Approaching Even

Tacoma continued its hot play on Sunday afternoon, defeating Las Vegas 9-4. That’s four straight wins for Tacoma.

The Rainiers are now 37-41 on the year, four games under .500. This team has not been at the .500 mark since the first week of the season, and now it’s within reach. Baby steps!

I have all of the details on Sunday’s win in the game story (first link below), but I want to add a little more on Luis Jimenez.

The Rainiers DH went 3-for-5 with two home runs and five RBI yesterday. Both of his homers were two-run go-ahead shots, and both came with two outs in the inning.

Luis Jimenez loves Las Vegas. In six games at Cashman Field, Jimenez is 11-for-27 with four home runs and 14 RBI.

The pitching star yesterday was Cesar Jimenez, who tossed three shutout innings. In his last six games, Cesar has allowed just one run in 11.2 innings, giving up eight hits and two walks while striking out 11.

Cesar Jimenez has had a velocity bump recently – I heard that he reached 94 mph the other day. Remember, he was out for two years with shoulder surgery and he’s back at 100% for the first time since 2008.

He’s still got the great change-up, too.

The Rainiers will try to win five in a row for the first time this season tonight at 7:05. Tacoma starts LHP Luke French (3-6, 6.32) against Las Vegas RHP Rey Gonzalez (2-1, 6.89). The broadcast airs on South Sound Sports 850 AM, and it streams online right here.

Links:

• I wrote the Rainiers game story for The News Tribune and they left my cheesy lede intact!
• The Las Vegas Review-Journal also has a game story, with news that Mill Creek native Travis Snider (concussion) should come off the DL shortly. 
• Warning to new Rainiers infielder Kyle Seager: the fellas at The Weekly Volcano have noticed you.
• The Mariners had a miracle win yesterday, scoring the winning run on a wild pitch that came while an intentional walk was intended. I’m more amazed that after the intentional ball three was wild and the run scored, they went ahead and pitched to Carlos Peguero – and he still struck out. Think about that for a minute.
• Geoff Baker has a blog post on Dustin Ackley’s big game.
• Larry LaRue has notes on the Mariners long-haul planning for Michael Pineda, and our first sign of pennant fever. 
• Here’s a ranking of top MLB promotions – and the Mariners are #1.
• The weekly USS Mariner Minor League Wrap is up.
• In the PCL, Reno evened up the series with Sacramento by winning yesterday, 9-2. The benches cleared and it was only game two of the series!
• Salt Lake third baseman Jeff Baisley is having a breakout season.
• Tucson scored three runs in the ninth to beat Fresno – Aaron Cunningham tied the game with a two-run homer, and Cedric Hunter had a walk-off RBI double. The paper has a feature on Steve Tolleson.
• Look! I pro-baseball article from normally baseball-hating Portlandia!
• Former Rainier Bryan LaHair is going off in Iowa. Could another shot at the majors be coming for him?
• Nashville pitcher Frankie De La Cruz talked about how the extremely different pitcher training in Japan helped him.
• Round Rock pitcher Eric Hurley returned after taking a line drive to the head in April.
• The Storm Chasers were storm magnets yesterday, and their battle for first place with Memphis was rained out.

I am looking forward to Wednesday. It’s going to be a crazy schedule for me leading up to (and after) that, but I’ll write about the experience afterwards here on the blog.

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