Rainiers Win Thriller In El Paso, Shuffle 25% Of Pitching Staff

After an exciting 7-6 win over El Paso on Thursday night, the Rainiers took a long bus ride to Albuquerque and arrived in the Duke City at 4:00 AM. And that’s why we are going straight to the Rainiers Daily… make sure you check the roster moves; a lot of stuff happened today.

RAINIERS DAILY

YESTERDAY: The Rainiers won a real thriller on Thursday night in El Paso, 7-6. Eric Young Jr. hit a go-ahead home run with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, and Rainiers right fielder Ian Miller threw out the tying runner at home plate in the bottom of the ninth inning to end the game. The Rainiers threw out two runners at home in the late innings, with Young, shortstop Kristopher Negron and catcher Jose Lobaton executing a perfect relay to nail a runner in the seventh. Negron hit a three-run homer and Joey Curletta added a two-run blast.

ROSTER MOVES: The Mariners re-signed pitcher Christian Bergman and he will be added to the Tacoma roster in time to start tonight’s game. Bergman pitched for both Tacoma and Seattle in 2017 and 2018… the Mariners released outfielder Tito Polo just hours after he was suspended indefinitely by the PCL for spiking El Paso first baseman Alex Dickerson on Wednesday… starting pitcher Nabil Crismatt and reliever Dan Altavilla have been transferred to Double-A Arkansas… veteran relievers Parker Markel and Aaron Northcraft – both substantially older than Crismatt and Altavilla – have been promoted from Arkansas to Tacoma… despite all of this shuffling, Tacoma is still short one starting pitcher.

TODAY: Tacoma (6-9) at Albuquerque (8-7), 5:35 (Pacific).

OPPONENT AFFILIATION: Colorado Rockies.

OPPOSING MANAGER: Glenallen Hill.

SEASONS SERIES: Tied, 2-2.

PITCHERS: RHP Christian Bergman (–) at RHP Ryan Castellani (1-0, 2.79)

HOT HITTERS: J.P. Crawford has a 12-game hitting streak, going 17-for-49 during the stretch… Austin Nola has hit safely in ten of his 11 games, and he has ten RBI over his last five games… Tim Lopes has a six-game hitting streak… Eric Young Jr. has reached base safely in ten straight games… Braden Bishop has reached safely in all eleven games he has played in.

OPPONENT NEWS: Albuquerque just dropped two-of-three in a home series against Reno. Wednesday’s game was rained out, so they played a doubleheader last night and split it… the ‘Topes have been hit with quite a few roster moves already. Most notably since Tacoma faced them last weekend, Noel Cuevas was called up by the Rockies and infielder Josh Fuentes was optioned to Albuquerque.

FAMILIAR FACES: The Isotopes don’t have any former Rainiers or local players on the roster, but they do have David Holman who is part of the Pitching Holman Family that has Mariners ties. His father Brian pitched three seasons for Seattle (1989-1991), and his uncle Brad is a former Mariners minor league pitching coach who had a brief stint in the majors with the club.

BROADCAST: The pregame show starts at 5:20 on South Sound Talk 850 AM. The broadcast also streams online via the TuneIn app – just click here.

PCL SCOREBOARD: Follow all Pacific Coast League games in real-time with links to Gameday screens right here.

Links:

• The Mariners ended their six-game losing streak with a wild 11-10 win in Anaheim.
• Dee Gordon says that the Mariners needed a setback.
• The News Tribune has a story on the addition of catcher Tom Murphy.

In the PCL:

• Reno and Albuquerque split a doubleheader at Isotopes Park. Domingo Leyba had three hits to help the Aces take the opener, 6-4, while Sam Hilliard‘s two-run homer led to a 4-2 game two victory for the ‘Topes. The Albuquerque paper has a story on the Cron family.
• Trailing 6-5 going to the eighth inning at Sacramento, Vegas scored four late runs and left with a 9-6 victory. The Aviators are 13-2.
• Griffin Canning tossed six shutout innings without walking anybody and the Salt Lake Bees trounced Fresno, 12-1.
• Omaha’s Nicky Lopez had another strong game as the Storm Chasers picked up a 5-3 win at Oklahoma City. Lopez had two hits, scored two runs, and is batting .354. Former Mariners prospect Drew Jackson is with Oklahoma City.
• Hector Noesi continues to pitch well for New Orleans, allowing one run over five innings and earning the win in a 8-5 takedown of Iowa.
• Round Rock at Nashville was suspended in the second inning due to rain (no score), and San Antonio at Memphis was rained out as storms hit Tennessee.