IL1 Louisville Bats

Louisville Bats Notes: May 12

Published on May 12, 2018 under International League (IL1)
Louisville Bats News Release


TONIGHT'S MIDDLE GAME: The Louisville Bats and Toledo Mud Hens meet in game two of a three-game series at Louisville Slugger Field. The two International League West clubs have already met 7 times this season, with Toledo taking two of three from the Bats in Louisville from April 6-8 and in Toledo from April 27-29 before Louisville won the series opener last night by a 2-1 score. The Bats now own a 4-6 record in series openers this season after starting off 0-5, winning four of their last five series openers.

AGAINST TOLEDO: Last season, the Bats went just 6-16 against the Mud Hens, 3-9 at home and 3-7 on the road. It marked the second year in a row that Louisville won just 6 games against the Hens, going 6-19 in 2016. The last time LOU had a winning record against Toledo was 2013, when the Bats went 11-10 in the season series. Since the beginning of the 2014 season, Louisville is 31-63 (.330 winning percentage) against Toledo, including this season.

BATS WIN PITCHER'S DUEL: Louisville won 2-1 last night with strong pitching from starter Robert Stephenson , who tossed his second straight and team-high third quality start of the season. He bounced back after surrendering a leadoff homer to Ronny Rodriguez , the first leadoff home run against the Bats this season. That would be the only run Stephenson would give up, cruising to 6.0 innings of one-run ball. Right-handers Kevin Shackelford , Tanner Rainey and Kevin Quackenbush chipped in 3.0 shutout innings of relief, with Quackenbush converting his third save in three tries.

20/20/20 VISION: In the Bats' league-leading 20th home game of the season, Brandon Dixon hit the team's 20th home run of the season in the bottom of the first inning off Toledo starter Artie Lewicki . Later in the game, Dixon would steal his team-leading eighth base of the season in the eighth inning, Louisville's 20th stolen base as a team in 2018.

TRANSACTIONS: Today the Bats placed catcher Joe Hudson on the 7-day disabled list retroactive to May 10 with a right hip flexor strain. Hudson had success in limited time with Louisville this season, hitting .333 (3-for-9) with an RBI and three walks in 3 starts. In a corresponding move, LOU added catcher Chad Tromp, who's appeared in 25 games with Class AA Pensacola this season, batting .247 (21-for-85) with 10 RBI. Tromp played in one game for the Bats in 2015, going 2-for-4 with a double and RBI.

THE SCORING FIRST PARADOX RETURNS: The Bats trailed, albeit briefly, in Friday night's 2-1 win. Louisville earned its seventh come-from-behind win this season, accounting for over half the club's 12 victories on the season. The Bats actually have more comeback wins (7) than wins when they score first in a ballgame (6), ranking worst in the league in the latter category with a 6-11 (.353) record.

STAR WARS NIGHT RECORD: The Bats and Louisville Slugger Field celebrate its 5th annual STAR WARS Night tonight, with the Bats starting the tradition back in 2014. Louisville owns a 1-3 record on STAR WARS Night, grabbing a win 6-3 win over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on July 18, 2015.

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