looking to match their season-best 3-game winning streak, which they have accomplished on 5 different occasions. With a win on Sunday, it would also secure Louisville's first winning homestand of 2019.
AGAINST SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE: Louisville clinched its first home series win against the RailRiders since the 2012 season, when they earned a 4-game sweep. The Bats also hit 2 more homers, totaling 15 in 5 games against the top farm club of the New York Yankees. After finishing all of their out-of-division season series with a losing record, LOU secured a winning record against Scranton, and has still yet to play Lehigh Valley and Rochester.
KEYS TO THE BROOM CLOSET: The Bats are going for their first series sweep of the season. LOU last swept a series when they defeated Indianapolis in both games of a two-game set at Louisville Slugger Field from August 24-25, 2018. LOU last swept a 3+ game series when they swept a four-game series at Syracuse from July 19-22, 2018. LOU last swept a home series of 3+ games from June 1-3, 2018 vs. Gwinnett.
#27 FOR #27: Right fielder Aristides Aquino hit his 27th home run of the season on Saturday night, his third straight game with a homer. It's the first time in Aquino's career that he has homered in 3 consecutive games. He's the fourth Bat this season to accomplish the feat, joining Josh VanMeter (4/8-4/10), Narciso Crook (7/17-7/19) and Blake Trahan (7/20-7/23).

TRENDING UP: The Bats are 9-7 since the All-Star break, 12-11 in the month of July and have won 2 of their last 3 series. Louisville is also fewer than 19 games back of first place (18.5 GB) for the first time in over a month, when they were 18.5 games back on June 25. Going into Sunday, LOU is just 4 games back of Toledo for third place in the IL West.
TOUGH SCHEDULE: Today marks the Bats' 70th game this season playing an opponent that owns an above-.500 record, accounting for 66% (70 of 106) of their games. LOU is 29-40 (.420) against above-.500 teams, and 13-22 (.371) in 35 games against below-.500 teams.
75% COMPLETE: After Saturday night's ballgame, the Bats are exactly 3/4 through their 140-game regular season schedule. Through 105 games, LOU owns a 42-63 record (.400) and are currently on pace to finish the 2019 season with a 56-84 record.
I WROTE IT ON A STARTER CAP: Left-hander Eric Stout tossed 4.0 scoreless innings in his Saturday start, continuing a trend of effective starting pitcher for Louisville during the month. Since July 1, Louisville starters own a 3.57 ERA (41er/103.1ip). Going into the month, LOU's starter's ERA was 6.45 (277er/386.2ip). The fantastic showing in the month has brought the starter's ERA down to 5.79 coming into play Sunday.
- Bats starting pitching has 40 walks and 97 strikeouts in July, a 2.43 strikeout-to-walk ratio, compared to the 1.95 strikeout-to-walk ratio (170bb/332k) going into the month.
REHABBER'S DELIGHT: Major League rehabber Kyle Farmer batted third and caught 7 innings for Louisville last night, going 0-for-4 with a run scored and a pair of strikeouts. Farmer is the seventh rehabber to join the Bats this season (C Tucker Barnhart, IF Alex Blandino, IF Scooter Gennett, LHP Wandy Peralta, RHP Robert Stephenson, LHP Alex Wood).