April 5 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers @ Salt Lake Bees

TACOMA RAINIERS (4-2) @ SALT LAKE BEES (2-4)
Friday, April 5 • 5:35 PM PT • Smith’s Ballpark • Salt Lake City, UT
RHP Levi Stoudt (0-1, 9.00) vs. RHP Zach Plesac (0-1, 1.80)

TONIGHT’S GAME: Tacoma will look to earn at least a series split with a win tonight after back-to-back victories. The Rainiers will send Levi Stoudt to the mound, set to make his second start of the year in search of his first win in 2024. The righty allowed three earned runs on six hits and three walks over 3.0 innings pitched against Oklahoma City on Saturday in his first start of the year. On the other side, Salt lake will give the ball to Zach Plesac, set to make his second start of the year as well. Plesac suffered the loss in his first game of the year on Sunday, but threw the ball really well. The 29-year-old allowed just one earned run on two hits and two walks while striking out four over 5.0 innings.

BACK-TO-BACK: Tacoma’s victory over Salt Lake last night gave them back-to-back wins for the first time this season. Prior to that, they had alternated wins and losses through the first four games of the year. Their consecutive victories over the Bees put their overall record at 4-2, good for second place in the Pacific Coast League West Division. Coming into tonight’s contest, Tacoma sits one game below the Sacramento River Cats, who are 5-1 through their first six games of the year.

ACE: Jhonathan Diaz gave Tacoma their first quality start of the season last night, notching six scoreless innings against his former team. The southpaw allowed six hits while walking none and striking out a season-high 10 batters, just one shy of his career-high 11 strikeouts set back on July 22, 2021. He became the first Rainiers starter to earn a win this year, as their previous three wins had been credited to relievers. With his outing last night, Diaz has now spun 11.0 scoreless innings to start the year, giving up just nine hits and zero walks, striking out 15 batters along the way. He is tied for first among Pacific Coast League pitchers in ERA (0.00), strikeouts (15) and games started (2), first in innings pitched (11.0) and seventh in WHIP (0.82).

BAT TO BALL: Tacoma struck out a season-high 16 times last night against Salt Lake, as all nine starters struck out at least once. Four of the nine starting hitters had multiple strikeouts, including each of the top three in the lineup. Cade Marlowe led the way with four strikeouts, going 1-for-5 with four punchouts out of the three-hole.

LOCK IT DOWN: The Rainiers have allowed runs to be scored in the ninth inning in each of their last three games that their opponent has had an at-bat in the ninth. It started on Sunday, when Tacoma entered the final frame with a three-run lead against Oklahoma City and the Baseball Club knocked in two runs. Salt Lake didn’t have an at-bat in the ninth in their win on Tuesday, but trialing by four on Wednesday, they scored one to make it a three-run game. Last night, Tacoma brought a five-run lead into the ninth inning but allowed two runs to score. All three games have resulted in a Rainiers win, but they aren’t exactly slamming the door in the late innings. Tacoma kept Salt Lake off the board for the first six innings last night, allowing all four runs to score from the seventh inning on.

FOUR MORE: Tacoma base runners swiped four more bases last night, giving them 15 on the year as a team. It marked their second consecutive game against the Bees with four stolen bases. Their 15 stolen bases are first among all Triple-A teams, leading the way by two stolen bases. Gwinnett has the second-most with 13 and the closest team in the Pacific Coast League is Albuquerque, with 10. Cade Marlowe stole his fifth base of the season last night, leading the team and the PCL in the early going.

ROSTER ROTATION: Tacoma had many roster moves prior to tonight’s game, adding pitchers Sammy Peralta and Dallas Keuchel. Peralta was claimed off waivers from the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday and Keuchel was signed to a minor league contract by Seattle the same day. Another addition to the roster was Sam Haggerty on Major League rehab. He began the year on the 10-day injured list for Seattle with a medical procedure. To make room for Peralta and Keuchel, pitcher Sean Poppen was released by Seattle and Samad Taylor was recalled by Seattle.

AGAINST SALT LAKE: Tacoma and Salt Lake are set to play game four of their six-game series tonight, Tacoma looking to earn a series split after back-to-back wins. After a loss in game one of the series, the Rainiers took the series lead with their win last night. It grew the Rainiers all-time series lead over the Bees to 23 games, at 391-378-1 and brought them within 16 (218-234) games of the .500 mark all-time since the Rainiers moniker started in 1995.

SHORT HOPS: The Rainiers stole four bases against Salt Lake for the second consecutive game last night, accounting for eight of their 15 on the year over the last two games…Michael Papierski went 2-for-4 with two runs batted in in his first action since Sunday’s finale against Oklahoma City, in which he hit a three-run home run…Tacoma is 4-0 when Isiah Gilliam plays as the designated hitter and 0-2 when he is not.