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PCL1 Memphis Redbirds

Game Notes: Memphis Redbirds (23-35) at Tacoma Rainiers (29-29)

June 4, 2019 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Memphis Redbirds News Release


Memphis Redbirds (23-35) at Tacoma Rainiers (29-29)

Tuesday, June 4 - 8:05 p.m. (CT) - Cheney Stadium (7,429) - Tacoma, Washington

Game #59 - Road Game #30 (13-16)

RHP Jake Woodford (1-0, 2.61) vs LHP Anthony Misiewicz (2-1, 4.42)

BY THE NUMBERS

.538 Rangel Ravelo's batting average (7x13) in the series against Oklahoma City. He has raised his batting average to .302 on the season.

23 The American Southern division has handed the Redbirds 23 of their 35 losses this season.

12 Consecutive losses by the Redbirds. This is currently the second longest such streak in franchise history.

THE GAME

TONIGHT'S GAME: The Memphis Redbirds look to snap a season-high 12-game losing skid tonight as they begin a seven-game road swing with a three-game series against the Tacoma Rainiers tonight in the lone match-up between the two teams this season. In the Redbirds' last game on Sunday, Alex Reyes allowed three home runs in his first start for the Redbirds since April 25. Rangel Ravelo and Tommy Edman each had multi-hit games and Evan Kruczynski worked 3.0 innings in relief, allowing just one run. Tonight's game will be broadcast live on www.memphisredbirds.com with Steve Selby on the call.

ON THE HILL: Right-hander Jake Woodford is scheduled to take the mound in tonight's game and make his 12th start and seventh road start of the season. Woodford last took the mound on Wednesday at San Antonio, suffering the loss (7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R/ER, 3 BB, 7 SO) in the Redbirds' 3-2 defeat to the Missions. That was his fourth quality start of the season and his first since his start on May 14 at Nashville. He matched a season-high with seven strikeouts but has now walked three batters or more in each of his last three starts. Woodford has allowed three earned runs or fewer in eight of his 11 starts. Despite suffering the loss, Woodford has still won eight of his last 13 decisions at the Triple-A level. Tonight will be Woodford's first career start against the Rainiers. He is currently holding opposing batters to a .198 (43x217) average, which ranks T-3rd in the Pacific Coast League among qualifiers. Woodford is even stingier against right-handed batters, holding them to just a .174 (24x138) average. He also ranks 4th in the PCL with a 3.11 ERA and has allowed one earned run or fewer in six of his 11 outings. The St. Petersburg, Fla., native is currently ranked as the No. 24 prospect in the Cardinals organization by MLB.com.

The Rainiers are slated to start left-hander Anthony Misiewicz in tonight's contest. The 24-year-old is scheduled to make his fourth start with Tacoma and his 12th appearance overall across all levels. Misiewicz has gone 2-1, 4.42 (9 ER/18.1 IP) to go along with 11 strikeouts and 5 walks in four games, three starts at the Triple-A level and is allowing a .231 opponent's average (15x65). In his last time out on Thursday at El Paso, Misiewicz earned the win (6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R/ER, 0 BB, 3 SO) in the Rainiers' 7-0 victory over the Chihuahuas. He has made back-to-back quality starts after allowing six runs in his first career Triple-A start on May 20 at Reno. Misiewicz made his Triple-A debut on April 28 vs. Sacramento, taking no-decision in relief (4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R/ER, 1 BB, 3 SO) in the Rainiers' 4-3 victory over the River Cats. He opened the season and has two stints with Double-A Arkansas, going 1-2, 2.52 (10 ER/35.2 IP) in seven starts for the Travelers. Misiewicz tossed a complete game on April 23 vs. Frisco (9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R/ER, 0 BB, 9 SO) but suffered the loss. The Detroit native is in his fifth professional season and has spent them all with the Seattle organization. He also spent the end of the 2017 within the Tampa Bay system, but was later traded back to the Seattle organization during the offseason. He entered the season ranked as the No. 25 prospect and has the "best curveball" in the Mariners system by Baseball America.

HISTORY WITH TACOMA: The Redbirds have faced off against the Tacoma Rainiers every year since 1998. The Rainiers have been Seattle's Triple-A affiliate the entirety of that span. The Redbirds trail in the all-time series by a narrow 49-50 but hold a 29-22 advantage at AutoZone Park. The Redbirds have winning records against the Rainiers in each of the last two seasons and have not had a losing record against the Rainiers since 2009. The two teams have faced off in the playoffs once, in the 2010 Pacific Coast League Championship. Tacoma swept Memphis 3-0 to capture their fifth PCL title. All three games were played at AutoZone Park due to ongoing renovations at Cheney Stadium at the time.

THE SEASON

ABOUT THE LAST ONE: The Oklahoma City Dodgers (Dodgers) jumped on the Memphis Redbirds early and picked up an 8-2 win in the series finale Sunday afternoon at AutoZone Park.

Rangel Ravelo was 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI, and Tommy Edman went 2-for-4 with a double and scored both of Memphis' runs. John Nogowski added a pinch-hit double of his own.

Edman has 15 multi-hit games this season, which leads the team.

Alex Reyes started for Memphis (23-35) and allowed seven runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings. He struck out four and walked three, and he allowed three home runs.

Tommy Layne, Evan Kruczysnki, and Chris Beck followed Reyes and surrendered one run.

Edwin Rios drove in five runs for the Dodgers (22-34).

Memphis has lost 12-straight games.

OKLAHOMA CITY SERIES WRAP: The Memphis Redbirds were swept in four games by the Oklahoma City Dodgers in the first series of the season between the two clubs. This marked the first time since July 14-17, 2016 at Albuquerque that the Redbirds had been swept in four games by an opponent. The 'Birds also went 0-10 on their homestand, which was the second time in franchise history (2007, 0-7) that they failed to win to record a win during a homestand.

The Redbirds scored just 13 runs in the four games but scored two or fewer in each of the final three games of the series. The offense slugged a total of three homes and collected and nine extra-base hits overall. Against Oklahoma City pitching, Memphis was held to a .192 average (25x130) and only had seven players pick up multi-hit performances.

Rangel Ravelo came just a home run shy of hitting for the cycle in the series opener and recorded his first triple since May 27, 2018. Overall, Ravelo went 7-for-13 (.538) in the four games against the Dodgers and bookended the series with three-hit games. He has raised his average to .302 on the season. Tommy Edman picked up two more multi-hit games during the series and also scored a team-high five runs. He leads the Redbirds with 15 multi-hit games this season. After going 105 at-bats without a home run, Edmundo Sosa homered in back-to-back games to bring his season total to four. Adolis Garcia blasted his team-leading 12th home run of the year in the series opener on Thursday.

The 'Birds starting staff went 0-3, 9.45 (19 ER/18.1 IP) fanning 20 batters while issuing 11 walks. The starters also gave up six home runs in the series, including three by Alex Reyes on Sunday in his return to Memphis. Ryan Helsley whiffed six in his start on Friday, fanning three-straight twice on the night. The Memphis bullpen went 0-1, 5.76 (11 ER/17.2 IP) with 27 strikeouts. Evan Kruczynski made the longest relief outing of the season for the Redbirds, tossing 3.0 innings on Sunday and allowing one run on one hit.

RAVELO STAYS HOT: After hitting a career-low .173 (13x75) in the month of April at the Triple-A level, Rangel Ravelo stayed hot all of May, going 38-for-99 (.384) in 28 games. Ravelo had five three-hit games last month and already has one in June, compared to just one in 21 games in April. He had his 19-game hitting streak snapped May 25. He had homered four times during that span. He came just one game shy of matching the franchise record is 20 games, set by Adam Kennedy from June 28 - Aug. 12, 1999. The 27-year-old has raised his batting average to .302 on the season and is getting on base at a .378 clip.

MAY RECAP: The Redbirds finished May with a 10-21 record, going 4-12 at AutoZone Park and 6-9 on the road. This is the just the second time since 2017, that the Redbirds have posted a losing record in a month, the last being August 2018. It is also the second time during that span that the 'Birds have had losing records at home or away. The 35 home runs slugged by the Redbirds ranks T-2nd for home runs in May, falling just three home runs shy of matching the 1999 franchise record of 38 homers in May.

Rangel Ravelo led the team with a .384 average (38x99), .460 OBP and a 1.066 OPS. This all coming after batting just .173 in the month of April. Tyler O'Neill returned to the Redbirds with a bang, launching eight home runs in 24 games.

GOING TO THE SHOW: Following the contract of Andrew Knizner being purchased on Friday by the St. Louis Cardinals, the Redbirds have now had four members from their Opening Night roster get called up to St. Louis and make their Major League debuts. Knizner joins Lane Thomas as the second Redbirds position player to earn a call up, joining pitchers Genesis Cabrera and Ryan Helsley. The 2018 Redbirds had six players get promoted to St. Louis and they would all make their Major League debuts with the club.

DON'T RUN ON THE REDBIRDS: During the doubleheader against San Antonio on May 27, catchers Joe Hudson and Andrew Knizner each threw out a would-be base stealer in their respective games behind the plate. The Redbirds lead the Pacific Coast League in cutting down baserunners, throwing out 24 runners in 56 attempts. While throwing out the most baserunners, they also lead the PCL with a 42.9 caught-stealing success rate.

Andrew Knizner leads all PCL catchers by throwing out 17 baserunners in 32 attempts. His current caught-stealing rate of 53.1 percent is nearly 30 percentage points higher than his 2018 caught-stealing rate of 26.7 percent (20 CS/75 SB ATT) across all levels.

MEISINGER IN MAY: After tossing a career-high 4.0 innings and allowing just one run in the nightcap of Monday's doubleheader, Ryan Meisinger brought his season ERA down to 3.34 after ending April with a 5.40 ERA. He has gone 0-1, 1.00 (2 ER/18.0 IP) in May over 11 games and two starts and has allowed earned runs in just two of those outings. His ERA is now down to a season-low 3.12 following his outing last night vs. Oklahoma City. He has fanned 25 batters and issued just four walks as well. Despite not making a start in his Minor League career entering 2019, Meisinger has gone 0-1, 0.90 (1 ER/10.0 IP) in three starts.

PAIR OF ACES: Austin Gomber and Jake Woodford turned in back-to-back seven-inning quality starts to close out the series against the Sounds on May 13 and May 14 and find themselves among Pacific Coast League leaders in multiple categories as a result. Woodford ranks 4th (3.11) and Gomber has posted a 2.98 ERA that would rank 4th in the PCL if he qualified, as the pair have combined to go 7-2, 3.06 (37 ER/109.0 IP) in 19 starts. Gomber and Woodford rank 12th (52) and 7th (57) respectively in strikeouts. Woodford also ranks T-3rd in opponent average (.198) and 5th (63.2) in innings pitched, while Gomber is one of two pitchers in the PCL to have thrown a complete-game shutout.

OFFENSIVE OUTBURST: In their series opener against Nashville on May 2, the Memphis Redbirds set numerous season-highs, and matched a couple of franchise records in their 17-2 rout of the Sounds. The 24 hits matched a franchise record and was also the most hits in a Pacific Coast League game this season. Their 10 hits in the second inning matched a franchise record for most in a single frame. The 'Birds set season-highs in, runs, hits and total bases and matched a season-high with eight extra-base hits.

EXTRA! EXTRA!: On May 25 vs. San Antonio, the Redbirds did not have an extra-base hit in a game for the first time all season. Their run of 48 consecutive games with at least one such hit fell just three games short of matching the 2017 Redbirds' streak of 51 games. So far this season, the Redbirds have collected 94 doubles, 14 triples and 64 home runs. Adolis Garcia holds the team lead with 23 extra-base hits with eight doubles, three triples and a team-high 12 home runs.

After Garcia's home run May 2, the Redbirds 27-game run of having at least one extra-base hit surpassed the 2018 Redbirds mark of 26 consecutive games with at least one extra-base hit.

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