Game Notes: Louisville Bats (1-4) at Columbus Clippers (4-1)
April 9, 2019 - International League (IL1)
Louisville Bats News Release
Game 6, Away 6
Louisville Bats (1-4) at Columbus Clippers (4-1)
6:05 PM | Tuesday, April 9, 2019 | Huntington Park
LISTEN: Nick Curran, 790 KRD; iHeartRadio.com; iHeart app
TONIGHT'S GAME: The Louisville Bats and Columbus Clippers continue a three-game series at Huntington Park after the Clip Show took the first game by a 2-1 score Monday night in extra innings. The Bats have made a full turn in the rotation, with Opening Day starting pitcher Odrisamer Despaigne (0-0, 5.40) set to go for Louisville.
AGAINST COLUMBUS: The Bats and Clippers meet for the first of 7 series this season, and the second of 24 scheduled matchups between the clubs in 2019. Last season, Louisville went 9-15 (.375) against the Clip Show in 24 games, 4-10 at home and 5-5 at Huntington Park. After last night's 2-1 victory, Columbus holds a two-game advantage in the all-time series with a 207-205 record in 412 total matchups dating back to 1988.
ERRORING OF GRIEVANCES: The Bats made 3 errors in last night's ballgame, including an error on the final play of the game. Brian O'Grady's throwing error allowed Cameron Maybin to cross the plate in the bottom of the 10th on a Bobby Bradley fielder's choice, handing the Clippers a 2-1 win. Louisville made 3+ errors in a game on 5 occasions last season, most recently before yesterday on July 21 at Syracuse, their lone win in those 5 contests in 2018.
HIT DROP-OFF: The Bats recorded just 2 hits as an offense on Monday, one game after recording a season-high 15 hits with all 9 batters in the starting lineup getting into the hit column. The 13-hit drop-off in back-to-back games was only topped once for the Bats last season, when they recorded a season-best 20 hits on June 9 at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, recording just 6 hits in their next game on June 11 vs. Columbus. Louisville recorded 2 or fewer hits just twice last season, on May 30 vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and August 13 at Gwinnett (one hit). The Bats never recorded fewer than 3 hits in a game during the 2017 season.
BACKUP GENERATOR: Louisville still supplied some power on Monday despite recording only 2 hits, with Josh VanMeter's solo blast in the fifth tying the game 1-1. Last night marked the first time that LOU recorded 2 or fewer hits in a game, with one of those hits being a home run, since April 14, 2015 vs. Columbus. In that game, Eugenio Suarez supplied half the Bats' hits with his solo home run in the bottom of the first in a 1-0 Bats win in seven innings over the Clippers.
PICKING UP WHERE THEY LEFT OFF: Through the first 5 games of the season, the Bats' best two hitters have been VanMeter and O'Grady. Each has an identical batting average, .353 (6-for-17), in 2019 after finishing off their previous campaigns with strong Augusts. In the full final month of the 2018 season, VanMeter and O'Grady became the first pair of LOU batters to both top a 1.000 OPS with at least 100 plate appearances in a calendar month since Yonder Alonso and Juan Francisco in July 2010.
FREE BASEBALL...AT WHAT PRICE?: Louisville dropped its second extra inning game so far this season, with Toledo (4/5) and Columbus both walking off against the Bats in the 11th and 10th innings, respectively. Last season, LOU owned a 7-6 record in extras, and finished 9-8 in 2017. The Bats haven't finished a season below .500 in extra inning games since 2013, when they were 3-6.
WHIFF OR WHIFFOUT YOU: Bats pitchers Jose Lopez, Jesus Reyes, Matt Bowman, Jimmy Herget and Ian Krol combined to strike out a season-high 12 Clippers yesterday. On the other side, the offense also struck out 12 times, bringing their total to a league-leading 55 punchouts. Last season, when Louisville pitchers struck out a dozen or more, the Bats went 8-8. When LOU struck out 12 or more times as an offense, they went 7-16. Both occurred in the same game just 3 times last year, with the Bats going 2-1 in those games.
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