Results tagged ‘ Michael Saunders ’
Tacoma Rainiers Game Notes: August 17 vs. Iowa Cubs
Game Notes:
CompleteRainiersGameNotes_August17.pdf
PROMOTION: The Power of Choice
PLAYER NEWS: Mariners Promote Saunders
The Seattle Mariners announced earlier today that they were selecting 22-year-old Canaidan outfielder Michael Saunders from Tacoma. He is in uniform, wearing No. 55, for today’s game at Safeco Field against the Cleveland Indians, and is starting in left field.
River Cats Out-Slug Rainiers
While Wednesday’s game between the Sacramento River Cats (61-37)
and the Tacoma Rainiers (46-52) was decidedly about pitching, tonight it was
the lumber that did the talking.
The two squads combined to pound out 24 hits–nine of them
for extra bases–but it was the visiting River Cats who came out on top, taking
the series finale 11-6.
While Tacoma starter Gaby Hernandez gave up six runs in his four
innings of work, it wasn’t until the seventh inning that Sacramento was able to
truly pull away, as the Rainiers responded to every Sacramento score with a
flurry of their own.
Down 3-0 going into the bottom of the first, first baseman Jeff Clement wasted no time in extending his latest hitting streak to seven
games, blasting his 14th home run of the season over the right field
wall to cut the deficit to two runs.
After a walk to right fielder Bryan LaHair to lead off the
bottom of the second, left fielder Michael Saunders stretched his own hitting
streak to seven games with his 14th double of the season, putting
men on second and third for catcher Adam Moore.
Moore singled in LaHair, and after an Oswaldo Navarro
strikeout, center fielder Jerry Owens delivered his second sacrifice fly in as
many nights to make the score 4-3.
The River Cats pulled ahead again in the top of the third
with a pair of runs, but Tacoma slowly chipped away over the next three
innings, with LaHair’s 18th longball of the year in the bottom of
the sixth keeping Tacoma close, down 7-5.
The decisive blow came in the top of the seventh, when Andy
Baldwin–making his third relief appearance of the season–stumbled after
striking out left fielder Aaron Cunningham to lead off the frame.
Baldwin gave up a sharp groundball single to right fielder
Travis Buck, and then couldn’t manage to find the strike zone, walking catcher
Eric Munson and center fielder Chris Denorfia, uncorking a wild pitch along the
way to allow a run to score.
With the bases loaded, designated hitter Matt Carson–who
showed off his pitching arm in the previous night’s loss–decided to make a
difference through more conventional means: his bat. Carson unloaded on
Baldwin’s 2-2 offering, hitting the LED ribbon over the left center field wall
for his first grand slam of the season.
Offensive bright spots for the Rainiers included third
baseman Matt Tuiasosopo, who went 2-for-4 to finish the series 6-for-13 with
three doubles. Owens–despite having his hitting streak halted at nine
games–still led the team with two RBI on the evening.
Fister Halts Skid at Four
Informed mere hours before tonight’s game against the
Sacramento River Cats (60-37) that he would be starting on three days’ rest,
Tacoma Rainiers pitcher Doug Fister could have been forgiven had he just gutted
out three or four innings and then turned the game over to the bullpen. But
that just wouldn’t be his style.
The Rainiers (46-51) called Fister into service in place of
a scratched Ryan Rowland-Smith–who will reportedly be making his next start Friday at Safeco
Field–and the 6-foot-8 righty answered the bell. Fister scattered six
hits and just one walk over six innings, allowing one run and striking out two–all
on just 69 pitches–as Tacoma romped to an 11-1 victory to snap a four-game
losing streak.
Fister struggled early on, allowing two hits and one run in
the top of the first inning. But after that, he clamped down, working inside
and out with offspeed and breaking pitches and doing what he does best:
pitching to contact. Fister thew up zero after zero after zero as the Rainiers
offense went to town on River Cats righty Jerome Williams and the parade of
Sacramento relievers that included center fielder Matt Carson.
Tacoma posted two runs in the first and second, then
exploded for four more in the third and three in the fourth en route to
hammering out 18 hits on the night. Each Rainiers starter registered at least
one base hit, but the biggest came off the bats of second baseman Alex Cintron
and designated hitter Jeff Clement.
In just his third game in a Tacoma uniform, Cintron came
within a triple of hitting for the cycle, going 3-for-6 with four runs scored
and a game-high four RBI. Cintron connected on a two-run home run in the second
inning for the game’s only longball, after the River Cats and the Rainiers
combined for seven circuit shots the night before.
Clement came within smelling distance of history on his
4-for-5 night, smacking a double in each of his first four at-bats. Only twice
in the 106-year history of the PCL has a hitter registered five two-baggers in a game, and
though he grounded out in his fifth turn at the dish, Clement’s three RBI on
the night were a large part of Tacoma’s offensive explosion.
Another key cog in the Rainiers offensive machine was
leadoff man Jerry Owens. Owens went 2-for-4 with three runs scored and two
walks, and is now hitting a blistering .575 (23-for-40) in his past 10 games
with a .605 on-base percentage.
Fan favorite Matt Tuiasosopo, in his sixth game back from
elbow surgery, went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, upping his average to
.444 (4-for-9) in the series.
Notes: Designated hitter Jeff Clement and outfielder Michael
Saunders each extended their hitting streaks to six games tonight against
Sacramento, combining to go 5-for-9 on the evening … Third baseman Matt
Tuiasosopo has now reached base safely in each of his first six games back from
the disabled list, hitting four doubles and one home run over that span.
River Cats Take Second Straight
Clearly realizing that four runs per game may not cut it
for the entire series against the Tacoma Rainiers, the Sacramento River Cats
more than doubled their previous game’s output in the first five innings of
tonight’s contest, and they would need every run.
The first place team in the Pacific Coast League Pacific
South was able to fend off a late charge by the Rainiers to come out on top,
11-7, for their second straight win over Tacoma (45-51).
The River Cats pounded out 18 hits, including two doubles, one
triple and four home runs against Rainiers pitching, doing most of their damage early
against right-handed starter Steven Shell.
After scoring two runs in the top of the second off of
Shell, Sacramento tacked another three runs on in the top of the third and two
more in the top of the fourth on a two-run home run off the bat of Cliff
Pennington.
Rainiers right fielder Prentice Redman did the best he
could to muster some offense, leading off the bottom of the fourth with his
14th home run of the season on the first pitch he saw from lefty starter Dana
Eveland to make the score 7-1.
But over the next two innings, the River Cats piled on even
more, thanks to a towering drive from catcher Eric Munson which cleared the
trees across the road from the right field wall in the top of the fifth and an
RBI triple by Travis Buck with no outs in the top of the sixth–his first three-bagger
of the year.
After being shut down by Eveland
for seven innings, the Rainiers finally broke through to make things interesting
in the bottom of the eighth.
Second baseman Callix Crabbe led off the frame
with a line-drive single to center, and was followed by Jerry Owens, who laced
his third hit of the night for a single to left. The pair of speedsters then
came home thanks to a double by Matt Tuiasosopo and an RBI single from
designated hitter Jeff Clement. Eveland was then lifted for reliever Chris
Schroder, who fanned big Brad Nelson to bring Redman back to the dish.
Redman worked a 3-2 count from Schroder and then
annihilated the seventh pitch of the at-bat for his second home run of the
game, wrapping a moon shot around the left field foul pole to bring the score
to 9-6.
Left fielder Michael Saunders then tattooed the fourth
pitch he saw from Schroder over the foul pole in right to bring the Rainiers
to within two runs with just one out in the inning, marking the sixth time that
Tacoma has hit back-to-back homers this season.
But that was as close as the Rainiers were able to come, as
the River Cats (60-36) tacked on two insurance runs in the top of the ninth off
of closer Randy Messenger to polish off their fourth win in a row.
Notes: Jerry Owens went 4-for-5 tonight to continue his torrid hitting. Over the past 10 games, the Rainiers center fielder has gone 21-for-40 for a scorching .525 average … Callix Crabbe went 1-for-4 tonight, and is hitting a white-hot .351 over his last 10.
51s Thwart Tacoma Comeback
Despite a dramatic comeback and Matt
Tuiasosopo’s first home run of the season, the Tacoma Rainiers (45-49) were
unable to best the Las Vegas 51s last night, and wilted 5-4 in the 96-degree
desert heat.
Tuiasosopo, in his fourth game back from
elbow surgery rehab, delivered his first longball of the season with one out in
the top of the first, a soaring drive to left field to put the Rainiers up 1-0.
Starter Brandon Morrow got off to a rocky
start in his first minor league start of 2009, loading the bases with one out
in the bottom of the frame.
Morrow issued a leadoff walk to Buck
Coats, hitting slugging designated hitter Randy Ruiz with one out and then
walking left fielder Travis Snider. First baseman Brian Dopirak then got the
run factory started, cracking an RBI single to tie the game.
Right fielder Aaron Mathews then rapped a
two-run single on a grounder through the left side of the infield to put the
51s ahead. The biggest blow came off the bat of catcher Kyle Phillips, who
blasted a two-run line-drive double off of the glove of Tuiasosopo at third and
into left field.
But Morrow was able to settle down over
the next three innings, allowing Tacoma time to claw back into the game. The
Rainiers came out with guns blazing in the top of the fourth inning, with first
baseman Mike Carp and catcher Jamie Burke leading off with back-to-back
singles. A Bryan LaHair line-drive double to center plated Carp and moved Burke
to third.
Still with no outs, center fielder
Michael Saunders singled on a groundball up the middle to score Burke and put
LaHair at third. After the hot-hitting Callix Crabbe popped out to shortstop
Joe Inglett for the first out, his double-play partner–Oswaldo Navarro–made the
next out a productive one, lofting a sacrifice fly to left to bring LaHair in
with the tying run.
Las Vegas (45-50) came back in the
bottom of the fifth, capitalizing on a one-out walk to Snider when third
baseman Kevin Howard lined his 17th double of the season into left, putting the
finishing touches on the win and taking their third of four games from Tacoma.
Notes: Callix Crabbe went 1-for-4 on the night and is now hitting .320 in
the month of July … Bryan LaHair’s 2-for-4 night lifted his average to .286, and .308
over his last 10 games … After Brandon Morrow exited, Andy Baldwin came in and worked 3.1 innings of scoreless relief–his second appearance out of the bullpen this year.
League Leaders at the Break
As the Pacific Coast League and the International League All-Stars get set to duke it out in Wednesday’s Triple-A All-Star Game in Portland, Ore., several Tacoma Rainiers sit among the best in the PCL in a multitude of offensive categories.
Seddon and Saunders KO Beavs
If there were one question that could
characterize tonight’s 5-3 Tacoma Rainiers win over the Portland Beavers, it
would be: What right hamstring?
In his first game back from the
disabled list, left fielder Michael Saunders proved that his sore right hammy
wasn’t so sore anymore, crushing a towering three-run home run in his first
at-bat with a clean bill of health, providing what proved to be the decisive
blow against pesky Portland.
The Rainiers middle infield staked lefty
starter Chris Seddon to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first, and they did
it the hard way. With two outs and two on, shortstop Oswaldo Navarro and second
baseman Callix Crabbe took back-to-back doses from Beavers starter Matt
Buschmann, forcing in Tacoma’s first run of the game.
Seddon–who struck out seven Portland
hitters in 5.1 innings of work–gave up the tying run in the top of the next
inning on a solo shot by second baseman Matt Antonelli, but the tie was short lived, as the
Rainiers (41-46) came thundering back in the bottom half of the frame. With two
outs and two men on, hot-hitting catcher Adam Moore bounced a gound ball single
up the middle to drive in designated hitter Jeff Clement, reclaiming the lead
for Tacoma.
With men on first and third, Saunders
crushed the fifth pitch he saw from Buschmann high over the Funky Monkey sign
in right center field to put the Rainiers up 5-1.
Seddon took over from there, holding
Portland (42-46) scoreless through the next two innings before being rattled by
a long bomb from slugger Val Pascucci that cleared the visitor’s clubhouse
beyond the left field wall to lead off the top of the sixth. After allowing two
straight one-out singles, Seddon was lifted for lefty Denny Stark, who overcame
a run-scoring Erick Monzon error to strike out Antonelli and right fielder Mike
Baxter to end the threat.
Reliever Justin Thomas further
frustrated the Beavers, retiring the 2-3-4 hitters in order in the top of the
seventh. Thomas turned in perhaps his best outing of the season, allowing just
one hit over 1.2 innings of work, tallying one strikeout for his fifth hold of
the season.
When Thomas was lifted with two outs and
one on in the eighth for closer Randy Messenger, the big fella out of Reno,
Nev. kept the bullpen momentum going. After allowing a soft single to right to
catcher Yamid Haad, Messenger fanned Antonelli on four pitches, finishing off
the Portland infielder with some high cheese.
Messenger needed 14 pitches in the top of
the ninth to nail down his 17th save of the season–the second-highest total in
the PCL.
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