August 20 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers vs. Sacramento River Cats
August 20, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Tacoma Rainiers News Release
TACOMA RAINIERS (70-50) vs. SACRAMENTO RIVER CATS (63-57)
Tuesday, August 20 - 7:05 PM - Cheney Stadium - Tacoma, WA
RHP Emerson Hancock (4-3, 3.78) vs. RHP Mason Black (5-5, 4.81)
TONIGHT'S MATCHUP: Tacoma and Sacramento will play game one of their six game series at Cheney Stadium tonight, with the River Cats leading the season series eight games to four. Tacoma will send Emerson Hancock to the mound, set to make his 14th start of the season at Triple-A. Through his first 13 games, Hancock is 4-3 with a 3.78 ERA, allowing 29 earned runs on 63 hits and 30 walks while striking out 47 batters over 69.0 innings. The right-hander is limiting opponents to a .241 batting average this year, throwing quality starts in six of his 13 starts. Opposite Hancock will be Mason Black toeing the rubber for the River Cats, making his 20th start of the year with Sacramento. Black is 5-5 with a 4.81 ERA on the year, allowing 42 earned runs on 77 hits and 35 walks while striking out 84 in 78.2 innings. He has made three starts against Tacoma this season, going 0-0 with a 1.69 ERA. In those outings, he has surrendered just two earned runs on nine hits and seven walks, striking out 14 batters over 10.2 innings.
STRONG AT HOME: With Tacoma's 4-3 win on Sunday, they wrapped up a six-game series in which they took five-of-six from Sugar Land. Their five wins gave them 39 on the year compared to just 18 losses at Cheney Stadium. They also stayed perfect in home series, going 9-2-0 through their first 11, splitting two against Salt Lake. Tacoma is just 4-8 against Sacramento entering tonight's game, with all 12 games coming at Sutter Health Park.
LEADING THE WAY: Jason Vosler played a huge part in Tacoma's win on Sunday, coming up big as he has all season. The utility-man is having a career year, leading the way for both the Rainiers and Pacific Coast League hitters in many categories. Vosler enters play tonight with 113 hits including 21 doubles and 23 home runs, all team highs. He also leads the team in runs batted in with 88 and slugging percentage, at .547. He is among league leaders in batting average (.296, 9th), home runs (23, 5th), RBI (88, 3rd), slugging percentage (.547, 4th), OPS (.907, 6th), hits (113, 9th), extra-base hits (47, 6th), total bases (209, 6th) and runs scored (76, t-4th). He also leads Tacoma with 33 multi-hit and 25 multi-RBI games, going 2-for-4 with all four runs batted in for the Rainiers on Sunday. Vosler has tied his career high for home runs in a single season with 23 and his 22 doubles between Tacoma and Seattle are 10 shy of his single season career high set back in 2016 in Advanced-A Myrtle Beach and Double-A Tennessee. His 91 combined RBI are two short of tying a career high set in 2018 with Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa. Vosler will face his former team tonight, currently hitting .244 in 12 games against them so far this season.
GOING DEEP: Tacoma's starting pitchers were a huge reason for winning five-of-six games against Sugar Land last week. All five starters (Jhonathan Diaz twice) went at least five innings in their outing, including three quality starts. Michael Mariot surrendered four earned runs on Thursday and that was the most any starter allowed, as Diaz allowed three earned runs over 11.1 innings, Emerson Hancock gave up two earned runs over six frames, Blas Castano spun six scoreless and Casey Lawrence gave up two earned runs in 5.0 innings. Getting distance from the starters kept the bullpen fresh and really shortened the game, as Tacoma's relief pitchers covered just 18.2 innings over the course of the six-game series.
WATCH OUT: Three players on Sacramento's active roster have had notable success against Tacoma this season. Trenton Brooks is hitting .316 (6-for-19) with two runs scored, two doubles, a home run, two runs batted in and four walks compared to three strikeouts in six games played. David Villar is hitting .333 (9-for-27) with two doubles, two home runs, four runs batted in and five walks compared to seven strikeouts in eight games against the Rainiers. Brett Wisely, who was just optioned back to Sacramento yesterday, is hitting .316 (6-for-19) with three runs scored, a double, two home runs and three runs batted in with two walks compared to two strikeouts over five games against the Rainiers. Brooks, Villar and Wisely have combined for five of the 13 doubles and five of the 10 home runs Sacramento has hit as a team against Tacoma this season.
SETTING THE TABLE: Since being optioned to Tacoma on August 11 and joining the active roster on August 13, Ryan Bliss has been a key to the top of the Rainiers' lineup. Bliss had led off in all six games since returning from Seattle and is hitting .348 (8-for-23) over that span. The utility-man has recorded at least one hit in five of the six games, clubbing two doubles and a home run along the way. He has led each of the last two games off with singles and come around to score in each instance, starting the Rainiers off early. Bliss has also shown versatility defensively, playing two games at both shortstop and second base with one at third and one in left field over the six-game series against the Space Cowboys.
KEEP IT GOING: Tacoma earned their fifth consecutive win on Sunday with a 4-3 victory over Sugar Land, marking their longest winning streak of the season. The Rainiers had won four in a row seven times and had never gotten to five prior to their win in the finale on Sunday. With the victory, Tacoma moved to a season-high 20 games over .500, at 70-50, having gone 8-2 in their last 10 games and winning 12 of their last 14 games. The recent hot stretch has put the Rainiers right back in the mix for the second-half championship and the right to play in the PCL playoffs, entering play tonight 0.5 games ahead of Reno.
AGAINST SACRAMENTO: The Rainiers and River Cats are set to play game one of their six-game series at Cheney Stadium and game 13 overall this season. Entering play tonight, Sacramento holds an 8-4 advantage over Tacoma in the season series, taking four-of-six games in each of the first two series. Both of those were played at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, as this will be the first meeting between the two teams in Tacoma. Sacramento leads the all-time series by 11 games, at 256-245.
SHORT HOPS: Cody Bolton pitched in his first game since Aug. 2 against Salt Lake on Sunday, allowing one earned run on one hit (home run) and one walk while striking out two in his lone inning...Manager John Russell enters tonight's game with a career managerial record of 999-1,090, looking to secure his 1,000th victory as a manager in professional baseball...Tacoma is now 13-3 in the month of August, giving them more wins in August than they had in July; they are tied with their total wins in May and are two short of tying their season-high 15 wins in a month set back in April and June.
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