This series began with us talking about the Rainiers long streak of consecutive games hitting at least one home run – a streak that ended at 13 when the Rainiers went homerless on Thursday.
Now, we must speak of the visiting Albuquerque Isotopes, and their power prowess.
Albuquerque hit four homers last night in a 6-4 win over the Rainiers, and the Isotopes have hit a whopping 14 dingers during the first four games of this series.
This is not an unexpected result. Albuquerque leads all of minor league baseball with 185 home runs, and in the majors only the New York Yankees have hit more (195).
The Isotopes have a home run advantage in their own ballpark, playing in the thin air of high-elevation Albuquerque. It’s a mile high city, with an elevation of 5,312 feet, which is one of the main reasons the Colorado Rockies choose to be affiliated with the ‘Topes. But a quick look at the statistics shows that while the Isotopes do hit more dingers at home than one the road, it’s not a huge disparity.
Albuquerque has launched 97 taters in 54 games at Isotopes Park, for an average of 1.79 home runs per game. In road games across the PCL, the Isotopes have hit 88 blasts in 60 games, for an average of 1.46 homers per game.
We’ll see if the Rainiers can keep them in the park tonight. And maybe the Rainiers can get back on the power surge themselves – after all, the Isotopes pitching staff has allowed 196 home runs, which is the second-most in all of professional baseball.
RAINIERS DAILY
YESTERDAY: Albuquerque hit four more home runs and beat Tacoma on Friday night, 6-4. Former Rainiers slugger D.J. Peterson hit a tiebreaking two-run blast off rehabilitating Mariners lefty Matthew Boyd in the fifth inning to give the Isotopes the lead. Mason McCoy reached base four times for Tacoma (two hits and two walks), and Jarred Kelenic hit a two-run single.
TODAY: Albuquerque Isotopes (52-62) at Tacoma Rainiers (52-63), 7:05.
OPPONENT AFFILIATION: Colorado Rockies.
OPPOSING MANAGER: Warren Schaeffer
SEASON SERIES: Albuquerque leads, 6-4.
PITCHERS: RHP Chad Kuhl (–) at RHP Konner Wade (4-4, 5.15)
Kuhl is making a rehabilitation start for the Isotopes – he’s started 20 games for the Rockies this season, going 6-7 with a 5.16 ERA. He’s been on the Rockies IL since August 5th with a right hip flexor strain.
ROSTER MOVES: None today as of posting time.
HOT HITTERS: Erick Mejia has an 11-game hitting streak, and he has reached base safely in 16 straight games… Jonathan Villar has multiple hits in five of the 11 games he has played in since joining the team… Jarred Kelenic has a six-game hitting streak… Drew Ellis has hit four home runs over his last eight games, and 11 of his last 15 hits have gone for extra bases… Mason McCoy has homered five times over his last ten games.
OPPONENT NEWS: Prior to arriving in Tacoma, Albuquerque 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 9-for-18 with two homers and seven RBI over the first four games of the series… Sean Bouchard has reached base in 16 straight games, and he has hit three home runs during this series… 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:
- Mariners third baseman Eugenio Suarez homered twice in a 10-2 blowout of the Oakland A’s last night.
- Good stuff here on Mariners workload management and the difference between being hurt and being injured.
- Interesting column from Larry Stone on how the Mariners rebuild has them contending despite not getting contributions from players who were expected to be a big part of it. He compares this to the Houston Astros rebuild of the early 2010s, which had similar speed bumps.
June 8, 2023