Tacoma Rainiers fans have probably had the thought more than once this season: “They’re playing Salt Lake again?”
Yeah, it’s been crazy, but it’s finally coming to an end. The Rainiers are playing their final two games against the Bees this weekend. We’ll be all done with these guys in a little more than 24 hours from now.
When Sunday’s game concludes, the Rainiers will have played 30 of their first 123 games against Salt Lake. When the season ends in late September, Tacoma will have played 20% of its schedule (30/150) against the Angels Triple-A affiliate.
Tacoma took four road trips to Salt Lake City this season, playing 18 games against the Bees (two six-game series and two three-game series). And the Bees visited Tacoma twice, playing twelve games in a pair of six-game series.
Salt Lake leads the season series, 15-13. Personally, I’m hoping that the Rainiers win the final two games to have it finish dead even at 15-15, and then we can sit back and wonder what, exactly, we have accomplished here the last five months.
I’ve been told that next year’s schedule, while not perfectly balanced, is going to be better-balanced than this year’s was. Thank goodness.
RAINIER’S DAILY
YESTERDAY: Salt Lake won on Friday night, 4-3, behind the pitching of their ace Cesar Valdez. Valdez tossed six scoreless innings and left with a 2-0 lead. Tacoma scored a run on infield singles and speed in the eighth inning to make it 2-1, but a two-run double by Michael Stefanic in the bottom of the inning made it 4-1. Those became important insurance runs when Mark Wilson launched a two-out, two-run homer in the top of the ninth and the Rainiers finished one run short.
TODAY: Tacoma Rainiers (55-66) at Salt Lake Bees (57-64), 5:35 (Pacific).
OPPONENT AFFILIATION: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
OPPOSING MANAGER: Lou Marson
SEASON SERIES: Salt Lake leads, 15-13.
PITCHERS: LHP Roenis Elias (1-2, 5.87) at RHP Michael Lorenz (0-1, 6.00)
Lorenzen is a major league on a rehabilitation assignment; he’s 6-6 with a 4.94 ERA in 13 starts for the Angels this season.
ROSTER MOVES: None yet today as of blog posting time.
HOT HITTERS: Eric Mejia has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games… Mason McCoy has reached base safely in eight straight games, and he has homered six times over his last 15 games… Taylor Trammel has a seven-game hitting streak.
OPPONENT NEWS: Salt Lake has returned home from Reno, where the Bees lost four of six games including the last three in a row… Jake Palomaki has hit safely in ten of his last 11 games… Salt Lake has former Rainiers Dillon Thomas, Jonathan Aroand brian moran…Federal Way native Janson Junk is still with the Bees, and is listed as Sunday’s starting pitcher.
BROADCAST: All games will be broadcast free on a live audio stream which is available right here.
Unfortunately, there is no traditional terrestrial radio station carrying the games at this time.
PCL SCOREBOARD: Follow all league games in real-time with links to broadcasts and Gameday screens right here.
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