June 9 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers vs. Reno Aces

TACOMA RAINIERS (34-28) vs. RENO ACES (29-33)
Sunday, June 9 • 1:35 PM • Cheney Stadium • Tacoma, WA
LHP Dallas Keuchel (5-4, 5.00) vs. LHP Tommy Henry (3-1, 3.41)

TODAY’S GAME: The Rainiers and Aces are set to play the series finale of their six-game series this afternoon, with a pitching rematch from game one back on Tuesday. Dallas Keuchel will take the ball for the Rainiers, set to make his 11th start of the season and fourth against Reno. Through his first 10 starts, he is 5-4 with a 5.00 ERA, allowing 30 earned runs on 56 hits and 15 walks while striking out 33 batters in 54.0 innings. He earned his fifth win of the season on Tuesday against the Aces, tossing six innings and allowing five runs (three earned) on eight hits and three walks while striking out two. Opposite Keuchel will be Tommy Henry getting the nod for Reno, entering play today with a 3-1 record and a 3.41 ERA through six starts. Henry has allowed 12 earned runs on 25 hits and 21 walks, striking out 32 batters over 31.2 innings pitched. The southpaw will be facing Tacoma for the third time this season and second of the series, delivering five innings of one-run ball back in the opener. Henry worked around five hits and seven walks, striking out two batters over his 5.0 innings.

PLAY ALL NINE: Tacoma scored first last night on a solo home run from Cade Marlowe in the first inning, taking a 1-0 lead. Reno then tied it in the second, but the Rainiers came right back with another run to regain their one-run lead. The third inning blew up for Levi Stoudt, allowing five runs to score all with two outs, giving the Aces a 6-2 lead. Despite trailing by four early on, Tacoma kept plugging away offensively, finding a way to score in every inning they hit except the fifth. They scored once in each of the first four frames as well as the sixth and seventh, tying the game 6-6, before getting a three-run eighth inning to take the lead. Eight of the nine starters recorded at least one hit as five of the nine drove in at least one run.

CLICKING ON ALL CYLINDERS: Tacoma’s offense has put up some big numbers this series against Reno, scoring nine runs in back-to-back games after scoring 15 runs in the opener on Tuesday. Last night, the Rainiers showed off some power, tying their season high with four doubles and coming one home run shy of their season high for a single game, with three. Their seven extra-base hits accounted for over half of their 12 total knocks in the game. With five home runs over their last two games, Tacoma has moved from eighth in the Pacific Coast League rankings with 60 home runs to tied for fifth with 65. They have also increased their team average from .255 before Friday’s game to .258 coming into play today, scoring 18 runs on 21 hits and 10 walks.

TAKE A FIFTH: After winning the series with last night’s victory, Tacoma has the chance to take five-of-six from Reno with a win today. They have won five games in a series just once before this year, also against the Aces here at Cheney Stadium, back on April 9-14. With last night’s win, the Rainiers won their fifth home series of the season, moving to 5-1-0 in their six series here at Cheney Stadium. It is a different story on the road, where they are 1-4 in their five road series, going 6-1-4 overall this year.

RUNNING OUT OF TIME: Tacoma has won four of the first five games of their current series with Reno, improving their record on the season to 34-28, a winning percentage of .548. The Rainiers are in second place in the Pacific Coast League West Division, trailing Sacramento by four games entering play today. Unfortunately for Tacoma, the current playoff structure just takes the best team for the entire PCL, not dividing it by the East or West divisions. Entering play today, the Rainiers also trail Sugar Land (40-22) and Oklahoma City (36-26) from the PCL East, six games back of the Space Cowboys in the top spot. Despite winning four of their last five games, Tacoma hasn’t made up any ground on Sugar Land, as the Space Cowboys have won five in a row, going 7-3 in their last 10 games. With the first half ending on June 23, Tacoma has just two weeks to make up ground on the three teams in front of them if they want to host a playoff series at the end of the year.

KEEP THEM IN IT: After allowing six runs over five innings of work, Levi Stoudt left the game with Tacoma trailing 6-4. The bullpen came in and delivered four scoreless innings, allowing the Rainiers’ offense the chance to keep climbing back into the game. Eduard Bazardo spun two perfect innings, striking out two of the six batters he faced and stranding the lone runner he inherited. He was followed by Joey Krehbiel, who worked around a leadoff double and a walk to toss a scoreless eighth frame, earning his third win of the year. Brett de Geus followed Krehbiel, allowing two hits but getting a double play to end the game and earn his fifth save of the season. With the four scoreless innings, Tacoma’s relievers lowered their ERA from 5.32 to 5.23 on the season.

AGAINST RENO: Tacoma and Reno will play the sixth and final game of their current series today, matching up for the 18th time already this season. Entering play today, the Rainiers lead the current series four games to one and the season series by five games, at 11-6. They have earned nine of their 11 wins against Reno here at Cheney Stadium, going 9-2 at home and 2-4 in their series at Greater Nevada Field. Despite leading the season series, Tacoma still trails Reno by 37 games in the all-time series, at 149-112.

SHORT HOPS: Both Isiah Gilliam and Cade Marlowe homered last night for Tacoma against Reno’s starter Cristian Mena, also hitting home runs against Mena back on April 11th when the two teams played; for Gilliam, his home run against Mena on the 11th was his most recent home run before last night’s…last night was just Tacoma’s second win of the year when being tied after seven innings, moving to 2-3 in that category…Dallas Keuchel will go for his sixth win of the year today; the last time he recorded six or more wins was back in 2021 with the Chicago White Sox, when he went 9-9 in 32 games…with Leo Rivas’ two steals last night, Tacoma now has five players on their active roster with 10 or more stolen bases this year; their total of 127 is 37 more than any other Triple-A team.