The Rainiers have run in to a hot pitching staff during this series against the Reno Aces.
Reno has more high-velocity pitchers than any team Tacoma has faced this year – by a wide margin – and the Tacoma hitters are being forced to adjust to it. So far, the pitchers have had the advantage.
Three of the four games have seen Tacoma limited to one run on four-or-fewer hits. Tacoma lost 2-1 on Tuesday when they were one-hit by Blake Walston and two relievers. After a strong showing in win in the first game of the doubleheader on Wednesday (five runs including three homers, while batting in just six innings), the Rainiers have scored one run on four hits in each of the last two games.
Throughout this series the Rainiers pitching has been quite good – good enough to usually win in the PCL – but the offense needs to perform. Three games remain in this series to get the bats going, and then it’s a road trip to Albuquerque where the team is going to need to score a lot of runs to win.
Last night’s loss knocked the Rainiers record to 17-19, which is the first time this year that the team has been two games under .500. We’ll see if they can get a game back tonight – hopefully they can light up the scoreboard before our postgame fireworks show lights up the sky.
RAINIERS DAILY
YESTERDAY: Reno shut down the Tacoma beats and beat the Rainiers on Thursday night, 4-1. Tacoma had just four hits against Aces starter Drey Jameson and his bullpen. Jake Scheiner doubled and scored Tacoma’s lone run in the second inning. Nick Davila turned in a quality start, allowing three runs in six innings, but took the loss. Reno’s Tristin English drove in all four Aces runs with a homer and two singles.
TODAY: Reno Aces (21-15) at Tacoma Rainiers (17-19), 7:05.
OPPONENT AFFILIATION: Arizona Diamondbacks.
OPPOSING MANAGER: Blake Lalli.
SEASON SERIES: Tacoma leads, 5-4.
PITCHERS: RHP Bryce Jarvis (1-1, 3.68) at LHP Tommy Milone (2-0, 2.57)
Jarvis was the Diamondbacks first round draft pick in 2020 and this is his first Triple-A season. Milone has pitched nearly 1,000 major league innings.
ROSTER MOVES: None today as of blog posting time.
HOT HITTERS: Jake Scheiner has hit safely in eight of his last nine games, and he ranks second in the PCL with 11 homers. Jo Adell of Salt Lake leads the league with 13… Kean Wong has hit safely in 11 of his last 12 games… Mike Ford has 45 RBI, which leads all of professional baseball… Jacob Nottingham has hit four home runs over his last nine games.
OPPONENT NEWS: Reno just split a six-game series at home against Round Rock, but prior to that they won 10 of 12 games against Sugar Land and at Salt Lake, going 5-1 against each… Philip Evans has arguably been the best hitter in the league to date. He leads the league in batting average (.429), on-base percentage (.562), and runs scored (35)… Dominic Canzone has been hot: he homered twice on Saturday and has reached base in 15 straight games… Reno has former Rainiers pitchers Anthony Misiewicz and Austin Adams, as well as infielder Jake Hager.
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:
June 9, 2023