SAL Hudson Valley Renegades

HVR Game Notes - April 25, 2023

Published on April 25, 2023 under South Atlantic League (SAL)
Hudson Valley Renegades News Release


Hudson Valley Renegades (10-5) at Greenville Drive (5-9)

RHP Chase Hampton (0-0, 2.00 ERA) vs. RHP Grant Gambrell (0-1, 6.52 ERA)

| Game 16 | Road Game 7 | Fluor Field at the West End | Greenville, SC | April 25, 2023 | First Pitch 7:05 p.m. |

OLD RIVALARY, RENEWED: The Hudson Valley Renegades start their third-ever series on Tuesday against the Greenville Drive, the High-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox at Fluor Field. In 2022, the Renegades won five of the eight meetings against the Drive. One game was also memorably canceled at Heritage Financial Park owing to a problem with second base. Historically, Hudson Valley amassed a 47-46 overall record against the Lowell Spinners, the old Red Sox New York Penn League affiliate.

LAST TIME OUT: Hudson Valley defeated Rome 10-5 on Sunday, taking five out of six games on their first road series of the season. The Renegades pitching staff racked up 19 strikeouts, setting a new franchise record. Hudson Valley scored five unanswered in the eighth and ninth innings to pull away from the Braves. Aaron Palensky crushed his third home run of the season, now tied for the team lead. Eight of the nine starters recorded a hit including Ben Rice who reached base six times, highlighted by four walks. Drew Thorpe struck out a season-high 10 batters in the start.

WINNER WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER: In Sunday's win, Harold Cortijo struck out four in 2.1 scoreless frames. The right-handed pitcher has yet to allow a run in five appearances across 8.2 innings. He's also walked just three batters and struck out 13. His four wins are also tied for the most in all of MiLB with Cody Bradford (Round Rock Express, AAA - TEX).

EXTRA! EXTRA!: Saturday's win at Rome was the first extra-inning win of the season for the Renegades, and the team's first since Aug. 21, 2022 at Brooklyn, a 9-3 triumph in 10 innings. It was also their first one-run win.

GÓMEZ GOING STREAKING: With a 1-for-3 performance on Saturday, Antonio Gómez is riding a nine-game hitting streak for Hudson Valley. In 2022, the 'Gades only had four hitting streaks of eight-or-more games, with T.J. Rumfield's nine-game streak from Aug. 20-31 being the longest of the year. In the Yankees Era (2021-Present), the Renegades have only had one 10+ game hitting streak, Josh Breaux's 11-game spurt from July 3-16, 2021.

WALK THIS WAY: The Renegades tied a franchise record in Thursday's 10-4 win over the Rome Braves. Hudson Valley worked 14 walks against the Braves pitching, tying a franchise single-game high. The only other time this feat happened was on July 10, 2011 at the Lowell Spinners.

WALK THAT WAY:Ben Rice went 2-for-2 with four walks on Sunday at Rome, tying a Renegades team record for most walks in a game, with eight others. He appeared to have drawn a fifth walk in the ninth inning, but a probable ball four was called a strike. He then laced the next pitch into right-center for an RBI single to complete his perfect day at the plate. Rice owns an outstanding 28.3% walk rate this season.

ALL ABOUT THE RUN DIFFERENTIAL: With a +42 run differential in 15 games, the Renegades own the best run differential among all minor league teams in Double-A or below (Triple-A began a week early in 2023). The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (HOU, A) sport a +32 differential and are the second closest team to Hudson Valley.

BENNY AND THE JETS: Ben Rice is off to stellar start at the plate this season. The Dartmouth grad currently ranks first in HBP (5), OBP (.609), & OPS (1.252), tied for third in BB (13), third in OPS (1.165), fifth in AVG (.357), and sixth in SLG (.643) in the South Atlantic League. He is also tied for the second most HR on the team, after hammering his first two of the season in back-to-back games vs Rome on Tuesday and Wednesday.

PITCHING LEADING THE WAY AGAIN: The Renegades rank first in ERA (2.85) among South Atlantic League teams and all High-A teams. The 'Gades rank third among all MiLB teams in ERA this season. This comes after Hudson Valley paced the SAL in ERA in 2022 (3.62), and finished with the second-best ERA among all High-A teams. The Hudson Valley bullpen has been a scooch better, sporting a collective 2.84 ERA through 63.1 innings, the 9th-best mark in MiLB.

GAS STATION: Through 15 games this season the Renegades pitching staff has registered 184 strikeouts, the most in the SAL, second-most among all High-A teams, and eighth-most among all non-Triple-A teams in the minor leagues. On Sunday vs Rome, the 'Gades struck out 19 batters, tying a franchise record. Hudson Valley previously struck out 19 batters against the Jersey Shore BlueClaws last September.

RISP AVERSION: Over the past nine games, the Renegades pitching staff has left 71 runners on base with opponents hitting a mere .113 (13-for-100) with runners in scoring position over this stretch. This season, opponents are hitting just .141 with RISP against Renegades pitching, the lowest mark in all of MiLB. The Tulsa Drillers (LAD, AA) are the second-best with opponents hitting .151 with RISP.

MR. STEAL YOUR BASE: After going 5-for-5 on stolen base attempts in Sunday's series finale with Rome, the Renegades are now 38-for-41 in stolen base attempts this season. They rank first in the South Atlantic League in steals, and are tied for the most in all of High-A. The Lynchburg Hillcats (CLE, A) went 11-for-11 in steal attempts last Tuesday to rocket to the top of the MiLB steals leaderboard with 50 through 15 games. Caleb Durbin leads the team with nine steals so far, tied for the most in the South Atlantic League.

DURBIN MOTORING AROUND: In the top of the fourth on Tuesday vs Rome, Caleb Durbin stole second base, third base and home in succession to produce a run. He became the first Renegades player to steal second, third and home in the same inning since Anthony Seigler did so on July 6, 2022 at Jersey Shore. That rare feat is more common in the minor leagues, but has only been accomplished 54 times in the AL or NL, with 40 instances happening before World War II.

Check out the Hudson Valley Renegades Statistics

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South Atlantic League Stories from April 25, 2023


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