Louisville Bats Notes: July 27

BATS HAVE 9-GAME WIN STREAK SNAPPED: The Bats dropped Thursday's series finale against the Buffalo Bisons by a 4-3 score to have their longest win streak in 6 years snapped. LOU trailed 4-0 after just two innings, and clawed their way back into a close game, but ultimately fell for the first time since July 16. Tonight, right-hander Zack Weiss makes a spot start for the Louisville "Colonels", with the Bats rebranding as part of "Throwback Weekend" at Louisville Slugger Field this Friday and Saturday night.

AGAINST ROCHESTER: The Bats and Red Wings meet for a three-game series at Louisville Slugger Field after the Bats took two of three games from Rochester at Frontier Field from July 16-18. Louisville began its 9-game win streak against Rochester on July 17 with a commanding 12-5 win over the Wings. The Bats will look to win their first home series against Rochester since 2015 when they went 2-1. Louisville has not won a home and road series against Rochester in the same season since 1999.
TRANSACTIONS: The Bats were involved in a flurry of transactions on Friday, including the promotion of 2 players to the big leagues. -Right-handed starter Keury Mella and left-handed reliever Wandy Peralta were both recalled the Cincinnati. The 40-man occupants have each pitched in the big leagues, with Mella making 2 appearances for the Reds last season and Peralta being a key piece of the Reds' last bullpen, making 69 appearances in 2017.
-The Bats added 3 right-handed relievers to their 25-man roster: Austin Brice , Rafael De Paula and Evan Mitchell .
-For Brice, it will be his second stint with Louisville this season. He has made 6 appearances for the Bats this season.
-De Paula returns to LOU for his third stint with the Bats this season, appearing on the roster from April 13-15 and May 24-June 5.
-Mitchell was on Louisville's active roster from the beginning of the season until April 26, when he was transferred to Class AA Pensacola. He returned to LOU May 4, where he pitched until July 16 when he landed on the disabled list.
NINE WAS SO FINE: The Bats won 9 straight games from July 17-25, the first 9-game winning streak for Louisville since June 18-26, 2012. During that streak, Louisville won 9 straight vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (6/18-6/21), at Pawtucket (6/22-6/25) and at Buffalo (6/26).
WILLIAMS TO CINCINNATI: On Thursday, the Cincinnati Reds selected the contract of outfielder Mason Williams . The 2018 IL All-Star returns to the big leagues after appearing in 25 games with the New York Yankees from 2015-17. In 87 games with Louisville this season, Williams is batting .280 (89-for-318) with 52 runs, 18 doubles, 4 triples, 6 home runs, 30 RBI, 29 walks and 5 stolen bases. He currently leads the team in hits, runs, and is tied with Phillip Ervin for the team lead in triples.
DURING THE STREAK: During the Bats' 9-game winning streak, the starting pitching was excellent. Robert Stephenson, Homer Bailey, Cody Reed, Justin Nicolino, José López, Keury Mella and Domingo Tapia have combined to go 7.0 with a 1.35 ERA, giving up just 8 earned runs in 53.1 innings on the mound, walking 16 and striking out 38. The offense supplied the pop as well, scoring 55 runs in the 9 games (6.1 runs per game), averaging nearly 2 runs higher than their season average as a whole (4.2 runs per game).