Louisville Bats Notes: August 22

TONIGHT'S GAME: The Louisville Bats and Toledo Mud Hens continue a three-game series at Louisville Slugger Field, with game two of the series at 6:30 tonight. Left-hander Justin Nicolino is set to make his first start since coming off the disabled list with a left forearm strain. Louisville will look to snap its 3-game losing streak at home.

AGAINST TOLEDO: The Bats and Mud Hens meet for their final matchup of the 2018 season. Last night, Toledo's 5-2 win over Louisville secured a season series win for the Mud Hens, owning a 13-10 record over the Bats with 2 games left to play. The clubs' 25 matchups this season are the most since 2016, when the Bats finished just 6-19 against the Hens. This season, TOL has outscored LOU by a 104-95 advantage.
BACK-TO-BACK QUALITY STARTS: Last night, right-hander Lucas Sims tossed a quality start, his second in 4 starts in a Bats uniform. He went 7.0 innings, giving up 5 runs (3 earned) on 5 hits and 2 home runs, walking one and striking out 7. He served up homers to Christin Stewart and Dawel Lugo in the 5-2 loss. Tyler Mahle , who threw a quality start for LOU on Sunday, and Sims are the first Bats pitchers to throw back-to-back quality starts since August 8-10, when LHP Cody Reed, Mahle and Sims tossed 3 consecutive quality starts with the Bats going 2-1 in those games.
HIT DOESN'T MEAN...: In 4 of the Bats' last 5 games and 5 of their last 7, the team that records more hits in the game ended up losing. On Tuesday night, Louisville out-hit Toledo 11-5, but lost 5-2. The Bats left 7 runners on base in the loss. The only game in LOU's last 5 games where the "out-hitter" was the winner was Sunday, when LOU out-hit the Charlotte Knights 9-6 and won by a 3-1 score.
VANMETER'S LAST 10: In his last 10 games, Josh VanMeter has 5 multi-hit games (including 4 three-hit games), and 5 games where he fails to record a hit. Last night, he went 2-for-4 with a double and RBI, his 21st double for LOU this season. Despite not joining the team until over a month into the season, his 21 two-baggers rank second on the Bats this season, only to D.J. Peterson 's 25.
BASE STEALERS: Center fielder C.J. McElroy stole his fifth base for Louisville this season, the seventh different Bats player to swipe 5+ bases this season. He joins Phillip Ervin, Brandon Dixon, Nick Senzel, Blake Trahan, Josh VanMeter and Mason Williams as Bats with 5 or more stolen bases in 2018. It's the first time LOU has had 7 players with at least 5 steals in one season since 2015: Irving Falu, Ryan LaMarre, Juan Perez, Hernan Iribarren, Jose Constanza, Chris Dominguez and Jermaine Curtis .
GAME #125: Coming into game number 125 this season, the Bats own a 54-70 record. Last season, Louisville owned a 49-76 record after 125 games. In 2016, Louisville owned a 60-65 record after the 125-game mark of the season.
LOOKING TO TURN THE CORNER: After going on a blistering 15-3 run from July 17 to August 3 that included a 9-game winning streak, the Bats are 4-12 in their last 16 games, and 2-5 over their last 7 home games.