SAL1 Hagerstown Suns

Hagerstown Suns Game Notes

Published on April 30, 2019 under South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Hagerstown Suns News Release


Tonight, the Suns start a seven-game road trip against the Asheville Tourists and the Augusta GreenJackets. They'll start game one of three at McCormick Field at 7:05 p.m. tonight. RHP Francys Peguero (1-1, 2.57 ERA) gets the nod for the Suns, while Asheville's starter has yet to be decided.

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LARA INCREASES HITTING STREAK TO 14 IN 14-4 LOSS: Starter Jake Irvin was beat up in the first inning against Greensboro Sunday. After recording the first out of the frame, he allowed nine consecutive Grasshoppers to reach base safely, concluding with a grand slam from Jonah Davis to put Greensboro in front 9-0 before the Suns could record the second out in the top of the first inning. Despite the poor showing in the first, the bullpen came in and allowed just three earned runs over the next eight innings utilizing strong performances from Jackson Stoeckinger, Jhonatan German and Aaron Fletcher. The Suns offense was also boosted by multi-hit games from Gilbert Lara, Omar Meregildo, Pablo O'Connor and Justin Connell. O'Connor had his second three hit game of the season and knocked two doubles on the day.

WE'RE GOING STREAKING: Gilbert Lara earned the Suns first hitting-streak of six games or more April 12 and continued the stretch Sunday Over those 13 games, Lara has earned 20 hits in 53 at-bats, good for a .377 average over that span. The infielder has also hit a homer and driven in 10 runs during that time. Lara is tied for the longest-active hitting streak in the South Atlantic League. West Virginia's Jarred Kelenic is actively on a 14-game hitting streak for the Power. Kelenic extended his streak with a double against the Asheville Tourists Sunday afternoon, making his streak average to .439 since April 11. The two are tied with Jerar Encarnacion of the Clinton LumberKings and Jonathan Sierra of the South Bend Cubs for the longest hitting streak in Class-A baseball this year. Encarnacion had a 13-game stretch from April 7-22 and Sierra kept his streak active from April 5-18.

TWO FOR THE SHOW: With Lara's homer in the bottom of the ninth with two outs Sunday, Lara now has hit four of his team-high five homers this season with two outs. In addition to that, three of his five homers this season have been two-run blasts. To end the dueces wild game, two of the five homers have come in the 7th inning of later this season. In the four games that Lara played against the Tourists, he knocked a pair of homers and drove in four runs.

QUALITY NOT EQUALING QUANTITY: The Suns have had five quality starts from their rotation this season, three from Tim Cate, one from Jake Irvin and the last from Francys Peguero. In those five starts, the Suns have a 1-4 record. Last night, the offensive support continued to prove inconsistent when Peguero spun six innings, allowing just three hits and one earned run, but earned a no-decision in a game that the Suns would ultimately lose in extras. This has not been the only case where this has occurred this year. Cate's first loss came without him surrendering an earned run and the team has a 2-2 record when the south paw starts despite his 1.27 ERA. A big part of that is that he is averaging just 3.6 runs of a support per nine innings when on the mound for the Suns. Irvin was the most recent victim of a no earned run outing where he was tagged with the loss. His came in a six inning outing April 17.

JUMPING THE GUN: After Irvin's outing, allowing nine runs in just one inning pitched, Suns starters' ERA jumped from 3.81 to 4.51 this season. In addition to the jump in starter ERA, the Suns' overall ERA increased to 4.41 after sitting at 4.06 before Sunday's game.

SUN SPOTS: After dropping four of their last five, the Suns are sit below .500 at home for the first time in 2019.

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South Atlantic League Stories from April 30, 2019


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