Sports stats



IL1 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

SWB Game Notes - Governor's Cup Finals - Game 4

September 14, 2018 - International League (IL1)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders News Release


INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS

SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE RAILRIDERS (1-2) vs. DURHAM BULLS (2-1)

LHP Ryan Bollinger (0-0, 1.59) vs. TBA

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

| Governor's Cup Championship Series | Game 4 | September 14, 2018 |

| PNC Field | Moosic, PA |

| First Pitch 6:35 p.m. | Pregame Show 6:05 p.m. |

LAST TIME OUT: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders fell to the Durham Bulls 3-0 on Thursday night at PNC Field. The Bulls took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five Governors' Cup Finals.

Game three was a home game for the Durham Bulls, despite being played at PNC Field. The entire series was moved to Moosic from Durham Bulls Athletic Park with Hurricane Florence preparing to make landfall in the Carolinas this week. The Bulls took the lead in the bottom of the first when Kean Wong and Rob Refsnyder led off the game with back-to-back singles against Mike King to put runners at first and third. Austin Meadows hit into a fielder's choice groundout, plating Wong with the first run of the contest.

Durham tacked on two more tallies in the bottom of the second as Brandon Snyder cracked a leadoff home run. Two batters later Jason Coats collected an infield single and scored on a Jake Cronenworth double and the Bulls grabbed a 3-0 lead. King settled down after the rocky start and pitched well over the remainder of his 6.2-inning outing. He allowed seven hits and walked two while striking out four. At one point the right-hander retired 11 of 12 batters. He exited with runners on second and third, but Phil Diehl was able to escape the jam in his Triple-A debut.

The RailRiders threatened offensively, but Chih-Wei Hu was able to escape the jams. With runners on first and third and one out in the top of the sixth, Giovanny Urshela grounded into an inning-ending around-the-horn double play. In the top of the seventh Mike Ford singled with one out against Hu. Two batters later Shane Robinson doubled to left and Ford was thrown out to end the inning trying to score.

STORM SHIFTS SERIES: Tuesday afternoon the International League announced that the entire Governor's Cup Championship Series will be played at PNC Field due to Hurricane Florence; a Category 3/4 storm bearing down on the Carolinas, Virginia and potentially Georgia. Durham served as the home team in Game 3 and will as well for Game 4 and Game 5 (if necessary).

RUN IT BACK: The 2018 Governor's Cup finals are a rematch of the 2017 championship round. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre ousted Lehigh Valley- the IL North champions- Saturday night in Allentown, Pa. while the Durham Bulls sent Toledo home with a 3-1 series win. In 2017, the Bulls ended the RailRiders season with a 3-1 title series win before capturing the Triple-A National Championship at PNC Field over the Memphis Redbirds.

DOMINANT FROM THE START: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre starting pitchers compiled a 1.16 ERA (3R/3ER in 23.1 IP) in the four-game Lehigh Valley series to kick off the playoffs. RHP Erik Swanson, LHP Nestor Cortes, RHP Ryan Bollinger and RHP Michael King limited the IronPigs to just 11 hits during that span (11-for-79, .139 BAA), and RHP Domingo Germán picked up right where that quartet left off in Game 1 vs. Durham. In 3.0 shutout innings against the Bulls, hitters went 1-for-10 against the righty before Cortes and King made their second playoff starts in Games 2 and 3, both pitching well despite picking up the loss. So now the numbers for RailRiders starting pitchers in the postseason are: 39.1 IP, 21 H (21-for-135, .156 BAA) 8R/8ER (1.83 ERA), 37 K

FINALS DESTINATION: For the ninth time in 12 years as an affiliate of the New York Yankees, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders have reached the postseason. Since 2007, the RailRiders have won two league titles and have reached the championship round four times. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre holds a 7-6 mark in playoffs series as a Yankees affiliate and an overall playoff record of 26-22 in that time frame. The Bulls have been to the title series 11 previous times and have won five Governor's Cups since 1998.

BULLISH SEASON: Durham claimed the IL South title with a 79-60 record; 9.0 games ahead of the Gwinnett Stripers. The Bulls had the league's 3rd-best batting average (.259), 2nd-most HR (141) and lead the IL in runs scored (653). Durham's pitching staff posted a 3.54 ERA (3rd overall) and struck out a league-high 1,267 batters. The Bulls took two of three in each series against the RailRiders during the 2018 regular season.

BRUCE ALMIGHTY: Bruce Caldwell's grand slam in Game 4 Saturday night plated more runs on one swing than any team had been used to scoring in any game of the series -- with neither team scoring more than 3R in any of the first three games. It was Caldwell's first career grand slam and was the decisive blow as SWB punched its ticket to the championship series. Caldwell then delivered the go-ahead double in Game 1 vs. Durham Tuesday night in the bottom of the 5th inning after the RailRiders had fallen behind 1-0. Caldwell, who has appeared in 4-of-5 postseason games for SWB, had played in only 3G for SWB since returning from Double-A Trenton where he was sent from 8/4 - 9/1.

Check out the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders Statistics



International League Stories from September 14, 2018


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central