Game Notes Double-A Affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels Director of Broadcasting and Baseball Information: Josh Caray - [email protected]
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GAME NOTES DOUBLE-A AFFILIATE OF THE LOS ANGELES ANGELS DIRECTOR OF BROADCASTING AND BASEBALL INFORMATION: JOSH CARAY - [email protected] MEDIA RELATIONS COORDINATOR: AARON CHERIS - [email protected] ROCKET CITY TRASH PANDAS (16-16) TENNESSEE SMOKIES (10-21) 3rd PLACE, DOUBLE-A SOUTH (NORTH) AT 4th PLACE, DOUBLE-A SOUTH (NORTH) RHP AARON HERNANDEZ (DOUBLE-A DEBUT) RHP CAM SANDERS (0-1, 4.40) SMOKIES STADIUM - KODAK, TN - FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 2021 - 6:00 PM CT GAME 33 | ROAD GAME 16 | TODAY’S BROADCASTS ONLINE MiLB TV RADIO SPORTSRADIO 730 AM/103.9 FM THE UMP UPCOMING STARTERS ROCKET CITY STATS Overall Record ....................... 16-16 DATE TIME (CT) OPPONENT TRASH PANDAS STARTER OPPONENT STARTER Home Record ......................... 10-7 Saturday, June 12 6:00 PM @ Tennessee LHP Reid Detmers (1-2, 3.60) RHP Erich Uelman (0-3, 5.06) Road Record ........................... 6-9 Sunday, June 13 1:00 PM @ Tennessee TBA RHP Javier Assad (0-3, 6.33) vs. North Division .................. 15-11 Monday, June 14 OFF vs. South Division .................. 1-5 vs RHP .......................................... 11-9 LAST TIME OUT: The Trash Pandas picked up their eighth consecutive win over the Tennessee Smokies with a 6-4 victory vs LHP .......................................... 5-7 Night ............................................ 15-13 on Thursday night on the strength of four home runs. A solo shot in the second by left fielder Izzy Wilson was followed Day ................................................. 1-4 by a two-run bomb in the third from center fielder Orlando Martinez to erase a 2-0 deficit and give Rocket City a 3-2 Last 10 .......................................... 6-4 Streak ........................................... W4 lead. After Tennessee retook the lead at 4-3, Wilson launched an eighth-inning drive to tie the game, then Torii Hunter Jr. 1-Run Games ........................... 4-5 lined another two-run dinger in the ninth to give Rocket City their fourth consecutive win. The Trash Pandas now have Home Attendance ................ 98,336 38 hits for the series after garnering 12 more on Thursday. Wilson went 4-4 with two homers, two RBI, two runs scored Home Avg. Attendance .... 6,146 Season Sellouts ...................... 2 and two stolen bases. Hunter Jr. finished 3-4 with two doubles and the game-winning round-tripper to go along with two runs scored. Second baseman Gavin Cecchini chipped in with two more singles. Reliever Nathan Bates got the win after firing two perfect innings in the eighth and ninth with a strikeout. TEAM STATS Batting Average .................... .242 READY FOR LAUNCH: The Trash Pandas have lived up to the Rocket City nickname by launching 48 homers, which leads Hits .................................................. 257 Runs ............................................... 145 AA-South and is second in all of AA. 12 of those dingers came in the first Tennessee series, including two grand slams Runs/Game .............................. 4.5 in the series finale on 5/16. Outfielder Izzy Wilson leads the way with nine, with fellow outfielder Orlando Martinez right Doubles ...................................... 38 Triples ............................................ 4 behind him at seven. Three of the seven from Martinez came on 5/7 in a 12-10 win at Chattanooga. Home Runs ............................... 48 RBI ................ ................................... 142 TEEING OFF ON TENNESSEE: Of the 48 home runs hit by Rocket City this season, 36 have come against the state of Stolen Bases ............................. 23 Team ERA ................................... 4.04 Tennessee. The four-homer barrage on 6/10 gave the Trash Pandas 20 homers this season against the Smokies, the most Innings Pitched ..................... 278.1 against any team. In addition, the Trash Pandas have done a number on the other Tennessee opponent, Chattanooga, Hits Allowed .............................. 257 as the Trash Pandas have gone yard against the Lookouts 16 times. Strikeouts ................................... 320 TRASH PANDAS LEADERS IZZY BEEN BUSY: Since turning the calendar to June, outfielder Izzy Wilson has been solid going 11-24 (.458) with four Games ......................................... 3 Tied, 30 homers and seven RBI. The first homerun was especially memorable as he launched a three-run blast off Chattanooga Batting Average ..................... Stefanic, .345 At-Bats .......................................... Martinez, 127 starting pitcher Hunter Greene, one of the top prospects in all of MILB, on 6/4. The following week, Wilson had a night Runs .............................................. Martinez, 18 to remember as he went 4-4 with two singles, two homers, two runs scored and two stolen bases on 6/10 against Ten- Hits ................................................. Martinez, 36 nessee. In addition, Wilson has stolen four bases in the Tennessee series that began on 6/8. It gives him eight steals in Doubles ....................................... Martinez, 7 Triples ............................................ Didder, 3 11 attempts to rank second in Double-A South.. Home Runs ............................... Wilson, 9 RBI ................................................... Martinez, 22 Stolen Bases ............................. Wilson, 8 WHADDYA SAY NAY?: On 5/27, third-baseman Mitch Nay reached a season-low by going 0-4 with two strikeouts to Walks ............................................ Nay, 16 drop to .138 on the season. Since then, the former Chattanooga Lookout has been on fire by going 10-38 (.263) over his On-Base % ................................ Stefanic, .406 last 11 games with two dingers and five RBI. Rocket City is in fact Nay’s third go-around in AA-South. He was in the Reds Slugging % ............................... Wilson, .505 Innings Pitched ..................... Tyler, 33.0 organization in 2018 when he played at Pensacola and batted .262 with six round-trippers and 26 RBI in 63 games. The Wins .............................................. Tyler, 3 following season, the Reds switched their Double-A affiliation to Chattanooga and Nay prospered by hitting .304 with 13 ERA ................................................ Tyler, 2.45 homers and 54 RBI over 82 games. The homers and batting average were both career-highs. Later that year, he made Strikeouts ................................... Detmers, 40 Saves .............................................. Higgins, 4 his first appearance at Triple-A by playing for the Louisville Bats and rocketed four home runs in 32 games. vs DOUBLE-A SOUTH K’s DE’K’LINING: After leading Double-A South for much of the year in strikeouts, along with all of Double-A briefly, the OVERALL HOME ROAD Rocket City hitters have done a better job of putting the ball in play. Over their last nine games, the Trash Pandas have BUFFALOBIRMINGHAM 2- 4 2- 4 0--0 struck out less than 10 times in the seven of the contests. The total is still high as 334 is third in Double-A South and 10th COLUMBUSCHATTANOOGA 51-16 3-- 2 21-14 for all of Double-A. DURHAMTENNESSEE 58--61 55--41 03-20 GWINNETTNORTH DIVISION 1015-115 105--37 5-24 TODAY'S STARTING PITCHER: Right-hander Aaron Hernandez will make his Double-A debut this evening for the Trash INDIANAPOLIS 3-7 1-2 2-5 Pandas. A 3rd round draft choice in 2018, Hernandez was 1-2 with a 1.93 ERA in five starts for high-A Tri-City this season. LEHIGHMISSISSIPPI VALLEY (NOT ON2- 12021 SCHEDULE2-1 - ) He fanned 20 in 18.2 innings while walking 13 and allowing four earned runs. Opponents only batted .175 against him. LOUISVILLEBILOXI 60-30 05-01 01--20 In 2019, Hernandez had a 4.46 ERA in 20 games at High-A Inland Empire. He struck out 81 in 72.2 innings and walked NORFOLKMONTGOMERY 70--40 30--00 40--40 46 with opponents batting .269. He pitched collegiately for two seasons at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and became the PAWTUCKETPENSACOLA 1-5 0- 0 1-5 seventh Islander to record 100 strikeouts or more in a season when he struck out 102 in 83.0 innings in 2018. Played for ROCHESTERSOUTH DIVISION 3-31-5 3-00-0 0-31-5 Mesa in the Arizona Fall League following the 2019 season and went 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA (7 ER/18.2 IP), 25 strikeouts and SCRANTON/WB - - - six walks over six starts for the Solar Sox. Participated in the Cape Cod League in 2017 for the Wareham Gateman and SYRACUSE 3-3 2-1 1-2 went 1-0 with a 0.90 ERA (1 ER/10.0 IP) and 11 strikeouts over five relief outings. TOLEDO 4-2 2-1 2-1 WHAT IS A TRASH PANDA? The name was chosen in a name-the-team contest and is a reference to the area's association with the space industry and the determination and ingenuity of raccoons, aka trash pandas. Trash Pandas, slang for raccoon, was included in the original 10 nominations following several Brandiose-led focus groups in Madison and Huntsville. The ballot descriptor read: Our community is known for engineering, and no creature in our galaxy is as smart, creative, determined and ingenious a problem solver - dedicated to the challenge at hand - as our local raccoons! In July 2018, after the results from several focus groups in Madison and Huntsville,10 names were selected, based on their uniqueness and how each name relates to the character- istics of the area: (Alphabetically) Army Ants, Comet Jockeys, GloWorms, Lunartics, Moon Possums, Puffy Head Bird Legs, Space Chimps, Space Sloths, ThunderSharks and Trash Pan- das. The focus groups were led by San Diego-based Brandiose, the Minor League Baseball industry's premiere branding partner. Over the next few weeks, two rounds of online voting took place. The frst round narrowed the list to Comet Jockeys, Moon Pos- sums, Space Chimps, ThunderSharks and Trash Pandas. Trash Pandas won the fnal round with 44.75 percent of the vote to ThunderSharks 19.25 percent. Moon Possums was third (12.57 percent); Space Chimps fourth (12.05 percent); and Comet Jockeys ffth (11.38 percent). By the way, Trash Pandas dominated both rounds. More than 28,500 nominations and votes were recorded. According to Brandiose, this represented - by far - the largest community participation in a Name the Team contest in the history of Minor League Baseball.