The Tacoma Rainiers had their second great pitching performance of the series against El Paso on Thursday night, limiting the Pacific Coast League’s top offense to just one run on nine hits. The Chihuahuas lone run came on a solo homer by rehabilitating major leaguer Wil Myers in the third inning.
Konner Wade pitched six innings, allowing just the Myers dinger. Kyle Bird, Taylor Williams, and Nick Ramirez – the later two both former Chihuahuas – each worked one scoreless inning.
It was the second time in the first three games of the series that Tacoma has muzzled the Chihuahuas. The Rainiers shut them out in the series opener on Tuesday, 2-0, when five pitchers combined on a five-hitter.
El Paso does still lead the league in runs scored, and they hung nine on the board in the second game of the series on Wednesday – with five runs scoring in the 12th inning. But the fact that the Rainiers have shut them down twice already in this series is pretty satisfying.
RAINIERS DAILY
YESTERDAY: Tacoma beat El Paso, 4-1, behind the pitching of Konner Wade and the bullpen. Mitch Haniger played the first six innings in right field, and went 2-for-3 with a game-tying home run at the plate – Haniger has a scheduled day off today. Forrest Wall doubled home the go-ahead run during a three-run, two-out rally in the seventh. Alex Blandino had two hits and a walk, and scored the go-ahead run.
TODAY: El Paso Chihuahuas (53-43) at Tacoma Rainiers (41-54), 7:05.
OPPONENT AFFILIATION: San Diego Padres.
OPPOSING MANAGER: Jared Sandberg.
SEASON SERIES: Tacoma leads, 2-1.
PITCHERS: LHP Ryan Weathers (4-6, 6.83) at RHP Chris Mazza (1-2, 11.74)
Weathers goes for real tonight. We had him listed last night, but El Paso pushed him back a day and started Reiss Knehr instead.
ROSTER MOVES: Nothing today as of blog posting time.
HOT HITTERS: Mason McCoy had his nine-game hitting streak come to an end last night… Forrest Wall has a six-game hitting streak… Drew Ellis has reached base safely in eight straight games.
OPPONENT NEWS: El Paso is four games out of first place in the East… Luis Liberato is on a tear just in time to face his former team, hitting six homers in 17 games this month… he’s in concussion protocol after being hit by a pitch on Wednesday night, but reportedly is feeling fine… C.J. Hinojosa has a 12-game hitting streak… Taylor Kohlwey ranks third in the PCL with a .328 batting average… El Paso has former Rainiers Ray Kerr, Tayler Scott, and Aaron Northcraft in its bullpen… manager Jared Sandberg is a former Seattle Mariners coach and is from Olympia.
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 Astros beat the Mariners in the opener of a four-game series last night.
- Ryan Divish runs through the Mariners tradeable commodities as the deadline approaches on Tuesday.
- Fangraphs has an article on the impact of Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.
April 1, 2023