Tampa Tarpons Game Notes: vs. Palm Beach
July 26, 2018 - Florida State League (FSL1)
Tampa Tarpons News Release
7/26 Tampa vs. Palm Beach - Game 1 (of four) - George M. Steinbrenner Field (Tampa, FL) - 6:30 p.m.
Pitching Matchup: RHP Jake Walsh (5-2, 2.16) vs. RHP Rony Garcia (0-1, 4.50). Live Audio: TuneIn Radio (Tampa Tarpons Broadcast Network).
LAST NIGHT: Tampa caught fire early, scoring in each of the first five innings before the Tarpons fended off a late push by Bradenton to win the rubber game, 9-6...Donny Sands (2-for-4, 2B, 3RBI) hit an RBI single in the 1st and a two-run double in the 2nd...Steven Sensley (1-for-4, RBI) followed Sands with an RBI single in the 1st...Rashad Crawford (1-for-4, 2B, RBI, R) hit an RBI double in the 2nd and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Isiah Gilliam (1-for-2, BB, Sac-F, 2RBI, R)...Diego Castillo (1-for-4, BB, RBI, R) hit an RBI single in the 3rd and Gilliam added an RBI single in the 4th...Ben Ruta (3-for-4, HR, RBI, 3R, 2SB) blasted a leadoff homer in the 5th (his 7th HR)...RHP Adonis Rosa (W, 11-3) made a quality start (6.2IP, 7H, 3ER, 1BB, 6K, 107P/79S)...The Marauders rallied for five runs in the 7th off Rosa and RHP Greg Weissert (0.0IP, 3H, 3ER, 1BB, 0K)...RHP Andrew Schwaab (H, 3) ended the 7th and worked out of trouble in the 8th (1.1IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 0K)...RHP Matt Wivinis (SV, 8) stranded a one-out single in the 9th (1.0IP, 1H, 1K).
BIG TOE: Ronald Torreyes (1-for-4, R) played six more innings at shortstop on Wednesday before getting replaced by Hoy Jun Park (1-for-1, 2B). The 25-year-old was optioned from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to Tampa on Monday and went 1-for-3 (1B) while playing six innings at shortstop before taking a day off on Tuesday. In two stints this season with the New York Yankees, Torreyes is batting .323 (21-for-65) with 7R, 6 doubles, 6RBI and 2BB in 24 games. The Venezuelan has also played in 13 games with the RailRiders, batting .196 (9-for-46) with 4R, 1 double, 2RBI and 4BB.
TRIPLE THREAT: For the third time in his last six games, Ben Ruta logged a three-hit game. The 24-year-old singled twice and homered in his first three at-bats on Wednesday and is now batting .407 (11-for-27) over his last seven games. Ruta also stole two bases and now leads all Yankees minor leaguers with 27SB (12 w/ Trenton and 15 w/ Tampa).
GO, DIEGO, GO! In July (21 games), Diego Castillo is batting .338 (27-for-80) with 16R, 5 doubles, 10RBI, 4BB and 3SB. In that span, the 20-year-old has struck out only two times in 80 at-bats. Among qualified batters, Castillo leads the league in lowest TPA/SO Ratio (10.50).
OFFENSE STAYS HOT: The Tarpons scored nine runs on 12 hits last night, tallying double-digit hits for the fifth time in seven games. In that span, Tampa's offense is batting .298 (75-for-252) while scoring 43 runs, averaging over six runs-per-game. Angel Aguilar is batting .350 (14-for-40) with 11RBI and seven runs scored over his last 10 games.
VS. PALM BEACH: Tonight will be the first of eight games scheduled between the Tampa Tarpons and Palm Beach Cardinals. Last season, Tampa finished 5-3 against Palm Beach, including 4-0 at GMS Field and 1-3 at Roger Dean Stadium.
STRIKEOUT KINGS: Nick Green (4K), Kaleb Ort (2K) and Matt Wivinis (5K) combined for 11 strikeouts on Monday. Tampa pitchers have tallied double-digit strikeouts in 45 games this season, with the Tarpons going 25-20 in such games. Tampa, by far, leads the Florida State League in strikeouts, totaling 963K entering today. That is 93K more than the team ranked second (Clearwater - 870K). Tampa is averaging 9.44 K-per-game and is on pace for 1,321K, which would crush its own FSL single-season strikeout record set last season with 1,215K.
BABY BOMBERS: The Tarpons currently lead the league with 83 home runs. No other team has more than 73.
SENSLEY'S SOLOS: Prior to joining the Tarpons, Steven Sensley hit 10 home runs in 67 games with Single-A Charleston. The 22-year-old has since added three more homers with Tampa. All 13 of Sensley's home runs have been with the bases empty.
WAGS PROMOTED: On Monday, INF Brandon Wagner was promoted to Double-A Trenton. The 22-year-old leaves Tampa after batting .270 with 20HR and 57RBI in 87 games with the Tarpons. At the time of his promotion, Wagner led the Florida State League in total bases (155), ranked second in home runs, RBI and slugging percentage (.510), and ranked fourth in both runs scored (52) and walks (43).
FOR STARTERS: RHP Rony Garcia (0-1, 4.50) will make his third start with Tampa. Last time out, made a quality start and took a no-decision at Dunedin on 7/20 (6.0IP, 4H, 2ER, 0BB, 5K, 79P/50S)...Began the season with the RiverDogs, going 3-4 with a 4.18 ERA (71.IP, 73H, 44R/33ER, 13BB, 62S, 5HR, 6HB) in 14 starts.
2017: Combined at Rookie-level Pulaski and Single-A Charleston to go 2-3 with a 2.50 ERA (75.2IP, 63H, 29R/21ER, 17BB, 56K, 4HR) in 13 starts...opponents hit .225 (63-for-280)...allowed 3ER-or-fewer in each of his 13 starts...started the season with Pulaski, posting a 3.97 ERA (11.1IP, 11H, 7R/5ER, 2BB, 11K, 1HR) in two starts...was promoted to Charleston on 7/5 and went 2-3 with a 2.24 ERA (64.1IP, 53H, 22R/16ER, 15BB, 45K, 3HR) in 11 starts.
Personal: 20-years-old, 6-3, 200 - Mao, Dominican Republic...Signed by the Yankees as a non-drafted free agent on 7/2/15.
Florida State League Stories from July 26, 2018
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