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Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

SWB Game Notes

July 20, 2014 - International League (IL1)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders News Release


SILENCED IN CHARLOTTE: Micah Johnson's leadoff first-pitch triple was just a sign of things to come Saturday night at BB&T BallPark as the RailRiders' Southern nemesis got the best of them once again, this time with a 7-0 shutout. Charlotte starter Andre Rienzo (1-2) and three relievers combined on the two-hitter while a triumvirate of crooked numbers by the Knights' juggernaut offense paved the way.

TIME TO EAT THE DONUTS: The RailRiders' seventh shutout loss of the season included a run with 16 straight RailRiders retired from the close of the second until the start of the eighth. Charlotte pitching faced just three over the minimum for its fourth shutout win of the year.

UP TO THE QUAD AND TO THE GYMNASIUM: The RailRiders have tied their longest road losing streak of year at four games. A loss tonight would tie the team's outright longest losing streak of the season at five games. On the other side, Charlotte has posted its first five-game winning streak since the 2012 team won eight straight from Aug. 11-18. That Charlotte squad won the IL South at 83-61 led by the league's home run champion, Dan Johnson, who would pace the inaugural RailRiders in homers the very next season. The then-SWB Yankees won the IL North in 2012 as Dave Miley claimed Manager of the Year honors in all of MiLB from Baseball America.

KNIGHTED: The RailRiders fell to 1-6 against the Knights and 7-16 against the IL South. The RailRiders have had a tough time retiring Charlotte hitters. The Knights have hit .342/.422/.595/1.017 as a team against SWB pitching. That includes an eye-popping 14 home runs in just 56 innings. Charlotte has hit just .249 against the rest of the IL while posting a 37-58 record (.389). Before losing each set this season, SWB had not lost a series to Charlotte since dropping three of four from June 8-11, 2010 at Knights Stadium. That SWB squad still won five of the eight overall clashes though. The SWB franchise had not lost a season series to Charlotte since at least 2004 and suffered zero sweep defeats in that time.

WHERE THERE'S A WIL-KINS: The best bat of the bunch against the RailRiders has been Andy Wilkins. Five of his league-high 19 home runs have come against the RailRiders. Only one other IL batter has hit more than two against SWB this season - Norfolk's Brett Wallace. In seven games against the RailRiders, Wilkins has assembled slashes of .621/.633/1.345/1.978. He has hit just .233 against the rest of the IL meaning the RailRiders have helped lift his season-long overall batting average by 33 points based on seven games.

LOOK OUT BELOW: The RailRiders have fallen to a season-worst eight games below .500. Should they stumble tonight, they would drop to nine games below .500, the low-water mark last year's RailRiders hit thrice. Before 2013, the SWB franchise had not owned a record that poor since the 2005 season. It was last nine games under .500 at 30-39 after a June 21, 2005 win over Columbus. The then-Red Barons were a Phillies farm club while Columbus housed the Yankees' top minor leaguers at the time. Dave Miley took over as the Yankees' Triple-A manager in 2006 and the affiliation changed to SWB in 2007. Gene Lamont, the 1993 A.L. Manager of the Year with the White Sox, managed SWB in 2005. He is currently the bench coach for the Detroit Tigers.

OFF THE RAILS: Lefty reliever Tyler Webb turns 24 today...In his SWB debut, Rich Hill struck out two in a perfect inning of relief (12 pitches, nine strikes)...Despite suffering the loss, southpaw starter Nik Turley (0-2) struck out a season-best six men last night...The RailRiders have 44 games left with 25 (57%) of them coming at home...Thanks to this eight-game road trip out of the break, the RailRiders do not play at PNC Field again until July 25...That starts a 10-game homestand and a span with 18 out of 20 games in Moosic for Dave Miley's team.

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