April 3 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers @ Salt Lake Bees

TACOMA RAINIERS (2-2) @ SALT LAKE BEES (2-2)
Wednesday, April 3 • 5:35 PM PT • Smith’s Ballpark • Salt Lake City, UT
RHP Michael Mariot (0-0, -.--) vs. RHP Carson Fulmer (0-0, -.--)

TONIGHT’S GAME: The Rainiers will look to bounce back after the 8-2 series opening loss last night, sending Michael Mariot to the mound. Mariot will be making his Seattle Mariners organizational debut, as the 35-year-old was signed by Seattle less than a week ago, on March 28. The righty has had success against Salt Lake over his career, holding a 1.17 ERA in six relief appearances. Opposite of Mariot will be Carson Fulmer taking the ball for the Bees. Fulmer went 0-2 with a 5.27 ERA in 12 games (11 starts) last year for Salt Lake, allowing 24 earned runs on 45 hits and 28 walks while striking out 33 batters in 41.0 innings pitched. The 30-year-old pitched in three games against Tacoma last year, one at Cheney Stadium and two at Smith’s Ballpark. In his three games against the Rainiers in 2023, Fulmer was 0-0 with a 3.86 ERA, allowing seven runs (six earned) on 14 hits and 10 walks while striking out 14 batters over 14.0 innings. In his most recent outing on Sept. 10, he allowed just one unearned run on five hits and two walks while striking out four in six innings.

CALM THE SWARM: Salt Lake was limited to just five runs through their first three games, including getting shutout in a seven-inning game on Sunday. Their eight runs last night more than doubled their season total, giving them three more in one game against the Rainiers than they totaled through the first three games against the River Cats. The bats were going in their home opener, as they also recorded two-thirds of their hit total from their first three games last night, knocking 12 hits against Tacoma last night and18 through their first three games against Sacramento.

BOUNCE BACK: Back in Saturday’s loss to Oklahoma City, Sean Poppen allowed four earned runs on four hits including two home runs. He walked two batters while striking out three in his 2.0 innings pitched. Poppen bounced back with 1.1 innings of scoreless, perfect relief last night. The right-hander struck out two of the four batters he faced, giving him five through two appearances.

STAY HOT: Cade Marlowe went 1-for-4 with a run scored hitting out of the two-hole last night, giving him a hit in three straight games. After going hitless in the opener with three strikeouts, the outfielder has gone 4-for-13 with two runs batted in. Marlowe has provided some consistency at the top of the lineup for Tacoma in the early going.

SETTING THE TONE: Outfielder Jonatan Clase has served as Tacoma’s leadoff hitter in each of their first four games this year. The leadoff hitter is usually tasked with seeing as many pitches as they can so the rest of the lineup can see what the opposing pitcher is throwing. Also, they are to get on base and kick start the offense. Clase has done a good job of getting on base, as the 21-year-old leads Tacoma in on-base percentage at .412, getting on base in each of the first four games. Clase got a hit in each of the first two games and drew a walk in the finale against Oklahoma City before recording a two-hit game last night. Clase accounted for one-third of Tacoma’s six total hits and also stole a base to get the offense going, scoring one of their two runs. The switch hitter is hitting .286 through his first four career Triple-A games with one double and three walks.

AGAINST SALT LAKE: Tacoma and Salt Lake will play game two of their six-game set tonight, with the Bees currently leading the series 1-0 after last night’s 8-2 victory. The loss made it four in a row to Salt Lake for Tacoma dating back to last season. The Rainiers still hold the all-time series lead by 21 games, at 389-378-1. 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 now 18 games below the .500 mark against Salt Lake, having gone 216-234.

SHORT HOPS: Tacoma has now been out-hit in all four of their games played this year after getting doubled-up 12-6 in the hit column last night…the Rainiers have scored 41% (7-of-17) of their runs this year in the sixth inning.