Tacoma Rainiers Game Notes: vs. Sugar Land (7:05 PT)
Published on April 21, 2022 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Tacoma Rainiers News Release
Tacoma Rainiers (5-9) vs. Sugar Land Space Cowboys (4-10)
Thursday, April 21, 2022, 7:05 p.m. PT | Cheney Stadium: Tacoma, WA
LHP Ian McKinney vs. RHP Shawn Dubin
GROUNDED: The Rainiers evened their series with the Space Cowboys after a 4-2 win on Wednesday, improving to 5-1 in games decided by two or fewer runs. RHP Daniel Ponce de Leon logged 91 pitches in a winning decision: 3 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 K. Sam Haggerty (2-3, RBI, 2 SB) and Erick Mejia (2-3, solo HR, 2 SB, BB, 2 R) paced the Tacoma offense, and were the first Rainiers to steal multiple bases in a game this season (Tacoma leads Triple-A in SB, see below). Mejia's homer came in the eighth and provided a valuable insurance run that lefty Danny Young wouldn't need; the southpaw stranded the bases loaded in the visiting eighth with a strikeout to preserve a one-run lead at the time, en route to a four-out save (1 H, 0 BB, 3 K).
ASTRONAUTS NEAR THE OCEAN: The Sugar Land franchise is making its first visit to Cheney Stadium this week, in its second season in the PCL and as Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. Originally a member of the Atlantic League as the Sugar Land Skeeters beginning in 2012, they were champions of that circuit twice, in 2016 and 2018 before joining the Houston organization for 2021; the team was re-branded from Skeeters to Space Cowboys this past winter. Sugar Land and Tacoma split their only previous meeting, a six-game series at Constellation Field from July 8-13 last season.
CLOSE QU(AAA)RTERS: Once upon a time, the Tacoma Rainiers and Seattle Mariners stood as the nearest Triple-A to MLB affiliation (36 miles). That title was then shared with the advent of the Atlanta Braves shifting Triple-A operations to Gwinnett County, GA (also a distance of 36 miles) for the 2009 season. When St. Paul (12 miles to the Minnesota Twins) and Sugar Land (22 miles to the Houston Astros) joined the Triple-A ranks prior to last season, the Rs-M's proximity was pushed to a tie for third-shortest.
STRIKE COWBOYS: Sugar Land enters action tonight with the most strikeouts by a pitching staff in all of professional baseball, 160, an average of 11.4 punchouts per game (14 GP). The next closest is Aberdeen (Baltimore High-A) with 150 in only 11 games (8-3). The New York Mets lead MLB (134 K) in one fewer games (9-4).
LOCALIZE IT: The current Tacoma active roster has three Puget Sound natives: OF Steven Souza, Jr. (Everett, Cascade High School), RHP Riley O'Brien (Seattle, Shorewood High School) and OF Trent Tingelstad (Everett, Marysville-Pilchuck High School). Souza is a veteran of 499 MLB games, and signed with the Mariners at the outset of spring training. O'Brien was traded by the Cincinnati Reds to Seattle for future and/or cash considerations last week, and optioned to Tacoma on Tuesday. O'Brien made his MLB debut last season for the Reds, working 1.1 IP on 9/28/21 at Chicago-AL. Tingelstad, the Mariners' 22nd round draft pick in 2019, made his Double-A debut earlier this season, playing in four games for Arkansas between April 9-16 (3-for-10, 2B, 2 RBI, R, 4 BB, .900 OPS).
R SPEED: The Rainiers have stolen 26 bases in 14 games, and lead all of Triple-A in steals by five; Indianapolis (Pittsburgh) of the International League is second with 21. Caught only four times as a club so far, the Rainiers are stealing bases at an 86.7% success rate and swiping 1.86 bags per game. Tacoma OF Forrest Wall is tied for the individual PCL lead with seven.
BULL-PENN-ING: Prior to being selected to Seattle's Major League roster on Wednesday, RHP Penn Murfee did not allow a run in 8.0 IP with Tacoma, and allowed only one hit. Murfee struck out 10, walked just two and saved two games; the 4-2 opening night victory over Salt Lake on 4/5, and the wild 12-11 triumph at Albuquerque on Sunday. Murfee is on the cusp of his MLB debut, and would be the first call-up from Tacoma this season to achieve that.
HOMER ODOM-ETER: Rainiers catcher Joe Odom homered in four of five games at Albuquerque (April 13-17), including the final three games of the road trip (GW-hit on Sunday). All were tape-measure shots to the left field alley that could not be solely attributed to the notoriously thin ABQ air; his blast off the Isotopes Park video board on Saturday traveled an estimated 446 feet according to Statcast, which chased a 452-foot shot on Friday night. Odom, he of 41 professional home runs entering tonight's action, hit just shy of 10% of his career total of dingers during the trip to Albuquerque. Odom currently leads Tacoma's active roster in OPS at 1.030 (.333/.697) as well as homers.
UNI WATCH: The 2022 Tacoma Rainiers have the following record by uniform top: Home white (3-3), red (1-2), navy (0-1), road grey (1-2), "La Familia de Tacoma" (0-1, Copa de la Diversion). "Throwback Weekend" will be April 23-24 at Cheney Stadium, with "faux back" uniforms that imagine a 1960s version of the Rainiers brand.
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