Results tagged ‘ Portland Beavers ’
PREVIEW: Seddon Slings in Must-Win Clash
The last time that Chris Seddon took the hill, he pitched the Rainiers to a 6-3 win over the rival Portland Beavers in front of a hearty group of road-tripping Rainiers fans cheering him on from the stands at PGE Park.
That win put Tacoma into a first-place tie with tonight’s opponent, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. Perhaps there is still a little magic yet in that left arm of his, because tonight, the Rainiers will need every trick Seddon can muster in front of a playoff-hungry home crowd as they try take the first step towards sweeping the Sox, which would clinch Tacoma’s first division title since 2005.
Remember to stay after tomorrow night’s game for our final Friday Night Fireworks show of the season, brought to you by Courtyard by Marriot. All throughout this weekend, Windex will be sponsoring special seat upgrades–where four lucky fans will receive Venture Bank Gold club tickets–as well as lucky row giveaways of Windex products.
Saturday will be Kids Night Out here at Cheney Stadium, where, thanks to generous donations by local businesses, underprivileged youth will receive a hot dog, chips, a special t-shirt and a ticket to the ballgame to help them make a memory to last a lifetime.
Pesky Bees Make Division Race Interesting
Despite having been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention with Wednesday night’s loss, the Salt Lake Bees still found a way to interject themselves into the race for the Pacific Coast League Pacific North crown tonight at Cheney Stadium. The Bees were able to overcome a clutch outing from Tacoma Rainiers righty Andy Baldwin, and shut down a thunderous Tacoma lineup to come away with a 4-0 win.
Fortunately for the Rainiers however, they got some assistance in their playoff quest from an unlikely source. The last-place Portland Beavers–Tacoma’s longtime regional rival–were able to down the front-running Colorado Springs Sky Sox 6-5 at Security Service Field to keep the Rainiers (71-69) just two games back with four to play.
The evening started off well for Tacoma, as Baldwin followed a scoreless first inning from the rehabbing Carlos Silva with six innings of shutout ball, at one point retiring 12 straight batters.
The Bees (69-70) finally broke the spell in the top of the seventh as Terry Evans came through with Salt Lake’s first hit off of Baldwin, dropping down a bunt single up the third base line to lead off the frame. Evans came in to score when the very next batter, first baseman Matt Brown, cracked his 26th double of the season to center field.
Second baseman Nate Sutton then tapped the first pitch he saw back to the mound, and Baldwin alertly threw over to third to cut down Brown for the first out of the inning. After a double by veteran left fielder Adam Pavkovich put men on second and third, a five-pitch walk to Ryan Budde loaded the bases. Despite the pressure, Baldwin came up big yet again, catching shortstop Gary Patchet looking at strike three.
With the left-handed Brad Coon coming to the plate, Rainiers manager Daren Brown turned to southpaw Justin Thomas, who had not allowed a run in his last five relief appearances, over which he held opposing hitters to a .143 average.
Thomas got ahead 1-2 on Coon, but on the fourth pitch of the at-bat, the Bees center fielder lofted a soft line drive into shallow left to score Sutton and Pavkovich. Switch-hitting third baseman Freddy Sandoval followed Coon with an RBI single of his own on a groundball through the left side to finish off the scoring for Salt Lake.
Bees pitchers appeared to have learned their lesson from Wednesday night’s 11-2 shellacking, pitching around the heart of a Tacoma lineup that leads all of Minor League Baseball in home runs. Salt Lake hurlers issued a combined four walks to 2-3-4 hitters Matt Tuiasosopo, Chris Shelton and Bryan LaHair, who have hit a combined 49 dingers this season.
The bottom of the Tacoma lineup–catcher Adam Moore and shortstop Oswaldo Navarro–accounted for four of the team’s six hits, with both men notching 2-for-4 nights. Navarro extended his hitting streak to 13 games, over which he has hit .447 (21-for-47).
Rainiers Sweep Into First Place
PORTLAND–With a vocal contingent of
Tacoma faithful on hand thanks to the Beat the Beavs Bus Trip, the Rainiers put
the finishing touches on a five-game sweep of the rival Portland Beavers,
winning their ninth straight game by the count of 6-3 to pull even with the
Colorado Springs Sky Sox for the top spot in the Pacific Coast League Pacific
North standings.
Prentice Redman’s bat did its best to
match the volume of the Rainiers fans, as the Tacoma left fielder went 3-for-3
with two RBI, four runs, two walks and his 20th home run of the season–a solo
blast in the top of the ninth. But for all that thunder, the Rainiers (70-66)
got the scoring underway with a comparatively quiet start.
Center fielder Jerry Owens led off the
top of the first with a walk, and then swiped his 21st bag of the year to move
into scoring position. Third baseman Matt Tuiasosopo lofted a soft sacrifice
fly to right, moving Owens over to third, and a second straight sac fly off the
bat of Mike Carp brought home Tacoma’s first run of the afternoon–all without
benefit of a hit.
The Rainiers struck for their second run
in the top of the fourth, when Redman worked a five-pitch walk from Beavers
starter Aaron Poreda and stole second before fellow outfielder Mike Wilson
worked a seven-pitch free pass of his own. With two outs, hot-hitting shortstop
Oswaldo Navarro snuck a groundball double just inside the third base line,
scoring Redman, who slid in safely ahead of the tag by catcher Eliezar Alfonzo
despite running right out of his shoe halfway between third and home.
Portland Reliever Rocky Cherry had
himself an appropriately rocky fifth, when with two outs, first baseman Chris
Shelton hammered a ground-rule double off the hand-operated scoreboard in left
and then rode home on a Redman double. After fouling off two 1-2 offerings from
Cherry, Wilson lined an RBI single to left to drive in Redman and put the
Rainiers up 4-1.
After the Beavers (57-79) cut the lead to
4-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Tacoma came right back in the top of the
seventh thanks to a line-drive RBI single by veteran catcher Jamie Burke.
Rainiers reliever–and former Portland
hurler–Jared Wells took the mound in the bottom of the seventh and worked two
scoreless innings of relief, allowing just one hit while striking out three to
earn his fourth hold of the season.
Righty Robert Manuel came on in the
ninth and allowed a solo shot to Sean Kazmar before inducing groundouts from
Brett Dowdy and Craig Stansberry to polish off the win.
Tacoma Rainiers Game Notes: August 29 @ Portland
The Tacoma Rainiers look to continue their season-high seven-game winning streak tonight against the Portland Beavers, and gain more ground on the first-place Colorado Springs Sky Sox, who are now just two games ahead of the Rainiers.
PREVIEW: Rainiers End Series with Fireworks
Tacoma will look to salvage a series split with the Royals,
and most assuredly has the firepower to do it. Over the course of the first
three games of their series with Omaha, the Rainiers have scored 21 runs on 33
hits, including five home runs, six doubles and a triple.
Omaha lefty Dusty Hughes will try to hold one of the PCL’s
most explosive offenses down–a tall task to say the least, especially
considering that Hughes owns a 5.58 ERA with runners on and a 7.20 ERA with
runners in scoring position.
Tonight after the game, enjoy our traditional Friday Night
Fireworks, brought to you by US Foodservice.
After tonight’s series finale against the Omaha Royals, the
Rainiers will go on the road for four games against the Fresno Grizzlies
(67-59) and five games against the rival Portland Beavers, who own a
league-worst 53-73 record and are 3-8 against Tacoma this season.
The Rainiers return home for their final homestand of the
season on August 31.
PREVIEW: Rainiers Keep Rolling Against Beavs
Last night’s win marked Tacoma’s third
in a row against the rival Portland Beavers, and the Rainiers will look to make
it four of a kind tonight with lefty Ryan Rowland-Smith on the hill.
In his last start against Portland,
Rowland-Smith scattered eight hits through 5.1 innings of work and allowed just
one run on July 2. In his past two outings, the Aussie affectionately known as “The
Hyphen” has allowed just three earned runs over 12.2 innings with 10
strikeouts.
What to Watch: Rainiers
center fielder Jerry Owens is certainly one player to watch–if you can manage
to lay eyes on the speedy lefty.
Tacoma’s stolen-base leader has been a
hitting machine in his past 10 games, going 17-for-42 (.405) with two doubles,
three triples and eight runs scored.
When leading off an inning, Owens is
hitting .321 with a .391 on-base percentage. Last night, Owens continued his
onslaught, going 3-for-3 with three runs.
Crabbe Takes the Cake in Win
Before last night’s game against the
Portland Beavers, Tacoma Rainiers second baseman Callix Crabbe sampled–for the
first time–the Cheney Stadium sandwich that now bears his name. He may want to
make that a pre-game ritual.
The same Callix Crabbe that came into the
game batting .189, and who was 0-for-14 when batting second, used that
delectable dish to turn into a 5-foot-7, 185-pound, one-man wrecking crew,
going 4-for-4 with two home runs and five RBI from the two-slot to power the
Rainiers to an 8-3 win over the Beavers (42-48).
Tacoma (43-46) rode Crabbe’s career
night for its third straight win, and the Rainiers leaned on the little guy
early. With one out in the bottom of the first inning, Crabbe staked starter
Doug Fister to a 1-0 lead with his first home run of the season, a
no-doubt-abouter down the right field line.
With Fister humming through the first
three innings–needing only 36 pitches–Crabbe went to work again in the bottom
of the third, delivering a bases-loaded RBI single to put the home team up 2-0.
Tacoma’s next two runs in that inning came from a more traditional
run-producer, as Jeff Clement crushed the second pitch he saw from Portland
starter Walter Silva to deep center field for a two-run double.
After that brief interlude, Crabbe came
up big again in the bottom of the fifth. After a one-out triple by center
fielder Jerry Owens–his third in the past four days–Crabbe delivered an RBI
double to stretch Tacoma’s lead to 5-1.
When a solo home run by catcher Adam
Moore in the bottom of the sixth put the Rainiers up 6-1, the Beavers fired
back by scoring two runs in the top of the seventh off of reliever Denny Stark
to pull within three.
Clearly uncomfortable with a mere
three-run lead, Crabbe stepped to the plate in the bottom of the inning with
one out and Owens on first. After fouling away the first pitch from Portland
reliever John Hudgins, Crabbe went yard for a second time, putting Tacoma ahead
for good.
The two-run dinger marked the first time
that Crabbe had put two over the wall in one game since July 27, 2007, when he
tallied two solo shots for the Nashville Sounds.
PREVIEW: Rainiers Look For Third Straight
After dropping two consecutive games to
Northwest rival Portland for the first time in nearly a year, the Tacoma
Rainiers now look to make it three in a row over the Beavers.
Over the past two games, Tacoma
pitchers have allowed just three runs and four extra-base hits in 18 innings,
posting a sparkling 1.50 ERA. Rainiers relievers have been simply untouchable,
throwing 5.2 scoreless innings, allowing just five hits, and only one of those
for extra bases.
Be sure to get your tickets now for
Sunday’s series finale against the rival Portland Beavers, which will conclude
the first half of the Pacific Coast League schedule.
The Rainiers and Beavers will face off
in a special 1:30 p.m. Sunday start before the three-day All-Star Break.
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