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IL1 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

SWB Game Notes

August 26, 2015 - International League (IL1)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders News Release


ABOUT LAST NIGHT: The SWB RailRiders suffered a rare shutout defeat with a 2-0 blanking at the hands of the Pawtucket Red Sox on Tuesday night. The RailRiders put their leadoff man on base in the first, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings, but went 0-for-10 with men in scoring position and bounced into a pair of double plays.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: The IL's top offense suffered its fifth shutout loss of the year and its second on the road. No IL team entered today with fewer than seven shutout setbacks. The mean average for the circuit's 13 clubs outside of SWB sat at 10.6 this morning. Pawtucket earned its sixth shutout win. Entering today only Toledo (4) had fewer.

RARE ROAD WOES: The IL's best road team at 38-25, SWB has lost a season-worst four straight road games. The 2014 squad lost its final four road games. Tonight, the RailRiders seek to avoid their first five-game road losing streak since the 2013 unit dropped five in a row over three different road trips from June 2-14. That run saw two losses at Durham, a single loss during a rain-shortened series at Syracuse and a pair of setbacks at Lehigh Valley. Pawtucket has won back-to-back home games for the first time since June 27-28.

BOUNCING BACK: Gary Sanchez went 2-for-4. Starting with his home run on Saturday night that snapped a 4-for-40 slide, he has gone 8-for-12 with two doubles and two homers to lift his average back over .300 to .302. Since his July 18 debut he ranks among the IL's best in extra-base hits (T-9th, 15), total bases (T-8th, 66), home runs (T-6th, 6), RBIs (T-4th, 26) and slugging percentage (10th, .512). Including his Double-A numbers, he ranks among the best on the Yankees' farm in homers (2nd, 18) and RBIs (3rd, 62). His teammate at both levels this season, Aaron Judge, leads the system in both categories at 20 and 70 respectively.

WHERE'S THE BEEF?: Pawtucket pitching has held the RailRiders to one run through 18 innings on the series. That score came on a Sanchez home run on Monday night. On the set, SWB has gone 12-for-59 (.203) with just three extra-base hits and no knocks in 10 tries when men in scoring position. The team has been held to two runs or less in six of its last nine games. One of the exceptions saw the team score three in a 14-inning walk-off win over Rochester on Fridays.

NEMESIS STATUS: The RailRiders have more wins against Pawtucket (13-5) than any other team this season, including a 5-2 mark in the Ocean State. They have taken eight of 10 and 19 of 24 going back to last season. SWB finished the 2015 regular season 8-3 against Pawtucket at PNC Field. The RailRiders have won 12 of 14 at McCoy Stadium, outscoring the PawSox 66-33.

ONE STEP BACK, TWO STEPS FOWARD: The RailRiders have two games remaining against second-place Rochester and five versus third-place Buffalo. Despite its loss last night, SWB gained more ground thanks to losses by both the Red Wings and Bisons. The RailRiders now have magic numbers of eight and six with Rochester and Buffalo respectively. Any combination of SWB wins and losses by each foe totaling to those figures would cement a higher finish for the RailRiders. SWB's magic number for Lehigh Valley's divisional elimination sits at one. Defending IL North champion Syracuse and reigning Governors' Cup champ Pawtucket have already been mathematically erased from the equation.

WHITE KNUCKLERS: Sixteen of SWB's last 33 games have been decided by one run and 24 (73%) have come down to two or less. It has gone 22-11 (.667) in that time and owns the IL's best one-run record at 26-16 (.619).

MVG: Ben Gamel went 2-for-4 with a double. The IL MVP candidate has hits in 25 of his last 28 with multiple knocks in 17 of those games. In that time he has slashed .384/.435/.652/1.087 with 17 extra-base hits (5-3B, 4HR), 19 RBIs and 21 runs scored. He picked up his IL-best 13th outfield assist Saturday and co-paces all of MiLB with 14 triples, two shy of the single-season franchise record set by Shane Victorino in his 2005 IL MVP season. SWB's leadoff man leads the team with 58 RBIs. He entered today with the IL's third-best batting average (.305). He also ranks among the IL's best in hits (T-4th, 139), slugging (2nd, .477), extra-base hits (T-4th, 46), runs scored (3rd, 69) and total bases (T-2nd, 217).

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