April 16 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers @ Las Vegas Aviators

TACOMA RAINIERS (11-4) @ Las Vegas Aviators (5-9)
Tuesday, April 16 • 7:05 PM • Las Vegas Ballpark • Las Vegas, NV
LHP Jhonathan Diaz (2-0, 0.50) vs. LHP Jack O’Loughlin (0-1, 8.59)

TONIGHT’S GAME: Tacoma and Las Vegas meet for game one of their six-game series tonight, with Jhonathan Diaz taking the ball for the Rainiers. Diaz has had a superb start to the season, going 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA through his first three starts. He will look to continue his strong start against a team he has had success against over his career. The Aviators will send Jack O’Loughlin to the mound, still in search of his first win on the 2024 campaign. The southpaw enters play tonight with an 0-1 record and an 8.59 ERA through three games, allowing seven earned runs on nine hits including two home runs over 7.1 innings. He has allowed three walks while striking out five over that span, as opponents are hitting .310 against him. In his last start on April 10 against Salt Lake, O’Loughlin allowed four earned runs on four hits and one walk, striking out three batters in 3.0 innings pitched.

DOING IT FROM BOTH SIDES: Infielder Leo Rivas clubbed a three-run home run in Tacoma’s win over the Reno Aces on Sunday, giving him home runs in back-to-back games. On Saturday night, Rivas hit a solo shot as a right-handed hitter against the lefty Jordan Montgomery. In his most recent game on Sunday, he hit a left-handed home run against the righty Ricky Karcher. Over his last two games, the 26-year-old is now 4-for-6 with four runs scored, two home runs, four runs batted in and two walks. Rivas is not known for his power, as he hit just five home runs in 106 games with Double-A Arkansas last year, but has provided a nice spark for Tacoma’s offense over the past two games.

OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION: Tacoma rattled off season highs in their finale against Reno on Sunday, scoring 13 runs on 16 hits. All nine starters for the Rainiers recorded at least one hit, while six of the nine had multi-hit efforts. The team’s batting average went up 15 points, from .236 to .251 and they went from eighth in the Pacific Coast League in runs scored (76) to fourth (89).

GOT THE CALL: Jonatan Clase led off the game on Sunday with a single, extending his hitting streak to nine straight games. He later hit a double in the fourth inning, giving him two doubles, two triples and two home runs in the series against Reno, in which he hit .333 (8-for-24) with six runs scored, nine runs batted in and took four walks. The 21-year-old recorded an extra-base hit in each game of the series and was leading Tacoma’s offense in hits (14) and doubles (4) after Sunday’s game. That is when he got the call he has been waiting for, to inform him he was going to the big leagues. Clase was recalled and played in Monday’s game with Seattle, going 1-for-4 with an RBI.

KEEP IT ROLLING: Jhonathan Diaz enters play tonight with a 2-0 record and a 0.50 ERA, allowing just one earned run on 12 this and one walk compared to 19 strikeouts over 18.0 innings pitched this year. The southpaw began the year with 14.2 consecutive innings without allowing a walk and 17.1 consecutive scoreless innings, both snapped by Kyle Garlick in his last start against Reno. Diaz is among the top-10 pitchers in the Pacific Coast League in ERA (0.50, 1st), wins (2, T-2nd), strikeouts (19, 6th), innings pitched (18.0, T-1st), average against (.194, 3rd) and WHIP (0.72, 1st). He has gone one inning further into each game he has pitched, tossing 5.0 on opening night, 6.0 in his second start and 7.0 in his most recent outing. In nine games against Las Vegas over the last two years, Diaz is 4-0 with a 1.31 ERA, winning each of his last four contests.

STEP UP: With Jonatan Clase getting recalled by Seattle, Ryan Bliss will likely move into the leadoff role for the Rainiers. In the first 15 games of the year for Tacoma, Clase was leadoff hitter in 12 of them and Bliss led off two of the other three, with Sam Haggerty also hitting first in one. Bliss is getting hot at the right time, recording a hit in each of his last four games including two on Sunday. The infielder leads the team in games (15), hits (13), doubles (3), RBI (12), walks (11) and stolen bases (11). On Sunday, he went 2-for-5 with two runs scored, a triple and two runs batted in. After starting the year hitting .194 (7-for-36) in his first 11 games, he has now gone 6-for-15 with five runs scored, a double, triple, home run and six runs batted in over his last four contests. With his recent four-game hitting streak, Bliss has raised his batting average on the year to .255, hitting .300 in the month of April.

AGAINST LAS VEGAS: Tacoma and Las Vegas are set to play game one of their current six-game series and one of 18 this year between the two teams. Their current six-game series will be the only time the two teams play at Las Vegas Ballpark this year, where the Rainiers were just 2-4 last season. Tacoma enters play tonight leading the all-time series by five games over Las Vegas, at 303-298.

SHORT HOPS: Samad Taylor went 3-for-4 with five runs batted in in Sunday’s finale against Reno, tying his career high for RBI and setting the single-season high for the Rainiers this year…Mauricio Llovera earned his second win of the season on Sunday, throwing 1.1 innings of perfect relief with one strikeout…Michael Chavis is 4-for-6 with four runs scored, a home run, two runs batted in and a walk in his last two games.