Riders Toss Second Shutout in Three Days to Split Series
July 4, 2022 - Texas League (TL)
Frisco RoughRiders News Release
The Frisco RoughRiders tallied their sixth shutout win of the season and their second of the week over the Corpus Christi Hooks with a 12-0 victory on Sunday night in front of the largest crowd at Riders Field this year of 9,329. The Riders sent 27 batters to the plate in their final three innings of offense and finished with 12 runs on 15 hits. Five different Riders hitters posted multi-hit nights with, while the bottom five on the Frisco card combined for 11 of the 12 runs to score. Right fielder Sandro Fabian and second baseman Justin Foscue led the Riders offense as each finished 3-for-5 at the plate. Designated hitter Kellen Strahm extended his on-base streak to 21 games with a 2-for-4 night for the longest Riders on-base streak of the season. Riders pitching held Corpus Christi to four hits in the Sunday win, picking up their sixth shutout win of the season and their second in the series against the Hooks. Following a one-inning start from Zak Kent who left the Injured List earlier on Sunday, reliever Joe Corbett (1-0) struck out three batters in his two innings of relief.
Hooks southpaw starter Julio Robaina (2-3) gave up an unearned run in his five innings of work and struck out six batters. Facing Robaina in the third in- ning, the Riders pushed the unearned run across after Jonathan Ornelas singled and Foscue reached on a dropped infield pop up that fell out of the glove of first baseman Cesar Salazar with two outs. First baseman Blaine Crim capitalized on the error with an RBI single to score Ornelas from third and give Frisco a 1-0 lead in the third. The Riders rode a 1-0 lead until the bottom of the sixth when they scored three runs on new Hooks reliever Jonathan Sprinkle, who began the inning with two strikeouts had an 0-2 count on third baseman Jax Biggers before plunking him with a pitch. Sprinkle would either walk or plunk his next four batters faced and departed responsible for the five baserunners in the inning on no hits. Corpus Christi reliever Chandler Casey threw a wild pitch to allow catcher Matt Whatley to score from third as the third run of the inning, all on no hits. Casey returned to the mound for the Hooks in the seventh and allowed the first four batters to reach, highlighted by a two-run double from center fielder Josh Stowers to give the Riders a 5-0 lead.
Two batters later, Ornelas bounced a ball up the middle top score Biggers and Stowers and give Frisco a 7-0 advantage. J.P. Martinez singled as the fifth and final hit of the inning. Corpus Christi sent right-hander Jojanse Torres to the mound for the eighth inning, who allowed four of his five batters faced to reach base. Biggers laced an RBI double to score the first two runs, with Fabian scoring on a throwing error. Martinez recorded the second RBI double of the inning, followed by a run-scoring single from Foscue to cap the four-run frame and push the score to 12-0.
ANOTHER BLANKING: The RoughRiders used Owen White and Seth Nordlin to pitch their fifth shutout of the season on Friday before using six pitchers on Sunday for their sixth.
Through 75 games, the Rides are on pace for 11 shutouts on the year. Last season, the Riders had eight shutouts on the season. In 2021, the Riders had a 3.98 ERA while this year's club has a 4.79 team ERA.
J.P. STANDS FOR JUST PERFORM: Riders outfielder J.P. Martinez has been lethal at the plate this season for the Riders. After cracking his ninth home run on Friday, Martinez now has an active-team-high .902 OPS while leading the team in OBP (.411), runs (52), triples (5) walks (41) and stolen bases (25). His OBP is also ninth in the league while he is second in triples and stolen bases.
JONNY ON THE SPOT: Riders infielder Jonathan Ornelas has been on fire at the plate all season long, but recently, he has been even better. Over his last 19 games, Ornelas is hitting .346 (28-for-81)/.379/.469 with two doubles, a triple, two home runs, 12 RBIs and eight runs. This season, he leads the Riders with 31 multi-hit games and 14 games with three or more hits. Ornelas is the second-leading active hitter in the Texas League with a .332 batting average while he is first in hits (94). He is tied for second in hits in MiLB, behind only Darius Hill (96), who is currently with Triple-A Iowa (CHC).
IT'S ABOUT STRAHM TIME: Riders outfielder Kellen Strahm started off slowly, but he has started to turn his offensive game around. Since May 27th, over his last 28 games, Strahm is hitting .379 (36-for-95)/.468/.516 with four doubles, three home runs, 16 walks, 21 runs and eight RBIs. In that stretch, Strahm has raised his average from .148 to .273 and his OPS from .528 to .769. The Eugene, Oregon native is riding an 21-game on-base streak (the longest streak on the Riders this season), in which he is hitting .359/.438/.526 with 11 walks. The streak is the longest active in the Texas League and the second-longest active in Double-A (Brett Baty, 23, Binghamton). In his last 34 games, he is batting .342/.434/.453/.887.
WHAT(LEY) IN THE WORLD: Riders catcher Matt Whatley had a career-best 10-game hitting streak snapped on Sunday. Over those 10 games, he hit .333 (13-for-39)/.325/.359 with four RBIs and five runs. Though the hitting streak is over, Whatley is still on a 12-game on-base streak. The Oklahoma native had a career-high .295 batting average in 2017 after being drafted in the third round.
THREE IS A MAGIC NUMBER: Frisco has played a lot of close games this season and when scoring or allowing three runs, the Riders have seen a pretty predictable result. This season, the Riders are 4-22 when scoring three runs or fewer and 21-3 when allowing three runs or fewer.
NO ONE MAN SHOULD HAVE ALL THAT POWER: The RoughRiders have relied heavily on the home run ball this season. Through 75 games, Frisco has hit 96 long balls (1.3 per game) which is the third- most in the Texas League. At this rate, the RoughRiders would finish the season with 177 home runs, a mark which would be the most in franchise history (topping 2007 when Frisco hit 176 home runs). Out of their 75 total games, the Riders have hit home runs in 50 games, which means that when they hit a home run, they are averaging 1.9 home runs per game when they hit them. In the 25 games that the Riders have not hit a home run, Frisco is just 12-13.
Trey Hair and Dustin Harris have the team lead with 13, tied for seventh in the league. On Sunday, the RoughRiders scored 12 runs without a home run, their highest output without a long ball.
Texas League Stories from July 4, 2022
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- Missions Drop 4th of July Series Opener to Frisco - San Antonio Missions
- Wallner Leads Wichita to Win - Wichita Wind Surge
- Peluse & Hounds Control Independence Day Tilt - Corpus Christi Hooks
- Travs Blast 3 Homers, Pound Cardinals - Arkansas Travelers
- Malcom Nunez Named STL Minor League Player of the Month - Springfield Cardinals
- Riders Toss Second Shutout in Three Days to Split Series - Frisco RoughRiders
- Riders Roll Late to Split Series - Corpus Christi Hooks
- Cards Go into Extras, Fall Late to Surge 10-9 - Springfield Cardinals
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