The Tacoma Rainiers home run streak continued last night, although the pitfalls of the dingers-only offense were revealed.
Tacoma hit two homers, extending the team’s streak to 13 straight games with at least one tater. The team has hit 27 homers during the streak, with 14 different players going deep. Mason McCoy now leads the charge with five home runs during this 13-game stretch.
Narrowing it down to just the last five games, Tacoma has hit 15 dingers during those contests.
But… yesterday’s two home runs each came with nobody on base. The team had just two other hits in the game, did not score any more runs, and lost 5-2. An offense built solely on homers is built to fail in the long run; you gotta find other ways to score.
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Here’s another thing that the Rainiers have been good at lately: relief pitching.
Since the all-star break, Tacoma’s relievers have a 2.55 ERA. The bullpen has pitched 102.1 innings since the break, allowing 29 earned runs.
This is one of the main reasons the Rainiers have posted a winning record since the break, going 13-11.
It’s been a whole-bullpen effort, as almost everyone out there is on a real good roll right now. There are one or two guys who are scuffling a little bit at the moment, but the rest of the relief crew is picking them up with some dominant results.
RAINIERS DAILY
YESTERDAY: Albuquerque evened-up the series by beating Tacoma on Wednesday night, 5-2. The Rainiers had just four hits, with only two players collecting them: Jarred Kelenic and Mason McCoy each hit a single and a solo homer. Tacoma’s bullpen continued its recent run of success, allowing just one run over the final four innings of the game.
TODAY: Albuquerque Isotopes (51-61) at Tacoma Rainiers (51-62), 7:05.
OPPONENT AFFILIATION: Colorado Rockies.
OPPOSING MANAGER: Warren Schaeffer
SEASON SERIES: Albuquerque leads, 5-3.
PITCHERS: RHP Zach Neal (5-5, 7.12) at LHP Justus Sheffield (4-6, 6.89)
ROSTER MOVES: None today as of posting time.
HOT HITTERS: Erick Mejia has a nine-game hitting streak, and he has reached base safely in 14 straight games… Forrest Wall saw his eight-game hitting streak end last night, but he has reached base safely in nine straight games… Jonathan Villar has multiple hits in five of the ten games he has played in since joining the team… Marcus Wilson has a five-game hitting streak… Drew Ellis has hit four home runs over his last seven games, and 11 of his last 14 hits have gone for extra bases… Mason McCoy has homered five times over his last nine games.
OPPONENT NEWS: Albuquerque just split a six-game home series against first place Reno. The Isotopes led the series 3-1 but lost the last two games… Albuquerque has four former Rainiers on its roster (D.J. Peterson, Tim Lopes, Ashton Goudeau, and Zach Lee), plus local product Michael Toglia (Gig Harbor High School class of 2016)… Toglia is 3-for-8 with a homer and five RBI over the first two games of the series… Sean Bouchard has reached base in 14 straight games… the Isotopes have hit 11 grand slams this year.
BROADCAST: All games will be broadcast free on a live audio stream which is available right here.
Unfortunately, there is no traditional terrestrial radio station carrying the games at this time.
PCL SCOREBOARD: Follow all league games in real-time with links to broadcasts and Gameday screens right here.
Links:
- The Mariners hit four homers – two by former Rainiers catcher Cal Raleigh – and beat the Angels yesterday, 11-7, completing a three-game series sweep.
- Raleigh has grown to become one of the best catchers in the league.
June 8, 2023