Fisher Cats Eye Series Win on Saturday

PREVIEW

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (20-29) look to clinch the series victory over the Hartford Yard Goats (24-25) at Dunkin’ Park with a 6:10 PM EDT first pitch on Saturday night.

LAST NIGHT

The Fisher Cats fanned a new season-high 18 batters on Thursday night to capture a 4-3 win in extra innings. Last night, the Fisher Cats cashed in four runs, all off the bat of left fielder Yohendrick Piñango. The lefty slugger belted his eighth homer of the season, and third three-run shot by the Cats all season, to put New Hampshire up 3-1 in the top of the third inning. Piñango takes over the team lead with 23 RBIs despite playing 38 games as the team's lead-off hitter.

New Hampshire’s Juaron Watts-Brown shoved six innings while allowing one earned run on two hits with eight punchouts. Watts-Brown helped the Fisher Cats pitching staff collect 18 strikeouts, one shy of the single-game franchise record of 19.

PITCHING MATCHUP

Saturday night’ game will feature the 10th start of the season for Fisher Cats’ righty Rafael Sánchez (1-2, 4.34 ERA), who has labored through the month of May. Sanchez holds an 0-2 record with an 8.27 ERA across 16-1/3 innings across five May starts. The righty started the year with four dominant starts where he went at least five innings in four April starts and pitched to a 1.29 ERA in 21 innings. It will be Sanchez’s second start against the Yard Goats this year after allowing three earned runs in a two-inning loss at Delta Dental Stadium on May 7.

Hartford's Sean Sullivan (2-1, 1.84) takes to the hill for his fourth start in a Yard Goats uniform this year. Sullivan began the year with the ACL Rockies and made one start before heading to the Single-A Fresno Grizzlies. The Boston native was called up to Hartford on May 13 and has maintained a 1.84 ERA across three starts. The left-hander has allowed three earned runs and four walks through 14-2/3 frames of work. Sullivan is the No. 28 overall prospect in the Colorado Rockies organization according to Baseball America and was selected 46th overall in 2023 out of Wake Forest. Saturday will be Sullivan’s first career start against the Fisher Cats.

WHAT’S NEXT

After Saturday night, the Fisher Cats and Yard Goats will play the series finale starting at 1:10 PM EDT at Dunkin’ Park, before returning to Delta Dental Stadium on June 3. Righty Grant Rogers gets the start for the second time this week for New Hampshire. Blake Adams (1-3, 7.86 ERA) is slotted to go for the Yard Goats on Sunday afternoon

New Hampshire returns home on Tuesday, June 3 to host the Altoona Curve, Double-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, for a six-game series.

ON THIS DATE IN FISHER CATS HISTORY

May 31, 2015 - In New Britain, the Fisher Cats won, 5-1. One-time Major Leaguer Joel Pineiro (jo-EL pin-YAIR-oh), who had 104 Major League wins with four different teams, signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays at the age of 37. This was the first of four wins he had with the Fisher Cats, but he did not make it back to the Bigs. Ian Parmley had two hits and two RBIs in the win.