Louisville Bats Notes: August 3

TONIGHT'S GAME: The Bats and Clippers meet in game two of a four-game series after Louisville won by a narrow 2-1 margin in the opener on Thursday night. Tonight, Robert Stephenson looks to continue his dominance, sporting a 3-0 record with a 1.33 ERA for the month of July, tossing 4 quality starts in a row and earning the win in 5 of his last 6 starts.

AGAINST COLUMBUS: Louisville and Columbus meet for the second-till-last time this season, a four-game set through Sunday. In their last series, Columbus swept Louisville in 4 games right out of the All-Star break. Since that series, Louisville is 14-4, and Columbus is 7-10, including Thursday night's opener. In 18 total matchups this season, the Bats are 7-11 against Columbus, being outscored 96-88 by the Clip Show.
WHAT DOG DAYS?: Since falling to a season-worst 20 games below the .500 mark (35-55) on July 16, the Bats are 14-3 in their last 17 games. The 17-game run includes a 9-game winning streak from July 17-25, their longest win streak since the 2010 season.
TAKING THE HIGH ROAD: After a franchise-worst start on the road this season in which the Bats started off 5-19, Louisville has turned the corner, going 18-8 since June 15 over its last 26 games on the road. LOU did not win its first road series until June 15-17, taking 2 of 3 against the Toledo Mud Hens. During the Bats' 18-8 road stretch since their first series win in mid-June, they own a 5-0-2 series record in 7 series away from Louisville Slugger Field.
SOURCE CODY: Left-hander Cody Reed was excellent on Thursday night, tossing the best start by a Louisville pitcher all season. He went 8.2 innings, tying Justin Nicolino 's performance on May 26 vs. Durham for the longest start by a Bats hurler this season. Reed gave up just one earned run on four hits, walking one and striking out 10. His 89 game score was easily the best for a Louisville pitcher this season, and the highest since the International League has included the statistic, which started in 2015. Reed's 88 game score on June 8 at Columbus (W, 8.0ip, 2h, 0r, 1bb, 6k) last season was the Bats' highest of 2017.
GOOD START = QUICK FINISH: Last night's game was the fastest 9-inning game played all season for Louisville, ending in 2 hours and 3 minutes. Before Thursday, the shortest full game the Bats had played in this season was 2:13 on May 26 vs. Durham, when Justin Nicolino started and pitched 8.2 innings, just like Cody Reed did last night.
CLIMBING BACK INTO IT: The Bats are now 9 games below the .500 mark, the first time they have been single-digits within .500 since May 13, when they owned a 12-21 record after 33 games.
FIVE SERIES WINS IN A ROW: The Bats have won 5+ consecutive series for the first time since the 2010 season, the last time the Bats made the International League playoffs. In 2010, LOU won their first 7 series coming out of the All-Star break, taking 3 of 4 vs. Lehigh Valley (7/15-7/18), 3 of 4 at Charlotte (7/19-7/22), sweeping 3 at Gwinnett (7/23-7/25), sweeping 4 vs. Charlotte (7/27-7/30), taking 3 of 4 in a split-series against Columbus (7/31-8/4), sweeping 4 vs. Norfolk (8/5-8/8), and finally, sweeping 4 at Toledo (8/9-8/12) to start the second half that season with an immaculate 24-3 record.