April 2 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers @ Salt Lake Bees

TACOMA RAINIERS (2-1) @ SALT LAKE BEES (1-2)
Tuesday, April 2 • 5:35 PM PT • Smith’s Ballpark • Salt Lake City, UT
RHP Casey Lawrence (0-0, -.--) vs. LHP Kenny Rosenberg (0-0, -.--)

TONIGHT’S GAME: Tacoma and Salt Lake begin their first six-game series of the 2024 season, as Casey Lawrence gets the nod for the Rainiers. The 36-year-old veteran is set to start his 13th professional season with his start tonight. Lawrence pitched for Tacoma back in 2017-18, pitching in 30 total games over the two years. The righty has faced Salt Lake three times in his career (all three in his two seasons with Tacoma), going 1-1 with a 3.24 ERA over that span. Opposite of Lawrence will be lefty Kenny Rosenberg toeing the rubber for the Bees. The 28-year-old has spent parts of each of the last two seasons with Salt Lake, pitching in 34 games for the Bees compared to 10 games for the Los Angeles Angels. In his Triple-A career, Rosenberg is 13-13 with a 4.04 ERA over 49 games (34 starts).

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Tonight’s contest marks the first of 13 road trips including two trips to Salt Lake this season for Tacoma. Last year, the Rainiers were seven games below even away from Cheney Stadium, at 34-41. Nine of those 41 road losses came at the hand of the Salt Lake Bees at Smith’s Ballpark, where the Rainiers went just 3-9 last year.

KEEP IT CONSISTENT: After taking 11 innings to score one run in their 1-0 victory on Opening Day, Tacoma’s offense has scored seven runs in each of their last two contests. On Saturday, they used 11 hits and drew six walks, also taking advantage of an error by Oklahoma City to push across their seven runs. In the series finale on Sunday, they scored in a different way, using two home runs to bring in four of the team’s seven runs. The two long balls came off the bat of Samad Taylor (solo) and Michael Papierski (three-run). They were the first two home runs of the season for Tacoma, both coming in the fourth inning of Sunday’s game.

SWIPE THAT BAG: Tacoma has now stolen at least one base in each of their first three games, currently leading the Pacific Coast League with six entering play tonight. The six stolen bases have come from four different players, as Ryan Bliss (1), Isiah Gilliam (1), Cade Marlowe (3) and Leo Rivas (1) each have at least one stolen base. Marlowe leads the team and the league with three through three games, as he stole one in the season opener on Friday and two in Saturday’s loss to Oklahoma City. The Rainiers currently sit in 4th among all 30 Triple-A teams with their six stolen bases, a category that the Gwinnett Stripers lead with 10.

SWING AND MISS STUFF: Tyson Miller spun a scoreless frame on Sunday against the Baseball Club, using three strikeouts to work around a hit and a walk. The righty recorded two strikeouts in his first outing on Friday night in a scoreless inning, giving him five strikeouts over his two innings of work with the Rainiers this year. Miller is tied for the team lead and ninth in the Pacific Coast League with his five strikeouts.

AGAINST SALT LAKE: Tacoma and Salt Lake have a long history against each other, where the Rainiers currently lead the all-time series by 22 games, at 389-377-1. Since the Rainiers moniker in 1995, however, they are 17 games below the .500 mark against Salt Lake, having gone 216-233. The Rainiers went 11-13 last year, including just 3-9 on the road against the Bees. They enter tonight’s game with a three-game losing streak against Salt Lake dating back to last season.

SHORT HOPS: Brett de Geus recorded the first save of the season for Tacoma on Sunday, despite allowing two runs to score in the ninth; the save was his first since July 19 last year…the Rainiers played their first errorless game of the season on Sunday after recording four over the first two games.