The Rainiers contingent of Triple-A rookie heard that Albuquerque was a great hitter’s park, but seeing it first-hand may have come as a shock.
Albuquerque hammered 21 hits, blasting baseballs all around the friendly confines of mile-high Isotopes Park, scoring in seven different innings on the way to a 17-8 win over Tacoma on Tuesday night in the series opener.
For a Tacoma Rainiers team that had been struggling to score runs during the last two weeks, netting eight runs on 11 hits must have felt cathartic last night – until one looked at the scoreboard, anyway.
After Tacoma did not score in the top of the first, Albuquerque leadoff man Yonathan Daza ripped the second pitch he saw deep to left for a homer to start the bottom of the inning, and it was on. The Isotopes had an 11-4 lead by the end of the third inning.
The important thing to remember this week in Albuquerque is that the trailing team is never really out of it. A six-run inning can happen in the blink of an eye in this stadium. Also, mistakes get super-magnified: on defense, any time an out isn’t recorded on a ball that should be an out, it seemingly always leads to runs.
Game one is in the books, with the teams scoring 25 runs on 32 hits, including six homers. Five games left – let’s see if the Rainiers hitters can start feasting.
RAINIERS DAILY
YESTERDAY: Albuquerque banged out 21 hits and walloped the Rainiers in the series opener, 17-8. Every player in the Albuquerque lineup had at least one hit, eight of the nine scored at least one run, and eight different players had at least one RBI – and they hit four homers, too. Tacoma had three-run homers by Brian O’Keefe and Kean Wong.
TODAY: Tacoma Rainiers (18-22) at Albuquerque Isotopes (17-23), 5:35 (Pacific).
OPPONENT AFFILIATION: Colorado Rockies.
OPPOSING MANAGER: Pedro Lopez.
SEASON SERIES: Albuquerque leads, 1-0.
PITCHERS: RHP Nick Davila (0-2, 5.40) at RHP Jeff Criswell (1-4, 9.57)
“Nick, you’ve done a great job in your two starts coming up from A-Ball, keeping us in the game both times – sorry we couldn’t score any runs for you. Now, take the ball in Albuquerque. Go get ’em, kid!”
ROSTER MOVES: None today as of blog posting time. Our last roster move was May 5 – this has got to be a record in the Dipoto era.
HOT HITTERS: Kean Wong has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games, and if it weren’t for a pinch-hit strikeout on May 9 he would have a 13-game hitting streak… Jake Scheiner has hit safely in 11 of his last 13 games. He ranks second in the PCL with 12 homers. Jo Adell of Salt Lake leads the league with 14… Mike Ford has 46 RBI, which still leads all of professional baseball despite Ford having just one RBI in his last eight games… Cesar Hernandez has hit safely in eight of his last nine games… Zach DeLoach has a four-game hitting streak.
OPPONENT NEWS: Albuquerque just went 2-4 in a six-gamer at Las Vegas… after starting the season 10-6, and ‘Topes have lost 17 of 24… Nolan Jones has been one of the top hitters in the PCL this year, batting.348 with 12 home runs and 40 RBI… an Albuquerque returnee from 2022, Coco Montes is batting .339 with 37 RBI… Gig Harbor product Michael Toglia went and got himself called up to the big leagues the day before the series against his hometown team, so congrats to him… former Rainiers lefty Fernando Abad was also called up Monday, but the Isotopes do still have ex-Rainiers from last season Matt Koch and Phillips Valdez, plus another former Rainiers reliever Matt Carasiti.
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 Albuquerque newspaper has an interview with the Colorado Rockies farm director that includes some interesting stuff on assessing players in the Isotopes Park environment.
- Seattle lost in Boston last night as Luis Castillo had a rough outing.
- Ryan Divish has a breakdown of where things stand for the Mariners 25% into the season.
June 9, 2023