June 1 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers at Sacramento River Cats
June 1, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Tacoma Rainiers News Release
TACOMA RAINIERS (30-25) @ SACRAMENTO RIVER CATS (32-23)
Saturday, June 1 - 6:37 PM - Sutter Health Park - Sacramento, CA
RHP Emerson Hancock (1-1, 2.65) vs. LHP Carson Whisenhunt (1-3, 6.02)
TONIGHT'S GAME: The Rainiers and River Cats will play game five of their six-game series tonight, with the series currently tied at two games apiece. Emerson Hancock will take the ball for Tacoma, looking to get back to his winning ways. Hancock suffered the first Triple-A loss of his career last time out, allowing three earned runs on five hits and two walks. He struck out five batters over his 5.0 innings. Tonight will be just his fourth start for Tacoma and first of his season and career against the River Cats. Opposite Hancock will be Carson Whisenhunt toeing the rubber for Sacramento, set to make his 12 start of the year. The southpaw comes into play tonight with a 1-3 record and a 6.02 ERA, allowing 27 earned runs on 41 hits and 23 walks while striking out 62 batters over his 40.1 innings pitched. He faced Tacoma one time, back on May 4, throwing four scoreless frames. In that outing, he allowed just two hits and three walks, striking out 10 of the 12 batters he retired.
LOOKIN' GOOD: Casey Lawrence won his fourth straight game last night for the Rainiers, tossing 8.1 innings of two-run ball. He allowed the two earned runs on seven hits while striking out five batters. His 8.1 innings marked the longest start of the season for any Tacoma pitcher this year, as the previous long was seven innings. That had been accomplished four times, most recently by Lawrence, on May 18 against Salt Lake. Lawrence has now allowed two earned runs or less in each of his last four starts, dating back to May 12. Over that stretch, he is 4-0 with a 1.95 ERA, allowing six earned runs on 21 hits and six walks while striking out 23 batters in 27.2 innings. Opponents are hitting just .206 against him in those four games, as he is throwing 66% of his pitches for strikes. The 36-year-old lost four of his first six games this year, but is now back to even in the win/loss column, with his season-long ERA sitting at 5.02 through 10 starts. With the outing last night, Lawrence put himself in the top-10 of PCL pitchers in ERA (6th, 5.02), innings pitched (3rd, 61.0), batting average against (7th, .290) and WHIP (7th, 1.44).
KEEP ON RUNNING: Tacoma stole four more bases in last night's win, giving them 116 on the season. Their 116 stolen bases lead all Triple-A teams, as the next closest team is Scranton/Wilkes-Barre of the International League with 83. Samad Taylor accounted for three of those swiped bags on his own last night, marking the fourth time this season that a single Rainiers' player has stolen three bases in the same game. It brought Taylor's total on the year to 19, tying him for third among qualified players in the Pacific Coast League. He is behind fellow teammate Cade Marlowe who sits atop the stolen base leaders with 28 on the year. Marlowe is technically tied for first with former teammate currently on Seattle's active roster, Ryan Bliss. The Rainiers have three players on their active roster with 10 or more stolen bases this year and five on their season-long roster, with Bliss (28) and Jonatan Clase (12) both on Seattle's roster.
RACK'EM UP: Jake Slaughter led the way for Tacoma's offense last night, recording three hits, including a two-run single to grow their lead in the sixth. Slaughter went 3-for-5 with a run scored and two runs batted in, marking his fifth multi-hit game and second multi-RBI game of the season with the Rainiers. Prior to being traded to Tacoma, the infielder recorded one three hit game and one four hit game as a member of the Iowa Cubs. His three-hit game came on April 13 against St. Paul and his season-high four-hit game was April 24 at Buffalo. After recording three hits last night, Slaughter is now hitting .273 (15-for-55) in 14 games with the Rainiers.
GET NUMBER TWO: Emerson Hancock will make his fourth-career Triple-A start tonight in search of his second win. The right-hander is coming off his first loss of the season with Tacoma, allowing three earned runs on five hits and two walks to Las Vegas his last time out. He pitched 5.0 innings and struck out five batters in the game, throwing 58 of his 91 pitches for strikes. Hancock enters play tonight with a 1-1 record and a 2.65 ERA through his first three Triple-A starts, tossing at least 5.0 innings and allowing three or less earned runs in each.
FIGURE HIM OUT: Tacoma's offense will face Sacramento's starter, Carson Whisenhunt, for the second time this season. In the first outing, back on May 4, Whisenhunt had his way with the Rainiers, fanning 10 of the 12 batters he retired. The left-hander allowed two hits (Ryan Bliss & Samad Taylor) while walking three (Jonatan Clase, Bliss and Brian Anderson). He didn't go deep enough to earn the win, but Sacramento won the game 1-0 behind his strong start. His 10 strikeouts that night were a season high, as his next highest strikeout total in a game this year was eight, on May 21 at El Paso.
AGAINST SACRAMENTO: Tacoma and Sacramento are set to play game five of their six-game series tonight, with the series even at two games apiece coming into play tonight. Despite evening the current series with their win last night, Tacoma still trails in the season series 6-4 and the all-time series 254-245. All 10 games this season have been played at Sutter Health Park, as the two teams won't play at Cheney Stadium until August 20-25.
SHORT HOPS: Tacoma has gotten 14 quality starts this season, going 9-5 in those games; they have gotten back-to-back quality starts from Jhonathan Diaz and Casey Lawrence coming into tonight's game...with their win last night, Tacoma ended the month of May with a 13-14 record, their first losing month of the season; as a team, they slashed .246/.362/.394 and pitched to a 5.48 ERA, walking 96 compared to 196 strikeouts.
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