Despite Friday’s 8-1 loss to the Salt Lake Bees, the Tacoma Rainiers can still look at the four-day homestand as a success. After all, they finished with a 4-2 record against the Bees in those four days.
A 4-2 record in four days?
Indeed, because of earlier rainouts the two teams had to make up two games during this homestand, hence the six games.
Not only did the Rainiers pick up four wins against the Bees, but they also stretched their lead in the Pacific Coast League Pacific Northern Division to three games over the Bees.
“I’m happy with how it went,” Rainiers manager Daren Brown said. “We stretched the lead to three games over these six games. And we played pretty well in all the games.”
Considering the number of call-ups the pitching staff had to weather the past few weeks, the Rainiers’ 7-3 record in the past 10 games is impressive.
“That’s how it goes down here,” Brown said. “Guys leave and other guys have to step up.”
Coming into Friday night’s game, it seemed Tacoma was in a good spot to win for the fifth time in six games.
The Rainiers were sending their most consistent starting pitcher this season – Chris Seddon – to the mound.
The left-hander was recently named the PCL pitcher of the week for June 14-20 after throwing a complete game shutout of Colorado Springs and five shutout innings of relief in Portland.
He came into the start not allowing a run in 15 innings.
The streak made it exactly 16 innings.
After holding Salt Lake scoreless in the first, Seddon gave up a lead-off homer to power hitter Mark Trumbo to start the second.
The Bees tacked on two more runs in the inning as Carlos Colmenares tripled home a run, and Peter Bourjos added an RBI single.
A lead-off walk came back to bite Seddon in the fifth as Paul McAnulty scored Bourjos with a sacrifice fly later in the inning.
Seddon left after the fifth inning having allowed the four runs on seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts and the Rainiers trailing 4-0.
“He wasn’t as sharp as he’s been all season,” Brown said. “He was up in the zone a little more than he’s been, and that’s when he got hurt. He didn’t get by with any mistakes.”
And on this night, Tacoma wasn’t going to overcome that deficit.
The Rainiers managed a season-low two hits against Bees starter Daniel Davidson, who improved to 7-1, after pitching 6 innings. One of those two hits was a solo home run from Matt Tuiasosopo for the Rainiers’ only run.
“We have had our troubles with soft-tossing lefties this season,” Brown said. “But we hit some balls hard off of him. We squared up three balls in the first inning, but they were all right at people.”
The Rainiers fared no better against reliever Rich Thompson. The veteran right-hander pitched 22/3 scoreless innings, striking out five.
Tacoma relievers weren’t quite as dominant; the Rainiers duo of Yusmeiro Petit and Mumba Rivera each worked two innings and gave up two runs apiece.
ON TAP
The Rainiers open up a four-game road trip today in Sacramento. Right-hander David Pauley (1-6, 3.68 ERA) will get the start for Tacoma, while right-hander Kyle Middleton (4-5, 2.69) will go for the River Cats. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. The game will be broadcast on 850-AM and www.tacomarainiers.com
Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners
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