PCL Tacoma Rainiers

Tacoma Rainiers Game Notes: vs. Las Vegas (1:35 PT)

Published on August 14, 2022 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Tacoma Rainiers News Release


Following Monday's off night, the Rainiers will begin a series with the Albuquerque Isotopes on Tuesday at 12:05 PT, ABQ's only visit to Cheney Stadium this season.

Tacoma Rainiers (49-61) vs. Las Vegas Aviators (55-55)

Sunday, August 14, 2022, 1:35 p.m. PT | Cheney Stadium: Tacoma, WA

RHP Konner Wade vs. RHP Parker Dunshee

VIVA JK: Tacoma outfielder Jarred Kelenic is 15-for-34 (.441) over nine games against Las Vegas this season, with six extra-base hits (2 HR, 1 triple), 10 RBI, nine runs scored and a 1.265 OPS (.500/.765). During this series he's 5-for-15 with two doubles, four RBI, two walks.

In 57 total games this season with the Rainiers, Kelenic has 70 hits (.292 AVG). 36 of those knocks have gone for extra bases (11 HR), a staggering 51.4% of his Triple-A hit total this season (.546 SLG, .904 OPS).

THE O'B RELIEVER: Rainiers RHP Riley O'Brien (Seattle-born, Shorewood High School) has struck out 52.38% of batters faced over his last five appearances (5.2 IP); he's K'd 11 of the last 21 hitters he's faced.

NICK OF TIME: LHP Nick Ramirez has emerged as Tacoma's primary ninth inning option; his last six appearances have each been successful save opportunities dating to July 28. Ramirez has finished six of Tacoma's last eight wins with very little drama: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, .143 BAA, 0.50 WHIP (0 BB), 5 K.

TURN-R-OUND: Tacoma began this season 9-23 (through May 11), but is 40-38 since. The Rainiers' low-water mark was 16 games under .500 at 28-44 on June 28. They're 21-17 since, 11-10 post All-Star Break and 19-17 in the second half.

0, 0, IT'S MAGIC: Wednesday was Tacoma's PCL-best seventh shutout victory of the season; and no Las Vegas batter reached third base in a three-hitter. (RHP Chris Mazza: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 5 K.) The Rainiers have won by shutout at home three times, and have blanked Salt Lake (2x), Sacramento (2x), Reno and El Paso.

STEAL A BASE, STEAL A TACO(MA): Buffalo of the International League has re-taken the Triple-A lead in stolen bases (138) from Tacoma (136), who lead the Pacific Coast League. Rainiers outfielder Forrest Wall is second in the PCL in steals with 33. Last season, Wall stole 35 bases for Buffalo while in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, third-most in the IL (Triple-A East).

Wall is the first Rainiers player to steal 30 bases in a season since Ian Miller in 2018 (33), and if he reaches 40, would be the first Tacoma Triple-A player to do so since Lance Blankenship swiped 40 for the 1988 Tacoma Tigers (Oakland A's)...four players are tied at 40 for the fourth-most steals in a single season in franchise history. Jimmy Sexton (56, 1981 Tigers), Rusty McNealy (43, 1983 Tigers) and Del Alston (43, 1979 Tugs) own the top three stealing seasons in Tacoma's Triple-A history.

MEJIA MASH: INF/OF Erick Mejia is 12 for his last 32 (.375) with a homer (12), triple, four RBI, five runs and three walks.

LEGACY ADMISSION: When Seattle claimed outfielder Derek Hill off waivers from the Detroit Tigers on August 5 and optioned him to Tacoma, it closed a 30-year loop with his father Orsino Hill, an outfielder who spent all of the 1992 season with the Tacoma Tigers (Oakland A's). Orsino played 118 games that year at age 30.

The younger Hill, who was Detroit's first round draft pick in 2014, appeared in 95 MLB games with those Tigers from 2020-2022, 95 more than his old man. Orsino played 12 Minor League seasons but never in the big leagues, appearing in 1,248 professional games and 598 at Triple-A. The elder Hill suited up for six different 3-A clubs in Denver, Nashville, Indianapolis, Iowa, Vancouver (2x) and Tacoma between 1986 and 1993. A career .259 hitter with 103 home runs, he batted .268 at Triple-A with 42 homers.

CHECK THE PASS LIST: Las Vegas INF Nate Mondou is Tacoma-born, a graduate of Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, and a resident of Lake Tapps, Washington. Mondou, the Oakland Athletics' 13th round draft pick in 2016 following three years at Wake Forest University, is in his sixth professional season (excluding 2020, DNP) and his second at Triple-A, after spending all of last year with the Aviators.

Against Tacoma last season, Mondou batted .242 (15-for-62) in 17 games, with three home runs, three doubles, eight walks, 14 runs scored and seven RBI, with a .777 OPS (.342/.435). Mondou played in all but one game against his hometown club in 2021. This season, Mondou is batting .176 in 13 games against the Rainiers (9-for-51), with four doubles and six RBI (4 BB, 3 runs scored)...despite hitting .284 overall.

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