Hartford Yard Goats ((Rockies)) vs. Thunder Thunder ((Yankees)) LHP Evan Grills (2-4, 3.52) vs. RHP Trevor Stephan (2-8, 5.37) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday August 21, 2018 • 7:00 PM • Game 127 of 140 • ARM & HAMMER Park • Trenton, NJ 2 LAST GAME: 2018 Eastern League Standings The Thunder offense sputtered on Monday night and could not drum up run support for a strong start by Luis Cessa in a 4-0 loss to the Hartford Yard Goats at ARM & HAMMER Park. 2.Eastx Division W L GB Streak New Hampshire 69 54 -- L1 Hartford right-hander Rico Garcia allowed just a pair of third-inning singles and matched a career-high with 10 strikeouts over eight scoreless innings as the Thunder (68- 58) put just three runners in scoring position in the game. Trenton 68 58 2.5 L2 Reading 60 65 10.0 W1 Cessa struck out eight and scattered four hits over six innings of work for Trenton, but with one out and the bases loaded in the third inning, Cessa saw a would-be inning- Binghamton 60 66 10.5 L1 ending double-play grounder skip over the head of second baseman Gosuke Katoh, scoring the game’s first two runs. Drew Weeks followed with an RBI-groundout to first Hartford 57 66 12.0 W1 base for a 3-0 Yard Goats lead. Portland 54 70 15.5 W1 Phillip Diehl kept the game within reach for the Thunder by tossing two scoreless innings in relief, but Hartford added one run in the ninth on a Scott Burcham RBI-infield single off right-hander Chase Hodson. West Division W L GB Streak Akron 70 5 6 -- L1 The Thunder posed their first scoring threat in the third, when Jhalan Jackson and Danienger Perez put two runners on with one out. But a popout and a diving catch of a Altoona 68 55 0.5 W2 Wendell Rijo line drive by Hartford center fielder Omar Carrizales ended the threat. Jackson also reached third with one out in the eighth inning on a dropped fly ball by Carrizales, but was left stranded. Harrisburg 63 61 6.0 L3 Erie 60 66 10.0 W1 In the bottom of the ninth, Brandon Wagner lined a two-out single off Yard Goats reliever Matt Pierpont, but after Trey Amburgey followed with a walk, Jorge Saez struck Bowie 59 65 10.0 W2 out swinging to end the game. Richmond 59 65 10.0 L1 2018 Monthly Report THUNDER CLAPS: THINKING POSTSEASON: Since April 11, the Thunder have sat in either first or second place in the Eastern Division standings. April: 12- 9, May: 20-12, June: 14-13, Currently two-and-a-half games behind first-place New Hampshire and eight games ahead of third-place Binghamton, Trenton is July: 14-13, August: 8-11, September: 0-0 seeking its third consecutive trip to the EL playoffs, a streak that has been achieved just once in franchise history (2005-2007). The Thunder’s Magic Number to clinch a playoff spot stands at 7 entering play on Tuesday. Date Opponent Time/Result 8/1 @ Reading W 6-1 WALK, DON’T RUN: Saturday’s doubleheader marked the first-ever occurrence of consecutive walk-off walks in Thunder franchise 8/2 @ Reading L 8-4 history-27 and the 7th and 8th walk-off wins of the season for the Thunder. Since 2005, there have been two prior instances of teams winning consecutive games via walk-off walk: 5/25 and 5/26/16 Portland @ Harrisburg and 7/4/08 in a doubleheader between DSL 8/3 @ Hartford W 2-1 Athletics 1 and DSL Athletics 2. Never in Major League history has a team won consecutive games via walk-off walk, the last team to 8/4 @ Hartford L 6-3 win consecutive games via walk-off was the Cleveland Indians on 8/8 and 8/9 of this year. 8/5 @ Hartford W 4-2 (11) 8/7 Altoona L 5-1 THE HOME STRETCH: Including tonight, the Thunder have just 14 games remaining in the regular season. Ten of those are against 8/8 Altoona W 2-1 the Eastern Division, while Trenton will still face the Altoona Curve for one more series to round out its slate of games against the 8/9 Altoona L 9-7 Western Division. 8/10 @ Harrisburg W 10-1 GOATS NOTES: The Thunder have won four of their seven matchups with Hartford this season. Four of the games have been 8/11 @ Harrisburg L 9-1 decided by three or fewer runs, including August 5, which saw the Thunder win 4-2 in 11 innings. Since the team’s inaugural season 8/12 @ Harrisburg L 6-3 in 1994, Trenton is 195-161 all-time against the Hartford/New Britain franchise. 8/13 8/14 @ Portland L 5-2 (10) BLANKETY-BLANK: After Monday’s loss, the Thunder have been shut out eight times this season, and also matched a season-low 8/15 @ Portland L 6-5 with three hits in a nine-inning game. Seven of the eight shutouts have come at home, and overall, Trenton ranks tenth in the Eastern 8/16 @ Portland L 3-2 League in runs scored. 8/17 New Hampshire W 3-1 UFF DA: Sunday’s blowout loss to New Hampshire saw the Thunder yield season-highs in runs (12), hits (15), runs in an inning 8/18 New Hampshire (DH) W 5-4 (9), W 3-2 (seven in the ninth), and gave the team its largest margin of defeat (11). It was the sixth time this season Trenton has allowed a 8/19 New Hampshire L 12-1 double-digit run total. 8/20 Hartford L 4-0 8/21 Hartford 7:00 PM WALK LIKE A MAN: Gosuke Katoh has drawn nine walks over his last 11 games and currently leads the Thunder with 55 bases on 8/22 @ Reading 7:15 PM balls, a mark that is tied for third-most among Eastern League hitters. The 23-year-old infielder has offset a .233 batting average with 8/23 @ Reading 7:15 PM a .332 on-base percentage. 8/24 @ Hartford 7:05 PM 8/25 @ Hartford 6:05 PM 8/26 @ Hartford 1:05 PM 8/27 @ Altoona 6:00 PM Upcoming Probable Starting Pitchers: 8/28 @ Altoona 6:00 PM 8/29 @ Altoona 6:00 PM Wed., August 22 @ Reading 7:15 PM RHP Jonathan Loaisiga (3-1, 4.44) vs. RHP Blake Quinn (0-0, 0.00) 8/30 @ Altoona 6:00 PM 8/31 Reading 7:00 PM Thursday,+ August 23 @ Reading 7:15 PM TBA vs. RHP Ranfi Casimiro (5-3, 3.97) 9/1 Reading 7:00 PM Friday, August 24 @ Hartford 7:05 PM RHP Brian Keller (9-8, 3.58) vs. TBA 9/2 Reading 7:00 PM Saturday, August 25 @ Hartford 6:05 PM LHP Ryan Bollinger (7-5, 4.03) vs. TBA 9/3 Reading 1:00 PM #21 Trevor Stephan 2018 Game By Game: 6’5” – 225 – Age: 22 (11/25/1995) Game Result Dec. IP H R ER BB K HR Pitches 4/5 @ Lakeland --- 4.0 3 2 2 1 7 1 84/51 Born: Austin, TX Resides: Magnolia, TX 4/11 @ St. Lucie --- 6.0 3 0 0 0 7 0 85/53 rd School: University of Arkansas Acquired: 3 Round, 2017 4/18 vs Daytona W (1-0) 6.0 2 0 0 2 8 0 88/57 4/24 @ Bradenton --- 5.2 4 2 2 1 6 1 89/55 5/1 vs Ft. Myers W (2-0) 7.0 3 1 1 1 6 1 86/60 2018: Began the season with High-A Tampa going 3-1 with a 1.98 ERA in 7 starts (41.0 5/7 @ Daytona L (2-1) 5.1 3 2 2 4 4 1 91/51 IP, 23 H, 9 BB, 49 K)… Ranked #15 prospect in NYY system (MLB.com)… Ranks in 5/15 vs Dunedin W (3-1) 7.0 5 2 2 0 11 1 91/70 FSL at time of call-up: 3rd in ERA (1.98), 1st in Strikeouts (49), 1st in WHIP (0.78), 1st in 5/22 @ AKR L 6-3 L (0-1) 4.1 9 6 6 2 5 0 73/50 OBA (.160), 2nd in K/9 among starters (10.76)… Made AA Debut on 5/22 @ Akron, *G2 of DH // K’d side in order in 1st, 5-of-first-6 outs were K’s (none after 2nd inning) struck out the side in order in the first inning… Left start on 5/29 vs. Reading after 5/29 vs. REA W 5-4 --- 5.2 2 0 0 1 7 0 84/54 taking a line drive off his foot hit by INF Damek Tomscha, had retired eight in a *Left after line drive from Tomscha hit right foot, 5 K’s first time through the order row… 5/29 through 6/19 (4 starts): 2-1, 0.87 ERA (2 ER in 20.2 IP), OBA .167 (12-for- 6/6 vs. RIC L 5-1 L (0-2) 5.0 5 1 1 1 6 0 90/60 72)… Matched longest start with Thunder on 7/7 at Altoona with 5.2 innings *Allowed lone run in first, surrendered baserunner in each of five innings. pitched… Has allowed 7 or more baserunners in 9-of-14 starts with Trenton 6/12 @ BOW W 8-3 W (1-2) 5.0 2 0 0 2 6 0 84/53 *Needed 41 pitches to get through first two innings, also hit 3 batters.