The Rainiers beat Salt Lake on Friday night, 3-1, and picked up some ground in the race to win the Triple-A West regular season championship.
The thrown-together-at-the-last-minute championship plan for this Covid-impacted season eliminated playoff games. The Triple-A West championship is going to the team with the best winning percentage among both divisions after the games of September 21 (the final date for the originally scheduled 120 regular season games).
Right now, Reno has the best record in the league. Tacoma picked up a game yesterday and is 2.5 games behind the Aces.
The Rainiers are actually tied in second place, though. East division leader Sugar Land has the exact same record as Tacoma (56-42) and is also 2.5 games behind Reno for the regular season title.
After the regular season ends on September 21, there are an extra ten games that have been added to the schedule. Those are going to count towards the “Triple-A Final Stretch,” which is being billed as a second ‘tournament’ and an additional championship title.
Interestingly, stats from the “Triple-A Final Stretch” are going to count towards the overall 2021 leaderboards. To clarify, those extra ten games count for the Batting Title, and the Home Run leader, etc. We’ll be keeping this in mind as Jose Marmolejos is currently bidding to become the second-ever Tacoma player to win a Triple-A batting title, and he is also among the leaders in home runs and RBI.
RAINIERS DAILY
YESTERDAY: Tacoma used a great cumulative pitching effort to beat Salt Lake on Friday night, 3-1. Asher Wojciechowski, Moises Gomez, Nick Duron, Darin Gillies, Penn Murfee, and Aaron Fletcher shut out the Bees for the first eight innings on five hits. Salt Lake got a run in the ninth on a misplayed fly ball, but Justin Grimm recorded the final out for the save. Jose Marmolejos drove in a pair of runs for Tacoma.
TODAY: Salt Lake (43-54) at Tacoma (56-42), 7:05.
OPPONENT AFFILIATION: Los Angeles Angels.
OPPOSING MANAGER: Lou Marson.
SEASON SERIES: Tied, 10-10.
PITCHERS: RHP Taylor Ahearn (0-1, 4.50) at RHP Robert Dugger (2-4, 7.30)
Yesterday I wasted five minutes trying to determine if Taylor Ahearn was related to the former Rainiers pitcher Patrick Ahearn before I remembered it was actually spelled Patrick Ahearne with an ‘e’ on the end. The Rainiers have never faced Taylor Ahearn before.
HOT HITTERS: Jantzen Witte has reached base safely in 17 straight games, and he has gone 57-for-165 (.345) over his last 41 games… Donovan Walton had his string of reaching base in 16 straight games come to an end last night… Sam Travis has gone 34-for-101 (.337) over his last 25 games… Jack Reinheimer has a six-game hitting streak, and he has reached base in 19 straight games… Jose Marmolejos is second in the league with a .359 batting average… Eric Filia has hit safely in four straight games.
OPPONENT NEWS: Salt Lake just had a rough series at home against Reno, dropping five of six games… Michael Stefanic had four hits on Tuesday and is batting .367 with six homers during the month of August… Jake Gatewood is fourth in the league with 22 home runs… Bees reliever Tim Peterson was born in Tacoma and graduated from Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup.
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.
TRIPLE-A WEST SCOREBOARD: Follow all league games in real-time with links to Gameday screens right here.
STORIES YOU MIGHT LIKE:
- The Mariners lost to the Royals in the 12th inning last night, 8-7. Salvador Perez hit a grand slam against the Mariners for the second straight game.
- M’s manager Scott Servais talked about trying to shake off bad losses.
Listen to every home and away Tacoma Rainiers game for free HERE. You can also download the MiLB First Pitch app for a free and easy one-click listening experience at home, work or in your car. Watch an HD video broadcast of every game with an MiLB.TV subscription. Use code: RAINIERS to save $10 on an annual subscription.
About the Tacoma Rainiers
The Tacoma Rainiers are the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. The Rainiers are a member of the Triple-A West. Tacoma has been a Mariners affiliate since establishing the Rainiers moniker in 1995.
Find more information and purchase single game tickets here. Questions regarding season tickets can be directed to Tickets@WeRTacoma.com.
The most up-to-date news and notes about the Tacoma Rainiers and Cheney Stadium can be found at WeRTacoma.com, or by following the Rainiers on Twitter (@RainiersLand), Instagram (@tacomarainiers) and liking the team on Facebook.
March 23, 2023