April 11 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers vs. Reno Aces

TACOMA RAINIERS (8-3) vs. RENO ACES (5-5)
Thursday, April 11 • 7:05 PM • Cheney Stadium • Tacoma, WA
RHP Levi Stoudt (1-1, 3.24) vs. RHP Cristian Mena (2-0, 0.82)

TONIGHT’S GAME: Tacoma and Reno play game three of their six-game set tonight, with Tacoma currently leading the series after taking each of the first two games. The Rainiers will send Levi Stoudt to the mound, looking to increase their winning streak to three games. Stoudt enters the game with a 1-1 record and a 3.24 ERA, coming off his best start of the year. After allowing four runs on six hits in just three innings in his first start of the year, the righty bounced back with 5.1 scoreless, two-hit innings in his last outing against Salt Lake. Stoudt allowed just one walk while striking out seven in that game on April 5. Opposite of Stoudt will be Cristian Mena getting the nod for the Aces. Mena, the No. 11 ranked prospect in Arizona’s system according to MLB.com, is looking for his third win in his third start of the year. The 21-year-old has allowed just one earned run on seven hits and four walks, striking out eight in his 11.0 innings this year, good for a 2-0 record and a 0.82 ERA entering play tonight. Through his first two starts, opponents are hitting just .189 against Mena.

POP AT THE TOP: After his first career Triple-A three-bagger in the series opener on Tuesday, Jonatan Clase clubbed his first Triple-A home run in last night’s game. The switch hitter went 2-for-3 with two runs scored, his home run, two runs batted in and a walk out of the leadoff spot for the Rainiers last night. With two more hits, Clase is now hitting .333 on the season, good for the team-lead. He also leads the team with nine hits and is tied for second with five walks, good for an on-base percentage of .424. Clase now has at least one hit in each of his last five games entering play tonight, tied for the longest hitting streak of any Tacoma hitter this year.

QUALITY STARTER(S): Jhonathan Diaz kept the strong starting pitching going for Tacoma last night, allowing one earned run over 7.0 innings. It marked the sixth straight game in which the Rainiers’ starting pitcher has gone at least 5.0 innings and allowed two earned runs or less. Over those six consecutive games, Tacoma’s starting pitchers have tossed three quality starts and gone 5-1 with a 0.78 ERA. The five pitchers (two starts for Diaz) have combined to allow just three earned runs on 23 hits and four walks over their last 34.2 innings. The only loss got tagged to Casey Lawrence, who allowed just two earned runs in 6.1 innings in the second game of the doubleheader at Salt Lake on Sunday.

DAZZLING DIAZ: Jhonathan Diaz spun another gem last night, allowing one earned run on three hits and a walk over 7.0 innings pitched. He earned his second win of the season with the effort, moving to 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA through his first three starts. Diaz allowed a walk in the fourth inning to Kyle Garlick, marking the first walk he had allowed all year. The free pass snapped a streak of 14.2 straight innings to start the year without surrendering a walk. Garlick also snapped 17.1 straight scoreless innings for Diaz with a solo home run in the top of the seventh. Through 18.0 innings pitched this year, the southpaw has allowed 12 hits and one walk while striking out 19 batters, limiting opponents to a .194 batting average against him. He is now top-10 in the PCL in ERA (0.50, 1st), wins (2, 2nd), strikeouts (19, 2nd), innings pitched (18.0, 1st), average against (.194, T-7th) and WHIP (0.72, 2nd).

QUIET THEM DOWN: Reno entered the series hitting .321 with 14 home runs and 69 total runs scored, leading the Pacific Coast League in all three categories. On the other side, Tacoma’s pitching staff led the PCL in ERA. Through the first two games of the current series, the Rainiers have won the battle, as they have limited Reno’s high-powered offense to just one run on five total hits. Tacoma pitchers have allowed three walks while striking out 16 Aces’ hitters.

AGAINST RENO: Tacoma will try to earn at least a series split with a win tonight after taking each of the first two games against Reno. After their two wins to start the series, Tacoma is now 40 games below .500 against the Aces all-time, at 103-143.

SHORT HOPS: With two more stolen bases last night, Tacoma now has swiped multiple bags in seven of their 11 games this year, recording at least one stolen base in all 11 games…last night’s game took just two hours and nine minutes, marking the fastest nine-inning game of the season so far for Tacoma…last night was the first time this year Tacoma has won a game against a left-handed starter; they were 0-2 against southpaw’s entering play last night…catcher Blake Hunt gave Tacoma two huge insurance runs with a two-run triple in the eighth inning last night, marking his ninth-career three-bagger.