Game Notes: Charlotte Knights (17-15) at Louisville Bats (14-20)
May 10, 2019 - International League (IL1)
Louisville Bats News Release
Game 35, Home 18
Charlotte Knights (17-15) at Louisville Bats (14-20)
RHP Odrisamer Despaigne (2-2, 4.21) vs. LHP Colton Turner (2-0, 4.58)
7:00 PM | Friday, May 10, 2019 | Louisville Slugger Field
LISTEN: Nick Curran & Jim Kelch, 790 KRD; iHeartRadio.com; iHeart app
FRIDAY'S SERIES OPENER: The Bats open a three-game series against the Charlotte Knights at Louisville Slugger Field on Friday night, still in search of their first series victory at home this season after dropping the latter 2 games of their recent three-game set with the Syracuse Mets. Tonight, right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne moves up in the rotation to make the start, coming off his best outing of the season in which he threw 7.0 scoreless innings in a win at Indianapolis.
AGAINST CHARLOTTE: The Bats welcome the Knights to Louisville Slugger Field for the first time this season, the first of 3 series against the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox in 2019. Last season, Louisville took 2 of 3 from Charlotte in the clubs' lone series at LSF in April, and split a 4-game series at BB&T Ballpark in August. With 10 matchups scheduled in 2019, this season will be just the second time in the past 10 seasons that the clubs will meet this many times, also occurring in 2017.
BRIAN O'SPEEDY: Louisville left fielder Brian O'Grady went 2-for-3 with 3 stolen bases in Thursday's loss, the first Bats player with 3 steals in a game since Billy Hamilton did it on June 11, 2013 vs. Durham. The International League stolen base leader that season with a Bats-record 75 steals, Hamilton actually stole 3 bases in a game on 3 different occasions in his lone season with the Bats. For O'Grady, it was his third career multi-steal game, and his first since playing for Class A Dayton in 2015.
GAVE IT UP, BUT ALMOST HAD IT: Louisville led by 1-0 and 2-1 scores in last night's game, before allowing Syracuse to score a combined 5 runs late to fall down 6-2. Louisville made its best comeback effort in the bottom of the ninth, with the game ending on a Juan Graterol groundout double play with runners on the corners, with a 6-5 final score. LOU missed out on tying its largest comeback win of the season, overcoming a 4-0 deficit to win 7-6 in its home opener on April 11 vs. Gwinnett.
EVERYBODY GETS A QUALITY START: Starting pitcher Vladimir Gutierrez bounced back nicely from a tough string of outings for the 23-year-old, tossing 6.0 innings and giving up just 2 earned runs with 7 strikeouts for his first quality start of the year. All 5 Louisville starters now have a quality start this season, with tonight's starter Despaigne leading the way with 3.
WITHOUT ME(TER): The Bats are 2-2 in 4 games without IL home run leader Josh VanMeter, who had his contract selected by the Reds on Sunday. Without VanMeter, the Bats have gone homerless in 4 straight games, one shy of their season-high 5 games without a home run from April 19-24.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE SEVENTH: The Syracuse Mets scored 3 runs in the top of the seventh of last night's ballgame, a costly inning for the Bats so far in 2019. Louisville has been outscored 27-6 in the seventh this season, the largest run differential out of any inning for the club this season. Louisville's best inning by run differential has been a tie between the sixth and eighth innings, outscoring opponents by 9 runs (17-8 and 23-14, respectively) in those innings.
PITCHING STABILITY: Before tonight, Louisville's starting rotation had been exactly the same, without any interruptions, through the first 34 games of the season. With Despaigne leapfrogging Jose Lopez in the rotation, LOU will go "out of order" for the first time in 2019. All 5 starting pitchers from Opening Day for the Bats still remain the same, however. All 13 pitchers on Opening Day are the active 13 pitchers as of May 9, as well.
International League Stories from May 10, 2019
- Hens Come Back to Win Slug Fest - Toledo Mud Hens
- Stripers Crush Five Home Runs, Defeat Pawtucket 8-4 - Gwinnett Stripers
- IronPigs rally cut short in the 9th - Lehigh Valley IronPigs
- RailRiders Caught by Toledo - Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders
- Syracuse Homers Four Times in 7-4 Victory over Columbus - Syracuse Mets
- Bats Down Knights, 5-1 - Louisville Bats
- Bulls Beat Wings in Series Opener - Rochester Red Wings
- Back-To-Back Jacks Not Enough for PawSox - Pawtucket Red Sox
- Knights Drop Friday's Opener to Bats 5-1 - Charlotte Knights
- Sano to Rehab with Red Wings this Weekend - Rochester Red Wings
- SWB Game Notes - Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders
- The Last Strike - Indianapolis Indians
- Bisons Game Notes - Buffalo at Norfolk (7:05 p.m.) - Buffalo Bisons
- Game Notes: Charlotte Knights (17-15) at Louisville Bats (14-20) - Louisville Bats
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