April 7 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers @ Salt Lake Bees

TACOMA RAINIERS (5-2) @ SALT LAKE BEES (2-5)
Sunday, April 7 • 11:05 AM PT (G1) • Smith’s Ballpark • Salt Lake City, UT
LHP Dallas Keuchel (0-0, -.--) vs. RHP Davis Daniel (0-0, 0.00)
RHP Casey Lawrence (0-1, 10.80) vs. LHP Kenny Rosenberg (1-0, 1.50)

TODAY’S GAMES: Tacoma and Salt Lake will play games five and six of their series today after yesterday’s game got postponed due to snow. Game one will see Dallas Keuchel take the ball for the Rainiers opposite Davis Daniel toeing the rubber for the Bees. Keuchel will be making his Seattle organizational and 2024 season debut tomorrow, as the former American League Cy Young and two-time All-Star signed with the Mariners on April 2. Daniel will look to replicate his performance in his first start of the season against Sacramento, when he spun six scoreless innings. The right-hander didn’t walk a single batter, allowing just five hits while striking out five in the outing. Game two of the doubleheader will be a rematch from game one of the series on Tuesday, with Casey Lawrence going for the Rainiers while Kenny Rosenberg gets the nod for Salt Lake. Lawrence will look to bounce back in his second start of the season and series, as he allowed six earned runs on nine hits and two walks over 5.0 innings pitched. On the other side, Rosenberg will try to keep it rolling, as he allowed just one earned run on four hits and no walks, striking out seven batters in his 6.0 innings.

MOVING ON UP: After their win on Friday night and Sacramento’s loss, Tacoma tied the River Cats for first in the Pacific Coast League West Division. With Saturday’s contest against Salt Lake getting postponed and Sacramento losing their second consecutive game to Reno, the Rainiers moved into sole possession of first place. Having won their last three games, Tacoma sits at 5-2, a winning percentage of .714. Entering their doubleheader today, the Rainiers are 0.5 games above Sacramento, who is 5-3 on the young season.

RAINIERS RECORDS: Tacoma is 4-0 when Michael Papierski catches and Isiah Gilliam is the designated hitter. They are now 2-0 in Friday games and enter today’s doubleheader with a 1-0 record on Sundays and day games. The Rainiers are 3-0 both in games in which they hit a home run and when they score first.

TWO IN A ROW: The Rainiers have now gotten back-to-back great outings from their starters, as Jhonathan Diaz gave them 6.0 scoreless innings on Thursday night. Diaz earned his first win of the year and kept his ERA at 0.00, as he has now spun 11.0 scoreless innings this year. His 6.0 scoreless innings gave Tacoma their first quality start of the season, as he allowed six hits while striking out 10. Levi Stoudt followed that up with 5.1 scoreless frames of his own. Stoudt allowed just two hits and a walk while striking out seven to earn his first win of the season and lower his ERA to 3.24. Over the last two games, Tacoma has gotten 11.1 scoreless innings from their starting pitchers. In 31.1 innings on the season, Rainiers’ starters are 2-2 and have allowed 14 earned runs on 32 hits and 11 walks, striking out 31 batters.

LATE-INNING PROBLEMS: Tacoma has allowed a run to score in the ninth inning in each of their last four games that their opponent has had an at-bat in the final frame. It started back on Sunday in the series finale against Oklahoma City, when Tacoma entered the ninth inning with a three-run lead. The Baseball Club knocked in two runs, making it a one-run game before Tacoma closed it out. In game one of their current series, Salk Lake didn’t have a ninth inning at-bat because they were in the lead, but on Wednesday, trailing by four, the Bees pushed a run across before the Rainiers closed it out. After scoring three runs of their own on Thursday to make it a five-run game, Tacoma allowed the Bees to score two runs in the bottom of the ninth before recording the final out. In their most recent game on Friday, Tacoma was working on a 6-0 shutout and allowed a run to score in the ninth, winning by five. They are 4-0 over these four games, but have allowed six runs over their last four times pitching in the ninth frame.

PAPIERSKI POWER: Michael Papierski gave Tacoma’s offense a jolt again on Friday night, as he went 2-for-4 with a run scored, a home run and two runs batted in. It marked his second consecutive multi-hit and multi-RBI game, as he went 2-for-4 with a run scored and two runs batted in in Thursday night’s victory as well. Through four games this season, Papierski is now hitting .333 (5-for-15) on the year, with two home runs and seven runs batted in. He is the only Rainiers player to have two home runs this year and Tacoma is 4-0 when the switch-hitter is behind the plate.

AGAINST SALT LAKE: Tacoma and Salt Lake will play games five and six of their series today, with the Rainiers leading the series three games to one. Already having earned the series split, the Rainiers will go for their second consecutive series win with a victory in one of the two games today. After a loss in game one of the series on Tuesday, Tacoma has won three straight, bringing their all-time series lead over Salt Lake to 24 games, at 392-378-1. Since the Rainiers moniker in 1995, they are now 15 games below the .500 mark against the Bees, at 219-234.

SHORT HOPS: Tacoma drew eight walks as a team on Friday night in their 6-1 lead, as each of the top five batters had at least one free pass, led by Ryan Bliss, with three…the Rainiers stole four bases against Salt Lake for the third consecutive game on Friday, making them 19-of-20 stealing bases as a team Ton the season…Tacoma was 4-2 in doubleheaders last season and are playing in their first of the 2024 season…the Rainiers were 11-13 overall but just 3-9 on the road against Salt Lake last season, meaning if they win one game today, they will have more victories on the road against the Bees in 2024 than they had in all of 2023.