ABOUT LAST NIGHT: Kane County beat the Rattlers 8-0. Joe Piekarz struck out eleven over eight innings, allowed just three hits, and faced just two batters over the minimum. Isaac Omura had four hits, drove in three runs, and scored two others to pace the Cougar offense. Neither Piekarz nor reliever Joe Newby walked a batter.
SHUTDOWN: The Rattlers have been shutout in two of their last three games. Quad Cities shutout the Rattlers 6-0 in the final game of the first half. Wisconsin has been shutout seven times this season. Last night was the second time this season the Cougars have shutout the Rattlers.
HEAVY WORKLOAD: Rattler starting pitcher Marwin Vega threw 88 pitches in just 2-2/3 innings. He walked four, allowed five hits, and five runs. Three of the runs he allowed were unearned, but those three unearned runs scored on a throwing error by Vega.
DEEP SIX: The Rattlers have lost six straight games. This is their longest losing streak of the season.
OF WALKS AND K’s: Five Rattler pitchers set a new season high for walks in a game by issuing eleven free passes. Only Roman Martinez did not walk a batter. Harold Williams (2), Edgar Guaramato (2), and Rollie Gibson (3) joined Vega’s four. The Rattlers also matched a season high for strikeouts in a game last night with fourteen: Vega (3), Williams (3), Martinez (4), Guaramato (2), and Gibson (2).
ON PACE? Wisconsin pitchers have walked nineteen Kane County batters in the first two games of this series. Rattler hurlers have walked 325 batters in 72 games this season. The Midwest League record of most walks in a season is 788 and was set in just 126 games by Paris in 1958. The Timber Rattler record for most walks in a season is 673 and was set by the 1996 Rattler pitching staff.
END OF THE LINE: Luis Valbuena was 0-for-3 and had his hitting streak end at eleven games.
FOR THE WANT OF A LONG BALL: The Rattlers have not homered since Valbuena went deep at Lansing on June 13. That is a seven game homerless streak for the team. The homer drought at home for the Rattlers is six games. Wisconsin hasn’t homered at Fox Cities Stadium since a Nick Prosise blast against the Clinton LumberKings on June 5.
VS. KANE COUNTY IN ’06: The Rattlers are just 3-11 against the Cougars in 2006. The Cougars took three out of four games in each of the three series played in the first half. Most recently, the Cougars went 3-1 against the Rattlers at Fox Cities Stadium June 7-9. The teams split a doubleheader on the 7th and Kane County won the final two games. The Cougars have outscored Wisconsin 84-44 this season.
OPPOSING STARTING PITCHER: Trey Shields, a 9th round pick of the Athletics in 2005, played his college baseball at the University of Alabama. He lost his last start of the first half. On June 13 at Burlington, Shields gave up five runs (four earned) on ten hits over 5-2/3 innings with two walks and a strikeout. He is 1-0 in two starts against the Rattlers this season. Shields beat Wisconsin at Fox Cities Stadium on June 8. He gave up one run on seven hits over seven innings with a walk and six strikeouts.
No comments:
Post a Comment