Louisville Bats Notes: July 12

TONIGHT'S GAME: The Louisville Bats and Columbus Clippers face off in a four-game series at Louisville Slugger Field coming off the Triple-A All-Star Break. Louisville has already played 47 home games, tied with the Durham Bulls for most home games played before the All-Star Break this season.

AGAINST COLUMBUS: The Bats and Clippers meet for the fifth of seven overall series this season and the final one at Louisville Slugger Field. The Clip Show has held a slight 6-4 edge through the teams' first 10 meetings at Louisville's home ballpark, while LOU took 2 of 3 from Columbus at Huntington Park to bring the season series to a 7-6 Columbus advantage. Despite trailing the season series by a game, the Bats have outscored the Clippers 72-66 through 13 matchups.
QUACKENBUSH, WILLIAMS APPEAR IN ALL-STAR GAME: The Louisville Bats had 3 International League All-Stars this season, RHPs Kevin Quackenbush and Tanner Rainey , and outfielder Mason Williams . Quackenbush came in to pitch the sixth inning, going 0.2 innings and giving up 2 earned runs on a hit, walking 2 and striking out one. Williams came off the bench and played center field, going 1-for-2 with a ninth inning single. He's the first Bat to record a hit in the All-Star Game since Jermaine Curtis also went 1-for-2 off the bench in the 2016 game.
SECOND HALF STARTS TODAY: The Bats begin the "second half" of the season tonight against the Clip Show. Since 2008, LOU is just 3-7 in the first game following the Triple-A All-Star break, last winning in a home game vs. Indianapolis in 2016 by a 9-8 score. Last season, the Bats owned a 35-54 record at the All-Star break, and the season before a 44-47 record.
Breaking Down the Numbers: Where Louisville's Been at the All-Star Break
Season                         Runs                 AVG (H/AB)           HR               ERA     BB/SO [P]
2016                             317                   .253 (768/3037)      47                3.80      308/685
2017                             349                   .265 (821/3098)      50                4.41      346/730
2018                             344                   .259 (737/2842)      66                4.46      275/649
LAST TIME THESE CLUBS MET...: Louisville and Columbus played a wild game back on June 27 at Huntington Park in which Louisville won by an 11-10 score. In that game, there were 4 lead changes and Dilson Herrera and Phillip Ervin each homered twice, the first time the Bats had multiple players hit 2+ home runs in the same game since 2004. The 21 combined runs make it the second-highest scoring game of the season for Louisville, and its highest-scoring road game since April 21, 2015 at Toledo in a 13-8 loss.
6UERRERO: Louisville right fielder Gabriel Guerrero went 2-for-4 with a home run in the team's final game before the All-Star Break, a 6-1 in vs. Toledo. It was Guerrero's sixth home run of the season, all of them solo homers. The Bats are 6-0 when Guerrero homers.
ST11LL WITH US: The Bats currently have 11 players from their 2018 Opening Day roster still on the active 25-man roster, three fewer than the 14 players Louisville had from its Opening Day roster at the All-Star break in 2017.
MELLA SHINES IN START: Right-hander Keury Mella got the win in his 2018 Bats debut, tossing 5.0 innings and giving up just one unearned run on 4 hits, walking 2 and striking out 4 in his second career start for Louisville and his first since the final game of the 2016 season.