Almonte Leads Rainiers To Win, Says Goodbye

Note: tonight’s Rainiers game in Salt Lake City is on national TV, as the CBS Sports Network’s Minor League Baseball Game of the Week. Check out the beautiful Salt Lake ballpark and watch the Rainiers at 7:00 (Pacific). Channel Finder: Click! 423/667 (HD), Comcast: 412/633 (HD), DirecTV: 221 Dish: 158.

Last night Abraham Almonte reached base four times, hit a three-run homer, singled in a big insurance run, and lead the Tacoma Rainiers to a 6-3 victory at Salt Lake.

Today he and reliever Stephen Kohlscheen were traded to the San Diego Padres for major league outfielder (and former PCLer) Chris Denorfia.

This move strengthens the Mariners outfield but obviously it’s a big hit to the Rainiers.

Almonte is batting 267/333/390 with six homers and 31 RBI. He’s 7-for-11 stealing bases. The season stats don’t really tell the whole story: Almonte struggled mightily in the majors in April, and he continued to struggle in Triple-A in May. But since June 1 he is batting .309 in 178 at-bats for Tacoma, and he has looked like the player he was last season when he was the Rainiers team MVP.

Kohlscheen opened the season in Double-A and was promoted to Tacoma in mid-June. In 15 games for Tacoma, he’s 2-0 with a 3.28 ERA. He pitched 24.2 innings and had a 22-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Kohlscheen doesn’t light up radar guns but he’s really tall and gets great downhill plane on his pitches, making him very effective.

Almonte is getting a promotion in the deal – he reports to San Diego tomorrow. I believe Kohlscheen is on his way to join El Paso, who is playing in Las Vegas right now.

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Trade No. 2 just happened: in a three-team deal, the Mariners send Nick Franklin to Tampa and acquire major league CF Austin Jackson from Detroit.

This is a great trade from the Mariners standpoint, simply because Franklin is blocked in their own organization by Robinson Cano. The M’s just didn’t need him.

I think that Franklin is going to become a good major league player, and I hope he does with the Rays. That being said, the M’s didn’t need him, and they did desperately need a quality big league outfielder, so here we are.

This trade should help the Mariners try to reach the playoffs this year, and it fills a big hole in the lineup for 2015 as well.

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OK, back to the current Rainiers team: Jordan Pries picked up the win yesterday, allowing three runs after just four batters in the first inning and then giving up no more runs while making it through seven innings. That’s a nice recovery.

Tacoma is back to .500 at 56-56, and is still seven games behind first place Sacramento. Reno is sandwiched between the two teams, in second place and three games behind Sacramento.

I’m hoping the Rainiers have some players coming in today, because they lost three from the roster and gained none in today’s deals. Tonight’s lineup will be interesting.

Thursday’s game starts at 7:05 PM (Pacific) – the Alaska Airlines Pregame Show begins at 6:50 on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma starts RHP Forrest Snow (1-2, 1.52) against Salt Lake RHP Chris Volstad (0-0, 5.40).

Links:

• Here is the Rainiers game story from The News Tribune.
• Baseball America analyzed the Mariners-Padres trade.
• John McGrath has a column on the Mariners and the trade deadline.
• Felix Hernandez pitched well as usual, but the Mariners bats were silenced by Corey Kluber in a 2-0 loss at Cleveland on Wednesday night.
• Bob Dutton’s crucial Mariners notebook is right here.
• In the PCL, Sacramento starter Arnold Leon earned his 10th win in a 7-2 victory over Albuquerque. The article suggests River Cats outfielder Shane Peterson is an MVP candidate. I haven’t started thinking about that yet, but it seems reasonable.
• Mark Serrano had a strong start as Reno won in Fresno, 3-1. Fresno has had a ton of roster moves lately – even by Triple-A standards.
• Local guy Donn Roach pitched El Paso to an 8-5 win at Las Vegas.
• John Lamb and Casey Coleman combined on a one-hitter and Omaha shut out Memphis, 5-0.
• Oklahoma City held on for a 5-4 win at Round Rock.
• The Iowa Cubs swept a doubleheader on the road in New Orleans. Javier Baez hit his 20th homer in the first game.
• The Nashville at Colorado Springs doubleheader got suspended in the third inning… of game one. That means back-to-back doubleheaders today and tomorrow. Yikes!

That’s it for today. I’ll have more links to articles analyzing the Mariners trades on tomorrow’s blog.

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No Comeback In Salt Lake City (This Time)

I thought the Rainiers were going to do it again.

After back-to-back come-from-behind walk-off wins at home, the Rainiers hit the road and were trailing Salt Lake 5-3 going to the ninth inning on Tuesday night.

With one out, Humberto Quintero singled. Then Xavier Avery had a pinch-hit single, and the tying runs were on base with the top of the order coming up.

But Bees reliever David Carpenter nailed down the save, getting Abraham Almonte to pop up and Ji-Man Choi to bounce out, ending the game.

The loss knocked Tacoma back under the .500 mark, at 55-56. But the Rainiers did not lose any ground in the standings, because first-place Sacramento also lost on Tuesday.

The Rainiers will try to bounce back and even the series tonight.

Wednesday’s game starts at 6:05 PM (Pacific) – the Alaska Airlines Pregame Show begins at 5:50 on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma starts RHP Jodan Pries (7-6, 3.78) against Salt Lake RHP Caleb Clay (3-1, 3.43).

Links:

• For more details on the Rainiers game, check out the game story from The News Tribune. Tommy Field spoke to the Salt Lake Tribune about his big game.
• The Mariners had a four-run inning and won in Cleveland last night, 5-2. That’s a big win for the M’s.
• Bob Dutton’s Mariners notebook has you covered with all of the latest news.
• Joel Sherman of the New York Post wonders why the Mariners haven’t given Jesus Montero a chance this year.
• I said “Amen!” after reading this Baseball America article on the dubious nature of minor league baseball records. There are basic team records in Tacoma that we have no clue about – and our franchise has only been here since 1960.
• In the PCL, Pederson and Peterson homered for Albuquerque in a 7-4 victory at Sacramento.
• Ronny Cedeno had four hits and four RBI to help Reno to a 7-3 win at Fresno. All of the sudden Reno is only three games behind Sacramento.
• Finally, we have a follow-up story from Reno about the big brawl, with all of the suspensions listed.
• El Paso won in Las Vegas, 7-5. The story focuses on Vegas infielder Matt Reynolds, who was recruited by big-time college basketball programs but settled on baseball instead.
• Memphis starter Tyler Lyons went the distance in a 4-1 win at Omaha.
• Kyle Jensen had the game-winning hit in the tenth inning to give New Orleans a 2-1 win over Iowa. Kris Bryant homered for the I-Cubs line run.
• Oklahoma City won in Round Rock, 7-3, as Domingo Santana went 4-for-4. The paper has a story on the homecoming of new Express reliever Corey Knebel.
• Nashville got rained out at Colorado Springs; they’re playing two today. Maybe some Nashville players went fishing yesterday.
• Here’s your daily Baseball America minor league round-up.

Off to the ballpark (well OK, lunch first and then the ballpark). Remember, TV game Thursday night that you can watch!

Walk-Off Warriors Do It Again

Tacoma walked-off Sacramento for the second day in a row, scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning on Monday afternoon to emerge with a 4-3 victory.

Ji-Man Choi singled home the tying run, and Justin Smoak hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded to bring in Nick Franklin with the winning run in the last of the ninth.

The victory gave Tacoma a 3-2 series win over Sacramento, pulling Tacoma within seven games of the first-place River Cats. Tacoma earned a split of the season series , 8-8.

The Rainiers have won six of the last eight games, and the team is 29-16 over ts last 45 games.

Tacoma is seven games back with 34 to play. That is not an insurmountable deficit. But the Rainiers are done playing Sacramento head-to-head, so they’re going to need to keep winning at a good clip while getting some help down the stretch from Sacramento’s opponents.

The Rainiers won’t be getting any walk-off wins for a while. The team embarks on an eight-game road trip today, starting with four games in Salt Lake City followed by four in Albuquerque.

Tuesday’s game starts at 6:05 PM (Pacific) – the Alaska Airlines Pregame Show begins at 5:50 on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma starts RHP Taijuan Walker (4-1, 3.76) against Salt Lake LHP Randy Wolf (first game for Salt Lake).

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Programming note: Thursday’s game at Salt Lake is the Minor League Baseball Game of the Week and will be televised nationally on the CBS Sports Network. Prepare yourself accordingly!

Links:

• We start with the Rainiers game story from The News Tribune.
• The Mariners had an off-day yesterday, so Todd Dybas has a feature on Fernando Rodney. The Mariners open a series in Cleveland today, and in recent years bad things have happened to the M’s in Cleveland. Time to change that.
• In case you aren’t aggravated enough just watching it, you can read Larry Stone’s article about how frustrating the Mariners offense is.
• On that same subject, Ryan Divish spent part of his off-day writing this post.
• We have our first casualty from the big Albuquerque-Reno brawl: Aces reliever Kameron Loe broke his hand in the fight (last note at bottom). Five Isotopes were suspended – the list is here.
• Reno got shutout pitching from Charles Brewer and beat Albuquerque in the final game of the series, 6-0. Apparently six Reno players were suspended as well, but I can’t find a list. The Reno Gazette-Journal is doing a truly awful job of covering the brawl: they have not had any follow-up, or a single quote from anybody – not a player, manager, or league or club executive – and it happened in Reno.
• Las Vegas hung on for a 5-3 win over Salt Lake last night. The Bees went 1-3 at Las Vegas, and have lost four of their last five games.
• Fresno won in El Paso, 9-4.
• Omaha held off New Orleans, 7-6, as Joe Saunders earned his first PCL win since 2007. The Omaha paper has a nice story on the power surge of catcher Francisco Pena.
• Starting pitcher Ariel Pena – who threw hard but was wilder than a Wayne Coyne – Miley Cyrus party when the Rainiers faced him in June – is on a roll for Nashville. He shut down Oklahoma City last night for a 3-1 win.
• Rehabilitating Justin Morneau played well, but the rest of the Sky Sox struggled in an 11-4 home loss to Round Rock.
• We’ll finish off with Baseball America’s minor league round-up.

It’s raining here in Salt Lake City as I’m about to post this blog. Hopefully it will stop before game time – the last thing in the world we need is another doubleheader.

Rainiers Win In 14 Innings; Early Game Today

What a game on Sunday. I could – and would – write 2,000 words on it if we didn’t have an early game today. My apologies for not doing it justice, but the PCL schedule says we gotta rise and shine and get on to the next one.

Here’s the short version:

Tacoma’s pitching was excellent. Rehabbing James Paxton looked like he had good velocity, allowing one run in 4.1 innings. He did walk three but he notched five strikeouts, and three of the six hits he allowed were infield singles.

Sacramento starter Drew Pomeranz was great, lasting eight innings and allowing two runs. He carried a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth before Tacoma tied it up on Justin Smoak‘s sacrifice fly.

Through nine innings, it was tied 2-2. Both teams had left a bazillion runners on base, missing out on multiple scoring opportunities. So, we went to extra innings.

Then nothing happened (other than good relief pitching) until the bottom of the 13th inning, when Tacoma managed to not score after loading the bases with one out. That was a real bummer.

The bad trip got worse when Blake Beavan walked the first two batters in the top of the 14th, leading to a Sacramento run. It looked like the Rainiers were going to lose in 14.

But in the bottom of the 14th, the Rainiers rallied and scored two runs to win it. Ji-Man Choi hit a sac fly to score Leury Bonilla with the tying run, and Jesus Montero‘s two-out broken bat single scored the winner.

Tacoma got the win in the nick of time. Catcher Humberto Quintero was warming up in the bullpen, getting ready to pitch the 15th inning because Tacoma was out of properly rested pitchers.

The series is tied 2-2 going into the final game today, and the Rainiers can pull within seven games of first place with a win.

Monday’s game starts at 11:35 AM (Pacific) – the Alaska Airlines Pregame Show begins at 11:20 on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma starts RHP Erasmo Ramirez (2-4, 4.12) against Sacramento RHP Matt Buschmann (6-5, 5.23).

—

We had roster moves before Sunday’s game: outfielder Julio Morban was promoted from Double-A Jackson, and reliever Logan Bawcom was activated from the disabled list. Third baseman Gabriel Noriega and pitcher Matt Palmer were placed on the 7-day disabled list.

Links:

• In his final Rainiers game as a News Tribune intern, promising kid Andy Bixler has the Rainiers game story.
• Ryan Divish covered the James Paxton rehab.
• The Mariners lost to Baltimore on Sunday, but at least Chris Taylor had his first double and RBI.
• In the awakening after Saturday night’s big brawl, Albuquerque topped Reno 5-2 in a peaceful game. There are no quotes in the report, making me wonder if both teams refused to talk about the fight. Reno remains five games out of first place.
• Las Vegas topped Salt Lake 6-5 in a seesaw battle at Cashman Field. Matt Reynolds hit the go-ahead three-run homer in the seventh for Vegas. Despite the win, manager Wally Backman was not pleased.
• Jake Goebbert had three hits and three RBI as the Chihuahuas nipped Fresno, 4-3.
• Memphis swept a doubleheader at Iowa, but the Cubs faithful were happy to see heralded prospect Jorge Soler launch his first Triple-A homer.
• Justin Bour had a big game and New Orleans beat Omaha, 8-5.
• Oklahoma City stunned Nashville, scoring four runs in the top of the ninth to claim a 6-5 win at Greer Stadium. Joe Sclafini had the game-winning hit, ending Nashville’s five-game win streak.
• Round Rock pasted Colorado Springs, 8-2.

Today is the last day of the homestand – Tacoma plays 16 of the next 21 games on the road.

Cats Sweep Rainiers In DH

Sacramento swept a doubleheader from the Tacoma Rainiers on Saturday night, putting the Rainiers hopes of making a run at the River Cats for the division title in serious jeopardy.

The two wins opened Sacramento’s lead up to nine games over Tacoma, with 36 to play. The Rainiers could really use wins in the final two games of this series, which will be Tacoma’s final head-to-head games against the division leader.

Sacramento won the first game 8-5, as Daric Barton hit a key three-run homer and Andy Parrino drilled a two-run triple. Justin Smoak homered twice in the game, but the Rainiers needed more than that.

The second game was a pitcher’s duel that Sacramento won, 2-1. It was a “bullpen game” for the River Cats, and that’s not good for opponents: Sacramento’s greatest strength is its terrific bullpen. Four pitchers held Tacoma to just four hits total.

A few Tacoma highlights: Nate Tenbrink homered in the first game and doubled in the second, and it looks like he is dead-set on making up for lost time and helping the club down the stretch. Smoak hit those two dingers in the opener, and nearly had a third in the second game. Forrest Snow delivered another solid spot-start, but he got stuck with the loss in that 2-1 game. Stephen Kolscheen racked up six strikeouts in 2.2 innings of relief, mostly on elevated fastballs to left-handed batters.

The Rainiers need a win badly on Sunday, and rehabbing Mariners starter James Paxton needs a strong start. It seems to me that these two things would go together quite well. It should be a beautiful day afternoon at Cheney Stadium – come out to the park if you can.

Sunday’s game starts at 1:35 PM (Pacific) – the Alaska Airlines Pregame Show begins at 1:20 on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma starts LHP James Paxton (0-1, 6.00) against Sacramento LHP Drew Pomeranz (0-0, 4.50).

Links:

• The News Tribune has a Rainiers game story on the first game.
• My Sunday minor league notebook paper looks at Mariners Class-A slugger Jordy Lara, who homered in five straight games this week.
• The Mariners ended a four-game losing streak by beating Baltimore on Saturday afternoon, 4-3.
• John McGrath has a column on Saturday’s Mariners game.
• Bob Dutton’s Mariners notebook has many items, including a look at the program for James Paxton.
• Ryan Divish has his power rankings.
• This is a very interesting article from Lookout Landing on batters swinging at 3-0 pitches, and how often it happens.
• The old Portland Mavericks have been in the news a lot lately, due to a documentary that is showing on Netflix. I haven’t seen it yet, but Larry Stone sure makes it sound like a lot of fun. For an opposing viewpoint, Sam Miller of Baseball Prospectus thought the film stunk.
• The Hall Of Fame inductions are today, and former Tacoma Cubs infielder Bobby Cox is one of them. Here’s the blog post I wrote in the off-season about Cox’s time in Tacoma.
• The Mariners dropped $1.85 million on a 16-year-old outfielder from Venezuela named Brayan Hernandez.
• In the PCL, everybody is talking about the big brawl in Reno last night. The Isotopes and Aces really had it out. I thought that the Dodgers fan site TrueBlueLA had a surprisingly objective overview of the situation, which includes video. A fan behind home plate took video from a different angle. The newspaper report is very brief for now, probably because of deadline issues. One thing we know for sure is that there are going to be a lot of suspensions, and even more fines. Reno won the game, 7-3.
• Speaking of brawls, it’s the 35th anniversary of a big one in Milwaukee.
• El Paso beat Fresno in the bottom of the ninth inning on Rocky Gale‘s game-winning RBI. Fresno is trying to recover from losing five players – or 20% of its roster – in 24 hours.
• On a day in which Las Vegan Greg Maddux was honored, the 51s lost to Salt Lake, 5-2. The game story focuses on Maddux, Ed Graney wrote a massive Sunday feature on Maddux, and Ron Kantowski has a column on the newly minted Hall of Famer. Grant Brisbee’s three most ridiculous Maddux games can’t be missed.
• Nashville coasted to an 8-1 win over Oklahoma City and has won five in a row.
• Trailing 7-3, New Orleans scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and stunned visiting Omaha, 8-7.
• Iowa closer Blake Parker has an interesting background. His I-Cubs got swept in a doubleheader by visiting Memphis on Saturday. We feel your pain, Iowa.
• Colorado Springs split a doubleheader with Round Rock after Sky Sox owner David Elmore was inducted into the PCL Hall of Fame.

Don’t forget, we have another day game on Monday at 11:35 AM. Start making your lunch plans for Cheney Stadium now!

Rainiers Streak Into Doubleheader

Tacoma won its fourth in a row last night, shutting out Sacramento 7-0 to pull within seven games of the first place River Cats.

Matt Palmer tossed six scoreless innings of two-hit ball, and Blake Beavan and Logan Kensing polished ’em off.

Offensively, Tacoma opened the bottom of the first inning with five consecutive singles. I’m not sure I’ve seen a team open the first with five singles in a row before. That ended up netting three runs.

Tacoma tacked on more runs in the early innings and won with relative ease. Sacramento even used catcher Luis Exposito to pitch the bottom of the eighth inning, in an effort to save pitching for today’s doubleheader.

Now 53-53 on the year, the Rainiers have reached the .500 mark for the first time since the team was 18-18 on May 13th. Tacoma was once 13 games under, but the team has gone 27-14 over the last 41 games to get back to even.

Today’s doubleheader is a make-up for a rain out from when Sacramento visited Tacoma in April. This is the final make-up doubleheader on the schedule for Tacoma: we’ll be all caught up from the incredible eight home rain outs in April and May after tonight’s games.

Saturday’s action starts at 6:05 PM (Pacific) – the Alaska Airlines Pregame Show begins at 5:50 on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma starts LHP James Gillheeney (3-7, 5.75) against Sacramento RHP Zach Neal (3-5, 4.49) in the first game; Tacoma RHP Forrest Snow (1-1, 1.07) starts game two against Sacramento RHP Philip Humber (4-4, 3.91).

Links:

• The Rainiers game story from The News Tribune has reaction from Matt Palmer and manager Roy Howell.
• Felix Hernandez tossed another gem and whittled his ERA down to 1.99, but the Mariners lost in ten innings to Baltimore last night.
• There are tidbits galore in Bob Dutton’s Mariners notebook.
• The Las Vegas 51s had some fun in the airport on their recent trip to Tacoma.
• Cats are bad baseball fans.
• Reno did not take advantage of the loss by Sacramento, getting hammered at home by Albuquerque 16-7. Reno remains 4.5 games behind the River Cats… and Tacoma is now just 2.5 games out of second place.
• Fresno built a 9-1 lead in El Paso, and then barely held on for a 9-7 victory. Fresno starter Chris Heston pitched well and earned the win – he’s now 3-0 against El Paso, and some jokester in the Fresno front office dubbed him “The Chihuahua Whisperer.” Thumbs up from this blog.
• This is a good fit: they are bringing the Mexican Baseball Fiesta to El Paso this winter. Article includes an excellent minor league baseball anecdote about passing the hat on fireworks night.
• Las Vegas hit four homers in an 11-6 win over Salt Lake.
• Taylor Jungmann and three relievers combined on a five-hit shutout as Nashville beat Oklahoma City, 2-0.
• Omaha’s bullpen tossed five shutout innings and Matt Fields hit his 20th home run in a 4-3 win at New Orleans.
• Mike Olt is back with Iowa, and his Cubs lost to Memphis last night 3-2.
• Round Rock banged out 16 hits in a 12-4 win at Colorado Springs.
• Puyallup’s Quinn Wolcott is now a full-time major league umpire.

Let’s play two!

Hot Rainiers Open Big Series Tonight

Tacoma continued its excellent play of late, defeating Las Vegas on Thursday night 5-4 in a quick game at Cheney Stadium.

Starting pitcher Jordan Pries returned to form, allowing three runs (one earned) over seven crisp innings.

Abraham Almonte had three hits, including two inning-opening doubles which started rallies.

The big blow came off the bat of Ty Kelly, who launched a go-ahead three-run homer in the sixth inning. Kelly has a career high 14 home runs this season.

Now Tacoma faces first-place Sacramento in a five-game series – which includes a Saturday evening doubleheader – and we’re going to find out if the Rainiers will be in a pennant race in August.

The Rainiers enter this series eight games behind Sacramento, with 39 games left. If they can win four of five against Sacramento, things will be very interesting. Taking 3-of-5 would be a little helpful, and keep Tacoma in the hunt. Losing three wouldn’t be a disaster, but it would make a comeback very tough with no more head-to-head games against Sacramento left.

If Tacoma loses four or all five, they won’t be mathematically eliminated but it would take an unlikely series of events for the Rainiers to get back in the race.

Friday’s game starts at 7:05 PM (Pacific) – the Alaska Airlines Pregame Show begins at 6:50 on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma starts RHP Matt Palmer (1-8, 5.50) against Sacramento RHP Arnold Leon (9-4, 4.62).

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Yesterday the Mariners promoted shortstop Chris Taylor and DH Jesus Montero to Seattle, sent Taijuan Walker back to Tacoma, and placed Willie Bloomquist on the disabled list.

Taylor went 1-for-3 last night, collecting his first major league hit (a single off Wei-Yin Chen of the Orioles). It looks likes he’s going to get a chance to play up there.

I’m happy for Taylor, but a little bit disappointed – and here’s why: Taylor is currently 2nd in the PCL with a .328 bating average, and leader KiKe’ Hernandez is going to drop out due to a lack of plate appearances soon (he’s in the majors). Unfortunately, Taylor is 45 plate appearances away from qualifying for the batting title at the end of the season.

In 54 years of PCL baseball, only one Tacoma player has ever won the batting title – Troy Neel in 1992. It would have been a lot of fun to see Taylor make a run at it.

Links:

• The Rainiers game story from The News Tribune has reaction from Jordan Pries and manager Roy Howell.
• The Mariners were shut out by Baltimore last night, 4-0.
• Jesus Montero might be re-joining the Rainiers today, according to Bob Dutton’s Mariners notebook.
• Ryan Divish has an interesting blog post on Montero’s batting stance.
• John Sickels wrote about Chris Taylor.
• Buster Olney’s column today (for ESPN Insiders) explains new rules in the independent Atlantic League which are being installed next week to speed up play. They were designed by a group of MLB executives. I would willingly tithe a portion of my salary to the PCL league office to see these rules enforced in this league.
• Also for Insiders, here is Keith Law’s analysis of the Stephen Pryor – Kendrys Morales trade.
• There are encouraging words about Mariners prospect Gabriel Guerrero in this week’s Baseball America Prospect Hot Sheet.
• Sacramento maintained its lead in the Pacific-North by whacking El Paso, 13-2.
• Reno remained 4.5 games behind Sacramento by beating Salt Lake, 4-3. Some Dominican fans are bringing music to the games in Salt Lake City.
• Wowza. Down 7-4 with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Joc Pederson launched a grand slam off all-star closer Heath Hembree and Albuquerque beat Fresno, 8-7.
• The Iowa Cubs added another top prospect in Jorge Soler, and we have a photo gallery. Soler went 1-for-3 with two walks, Javier Baez homered, and Iowa ripped New Orleans 11-2.
• Some of us old guys remember when Carlos Pena was a top prospect. Pena homered in the ninth to give Round Rock a 2-1 win at Oklahoma City.
• Nashville opened up a 2.5-game lead in the American-South with a 4-2 win over Colorado Springs.
• Carlos Peguero slugged his 13th homer of the year in Omaha’s 3-2 win at Memphis.

Big series starts tonight – and don’t forget, there will be Friday Night Fireworks!

Rainiers Hang On As Bullpen Survives

Tacoma held on to a slim lead in the late innings and beat Las Vegas on Wednesday night, 6-4.

The Rainiers have won three out of four in this series so far, with the final game tonight at 7:05. Tacoma continued its long stretch of good play, and is now 25-14 over the last 39 games.

Last night the Rainiers scored four runs in the fourth inning to take a 6-3 lead, with third baseman Gabriel Noriega contributing the key go-ahead two-run double.

After taking the lead, Tacoma pitchers had to overcome something new: a tiny strike zone.

Relievers Lucas Luetge, Logan Kensing, Todd Coffey, and Carson Smith issued seven walks over the last four innings, and were constantly in trouble, yet managed to maintain the lead and secure the win.

For the most part, these pitchers weren’t particularly wild. A lot of pitches that seem to normally be called strikes were balls on this particular night.

It made for four stressful innings down the stretch, but the relievers were able to get the key outs when they needed to and Tacoma held on for the win.

Thursday’s game starts at 7:05 PM (Pacific) – the Alaska Airlines Pregame Show begins at 6:50 on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma starts RHP Jordan Pries (6-6, 3.96) against Las Vegas RHP Logan Verrett (8-2, 4.58).

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The Mariners made a trade today, sending Tacoma reliever Stephen Pryor to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for DH Kendrys Morales.

Recovering from shoulder surgery, Pryor appeared in 24 games for Tacoma, going 2-1 with a 4.65 ERA. He had 27 strikeouts and 18 walks in 31.0 innings.

The big thing for Pryor has been getting healthy, and his velocity has improved over the course of the season where recently he was hitting 94 mph (note: PCL scoreboard radar guns, so accuracy is questionable). Now, he was upper-90s before the surgery, and we don’t know if that will ever come all the way back for him, but it’s a gamble the Twins are taking.

Morales has been simply awful for the Twins, posting a .584 OPS. We all know he’s better than that, though – and he had no spring training, after sitting out the first two months. Clearly the Mariners are hoping he can show his 2013 form in a return to the team.

Links:

• We start with the Rainiers game story from The News Tribune.
• The Mariners lost to Bartolo Colon and the Mets, 3-2.
• Speaking of Bartolo, if you have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old boy (like I do), this is a fun post about a memorable headline. (The grammatical error in the headline of a blog post about a headline only adds to my enjoyment).
• John McGrath was at the Mariners game yesterday, and he filed this column on Taijuan Walker.
• All the tidbits you need are in Bob Dutton’s Mariners notebook.
• The Rainiers picked up a game on first-place Sacramento. The River Cats got eaten alive by the Chihuahuas, 16-7. The El Paso Times has a photo gallery of the carnage.
• Salt Lake lost Chris Cron, but that didn’t stop them from pounding out a season-high 18 hits in a 12-3 win over Reno.
• Dan Uggla joined the Fresno Grizzlies and went 1-for-4 in an 8-7 loss at Albuquerque.
• Iowa whacked New Orleans, 13-4. Just what they needed: Iowa adds yet another top prospect, in outfielder Jorge Soler.
• Oklahoma City had three big innings and picked up a 12-8 win over Round Rock. RedHawks manager Tony D made a friend.
• Nashville maintained possession of first place in the American-South by defeating Colorado Springs, 5-2.
• Memphis lefty Tyler Lyons shut down Omaha, 5-3.
• We’ll wrap up with Baseball America’s minor league round-up.

Today is the final game of the year between Tacoma and Las Vegas. The Rainiers need a win to finish with an 8-8 season series split.

Another Doubleheader Split

Tacoma split its doubleheader with Las Vegas on Tuesday night, providing more evidence for my theory that nearly all Triple-A doubleheaders are split.

Vegas won the first game 4-0 as Noah Syndergaard tossed 6.1 scoreless innings in the finest of his four starts against Tacoma this season.

James Paxton had a successful rehab outing health-wise, but he allowed home runs to two of the first four batters he faced to find himself in a 3-0 hole. Paxton finished strongly, retiring eight of the last nine batters he faced. He’s scheduled to pitch for Tacoma again on Sunday against Sacramento.

Tacoma won the second game, 4-3. Jesus Montero was 2-for-2 with a two-run single and a solo home run. That was nice to see after Syndergaard held him in check in the opening game. Montero hot streak update: 34-for-74 with seven HRs and 29 RBI in his last 18 games.

Forrest Snow delivered a strong spot-start in game two, lasting five innings and allowing one run on two hits. Snow picked up the win and he now has a 1.07 ERA in 25.1 innings for Tacoma this season, with a 27-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Snow is getting a lot of swings-and-misses with his fastball, which is in the low 90s but has good downward plane from his 6-foot-6 frame.

Tacoma leads the Las Vegas series, two games to one, with two games remaining.

Wednesday’s game starts at 7:05 PM (Pacific) – the Alaska Airlines Pregame Show begins at 6:50 on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma starts RHP Andrew Carraway (4-5, 4.76) against Las Vegas RHP Cory Mazzoni (1-0, 4.76).

Yes, it has been raining off-and-on today in Tacoma. This will be just like an April game: the teams are planning to play tonight, and any decision regarding the weather will be made around game time. Follow the Rainiers on Twitter, or Facebook, or check the official website for more information.

Links:

• We start with the Rainiers game story from The News Tribune.
• James Paxton told MLB.com all about his rehab outing.
• The Mariners lost to tough rookie Jacob deGrom and the Mets yesterday, 3-1, despite an outstanding effort by Erasmo Ramirez. Erasmo was optioned back to Tacoma after the game, to make room for Taijuan Walker who started for the Mariners today.
• Bob Dutton’s Mariners notebook has a bit on Taijuan Waker, as well as the latest trade rumor.
• Imaginary arrows caused John McGrath to tell us the story of baseball’s first curtain call.
• Sacramento beat El Paso in the 13th inning on Shane Peterson‘s RBI single.
• Andrew Chafin and Reno won a pitcher’s duel at Salt Lake, 4-1.
• Visiting Fresno topped Albuquerque in a rain-shortened game, 1-0. Fresno’s Jason Berken pitched five scoreless innings and will be credited with a shutout.
• New Orleans starter Andrew Heaney was perfect for six innings before allowing a run in the 7th and losing at Iowa, 1-0.
• Omaha fell 1.5 games behind first-place Iowa after a 6-3 loss at Memphis.
• Nashville barely held on to beat Colorado Springs, 7-5.
• Round Rock rallied late to win in Oklahoma City, 4-1.
• Noah Syndergaard made an appearance in Baseball America’s minor league round-up.

Rain, rain, go away!

Rainiers Out-Slug 51s; DH Tonight

Tacoma hit three home runs – accounting for seven runs total – and beat Las Vegas in the opening game of the homestand on Monday night, 11-8.

It was a back-and-forth game which saw Tacoma take an early 3-1 lead, then Las Vegas pull ahead 6-3, followed by a five-run Tacoma inning to make it 8-6 Rainiers, then a game-tying homer by Danny Muno to even it up at 8-8, and finally a three-run Tacoma rally in the bottom of the seventh put it away at 11-8.

Todd Coffey stopped the scoring, pitching perfect baseball in the eighth and ninth innings to close it out. He even struck out the side in the ninth for a little extra flair.

Jesus Montero continued his hot hitting, blasting a two-run homer and a double. Ty Kelly ripped a game-tying three-run homer in the sixth, and his sac fly brought in the winning run in the seventh.

Catcher Humberto Quintero added a two-run homer and extended his hitting streak to ten straight games. The home run was his 400th career PCL hit.

The Rainiers did use a lot of bullpen last night: Stephen Kohlscheen, Logan Kensing, and Coffey combined to cover 6.1 innings. This could become an issue going into tonight’s doubleheader.

That’s right, a doubleheader. Tacoma and Vegas play two seven-inning games tonight, which is a make-up for a rainout on May 4 (want to get confused? The May 4 game that was rained out was the second game of a doubleheader, which was a make-up of the rainout on May 3. Dang, it rained a lot back then).

On the roster front, last night the Mariners optioned first baseman Justin Smoak to Tacoma, and they will call up Erasmo Ramirez to start tonight against the Mets. Go get ’em, Erasmo.

Look for lots of roster juggling in the big leagues for the remainder of the season. With the Mariners trying to hang on to a wild card spot, they will be making all kinds of minor roster adjustments to get the best possible match-ups from game to game. The Rainiers roster will both benefit and be victimized by this for the next six weeks. It should be an interesting ride.

Tuesday’s action starts at 6:05 PM (Pacific) – the Alaska Airlines Pregame Show begins at 6:50 on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma starts LHP James Paxton (0-0, 6.00) against Las Vegas RHP Noah Syndergaard (7-5, 5.74) in the first game, and it will be RHP Forrest Snow (0-1, 0.89) against RHP Giancarlo Alvarado (3-4, 7.66) in game two.

Links:

• The Rainiers game story has quotes from Jesus Montero and manager Roy Howell.
• The Mariners handled the Mets last night, 5-2. My opinion: this is a good series for the M’s to log some home wins against a struggling NL team. But, they face tough rookie Jacob deGrom tonight.
• The Mariners notebook from The News Tribune has some good HoJo stuff.
• Larry Stone writes that the Mariners should feel free to trade prospects.
• Mariners 2014 first round draft pick Alex Jackson got hit in the face by a line drive in the Arizona Rookie League last night. Ryan Divish has an update on his status. Too soon for a “no face masks in the outfield” joke?
• El Paso didn’t help the Rainiers cause last night. First-place Sacramento beat the Chihuahuas 6-1 in a cats vs dogs battle.
• C.J. Cron returned to Salt Lake and had a couple of hits in the Bees 7-6 win over Reno.
• Since getting sent to Triple-A, Carlos Triunfel keeps getting game-winning hits for the Albuquerque Isotopes. He had the go-ahead RBI double in a 5-4 win over Fresno last night. Fresno added Dan Uggla to the roster.
• The Iowa Cubs moved Javier Baez to second base, and then lost to New Orleans 5-4.
• Ryan Rua and Round Rock out-slugged Oklahoma City, 11-9. Austin Wates continued his hot hitting with a grand slam for the RedHawks.
• Colorado Springs received a strong start from Chris Capuano and defeated Nashville, 5-2.
• Omaha held off Memphis 4-1, pulling within a half-game of first place.
• The home run race is featured in Baseball America’s minor league round-up.

That’s it for today – gotta buckle down for a long night of baseball tonight at Cheney Stadium.