Game Notes for 7/31

ABOUT SUNDAY: The Rattlers fell 5-3 to the Snappers. Beloit jumped out to a 5-0 lead and couldn’t come all the way back.

KNOCK AROUND GUY: Marwin Vega allowed five runs in the loss as the starting pitcher for the Rattlers. It was the sixth time in fourteen starts this season in which Vega has allowed five or more runs.

SET ‘EM UP; SET ‘EM DOWN: Beloit starter Alexander Smit retired the first ten Rattlers he faced in Sunday’s game. Yesterday was the third game in a row in which a Snapper starting pitcher retired at least ten straight Rattler hitters. Yohan Pino set down eighteen in a row on Friday and Oswaldo Sosa retired thirteen straight.

LONG GONE: Robby Hudson’s three-run homer in the fifth inning accounted for the only Rattler runs of the game. The dinger was his fourth of the season.

CHANCES WERE: The Rattlers had the tying run at the plate or on base from the fifth inning through the ninth inning but could not get that run across the pay station.

STILL SCORELESS: Reliever Austin-Bibens-Dirkx did not allow a run in the bottom of the seventh to extend his scoreless streak to 12-1/3 innings. He also struck out a pair to give him nineteen strikeouts over fourteen innings this season.

STILL SCORELESS PT II: Reliever Brian Kappel worked a scoreless bottom of the eighth to extend his current scoreless streak to six innings.

SEASON LOW: The loss yesterday dropped the Rattlers to 39-68 on the season. This is a season low twenty-nine games under .500 for the season.

GOOD-BYE, JULY: Wisconsin is 10-18 with one game remaining in the month. They have been outscored 141-111 so far this month. The Rattlers are have hit .244 as a team in July. The pitching staff has an ERA of 4.40 this month.

OPPOSING STARTING PITCHER: Ryan Mullins was a 3rd round pick of the Twins in the 2005 draft out of Vanderbilt where he was a member of the first team All-SEC squad in his final season. Mullins was 3-0 with a 2.18ERA in eleven starts for Elizabethton in his first pro season. In his last start, Mullins took the loss at Burlington on July 26. He gave up two runs on five hits and three walks over five innings. This is his first appearance against the Rattlers and against an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.