MWL1 Bowling Green Hot Rods

Hot Rods Game Notes

Published on May 23, 2019 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Bowling Green Hot Rods News Release


About Yesterday's Game... The Hot Rods earned a comeback victory on Wednesday morning, despite Whitecaps starter Adam Wolf giving the BG lineup fits through his first six innings of work. The lefty kept the Hot Rods scoreless, holding them to just one hit over the first six innings of the ballgame while the home team's offense posted a run in the first. Caleb Sampen settled in nicely, keeping the game close until the BG bats woke up in the seventh and final frame of work for Wolf. Grant Witherspoon, who owned the lone hit through the first six innings, led off the seventh with a single and scored when Jake Palomaki laced a two-out double down the line in left to tie the game. Beau Brundage singled in the next at-bat, driving Palomaki in to give the Hot Rods a 2-1 lead. They extended their advantage in the eighth with the bases loaded, as Chris Betts earned a walk to force in Ford Proctor while giving BG a 3-1 edge. West Michigan got a run back in the bottom of the frame off Nick Sprengel, but the lefty held his ground and struck out the Rey Rivera to end the frame. Joel Peguero walked the first batter of the ninth, but got a double play and a ground out to earn his fourth save of the season.

Crowning the K-ing... Wednesday was a slow day for the pitching staff, striking out five Whitecaps in the clubs 3-2 win. The Hot Rods lead all Class-A pitching staffs with 483 strikeouts this season. The starters have K'd 261 batters this season while posting a 2.85 ERA (both of which are second in all of Class-A for starters) while the bullpen has added in 222 of their own (3rd in the MWL). The big strikeout innings for the Hot Rods this season have been the sixth where they've K'd 64 batters (the most in A-Ball) and 54 in the third (second most behind Lake County in Class-A).

Tell me Sampen good... Caleb Sampen hurled another quality start on Wednesday while earning his third win of the season in the process. The righty leads the team in quality starts this season with five, surpassing Michael Plassmeyer (4) who was promoted to A+ Charlotte earlier this season. Sampen has posted a 3.52 ERA over his eight starts this season, striking out 46 in as many innings. While his K/9 is currently at 9.00, his BB/9 are also low, averaging 2.54 per nine this season. Heading into Thursday's game, the Brownsburg, IN native has logged the most innings on staff, nine ahead of Shane McClanahan who's in second. Sampen, a product of Wright State, is the son of former big league Bill Sampen.

The Pena Factor ... Despite a slow start, Tony Pena has turned things around at the plate recently and is on a seven-game hit streak. He's the fourth Hot Rods batter to have such a streak this season. Pena's streak began on May 11 and he's 12-28 (.429) over that span with a double, triple, two RBI, seven runs scored, and seven strikeouts. He also has a .467 OBP despite not having earned a walk in that stretch. On April 20th, the righty's batting average had dipped to .091 but has rebounded nicely. He's now batting .238 this season, the highest it's been since opening day when he went 1-for-4 against Dayton.

Yesterday's Notes... Sampen earned his first road win of his career... Brundage extended his hit streak to four games... Gregorio has a three-game hitting streak... Proctor has a five-game hit streak... Michael Smith tied a season high with two walks... Peguero tied Chris Muller for the team lead in saves with four... Witherspoon had his seventh multi-hit game... All seven of those games are two-hit efforts... Eight Hot Rods reached by walk or hit... The Hot Rods have been walked-off three times on this road trip, and have won the following game all three times... The Hot Rods are 12-10 on the road this season, including 4-3 on this road trip... The team is 9-7 in one-run games... They're 8-3 in day games this season... Bowling Green is 5-8 in games the opponent starts a left-handed pitcher... The club improves to 10-12 in games their opponent scores first... Wednesday was the fourth time this season the Hot Rods has an equal number of hits to their opponent... They're 3-1 in those games...

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Midwest League Stories from May 23, 2019


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