Rainiers come back to top Aces, take series
The mark of a hot team is confidence, which leads to wins, which leads to more confidence. The Tacoma Rainiers are a confident group right now, and it showed in a 5-3 comeback win over the Reno Aces at Cheney Stadium.
“For us to battle back, it was nice,” manager Pat Listach said Monday. “We had a lot of situations, and we finally got some big hits in those situations.”
Casey Lawrence allowed three runs on seven hits — including back-to-back home runs to lead off the third — in five innings of work, and left the game with Tacoma trailing 3-2.
From there, though, the bullpen and defense did their jobs, giving the offense a chance. It wasn’t always pretty, but four Tacoma relievers combined for four shutout innings and saw the game through.
Tacoma started to chip away at the lead in the fourth inning, scoring a run on a fielding error before cutting the deficit to 3-2 the next inning on a Seth Mejias-Brean RBI single.
Zach Vincej came through with the big hit in the sixth, giving Tacoma the lead with a two-run single, scoring David Freitas and Cameron Perkins.
The scoring continued in the seventh, with Andrew Aplin stretching the lead to 5-3 with a two-out RBI single.
Daniel Schlereth came in for his second dose of action in as many days and put up a scoreless sixth inning, though it wasn’t without drama and oddity. Kevin Mendrano led the inning off with a swinging bunt, but blocked the throw to first inside of the baseline and was called out for interference. After a walk and a single put two men on, Reno attempted a double steal, but David Freitas nabbed the lead runner at third. On the next pitch, Juniel Querecuto singled into right, but Cameron Perkins’ throw home nailed Rey Fuentes at the plate to end the inning.
Ryan Garton, Ryan Cook, and Shawn Armstrong each pitched scoreless frames following him. Schlereth earned the win. Armstrong sealed his sixth save of the season.
“It was a good team effort, and we’ll take the win,” Listach said.
Tacoma will wrap up its final homestand of the first half at 7:05 p.m. with Christian Bergman set to face Alex Young.
New guy, old soul
Schlereth has been the new guy in plenty of clubhouses. He has plenty of experience settling into a new team.
“The first couple (days), it takes a little bit of getting used to,” Schlereth said. “But once you get your feet settled and know your surroundings, it should get a little easier.”
Schlereth got his first action for the Rainiers — his 18th team in an 11-year career — Sunday, working with yet another new catcher and pitching coach. He signed a free-agent contract with the Mariners on June 5. He pitched eight games for Double-A Arkansas (1.35 ERA) before being moved to Tacoma.
“I’m just trying to throw the ball over the plate at that point,” Schlereth said. “I like to meet with catchers and tell them what I’m about and see what our plan is. I’ve changed teams so many times that I’ve had to do that a time or two, and it’s getting familiar for me and not too difficult.”
Coming into a one-on, one-out situation, Schlereth quickly rolled an inning-ending double play. Going out for another inning of work, though, he struggled, allowing a single and walking two to load the bases before being pulled.
One of the walks and the single came against left-handed batters. Schlereth, the only left-hander in the Rainiers bullpen, is looking at getting all of the left-handed matchup situations he can stomach in the upcoming weeks.
“I’ve done this before,” Schlereth said. “Practically everyday, if that spot comes up, you’re going to throw. Once you get those reps and face some guys, you get a good plan for what you need to do to get outs on a nightly basis. Hopefully I’ll have some smooth sailing here."
Schlereth, who last pitched in the majors in 2012, has thrown 93 innings in the majors for the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Detroit Tigers. The 32-year-old has career record of 5-6 with a 4.35 ERA.
Law's back — and still hot
Adam Law was called up to Tacoma on May 27, hit .400 in 10 games, and was sent back down to Double-A Arkansas.
Wait, what?
With the Double-A Travelers chasing a first-half Texas League title and in need of infielders, the decision was made to send Law — one of the Rainiers’ hottest hitters — back to help see the half through.
“It wasn’t performance-based in how he did here,” Listach said. “I know he was still disappointed when he went down, but we explained to him before he left that they needed infielders down there, and he was a good guy to go down and help them win the first half."
The Travelers won the half, Law came back to Tacoma, and immediately picked up where he left off. Through the first five games of his second stint, Law is hitting .350 with three multi-hit games and three doubles.
“He’s having good at-bats, driving the ball to all fields,” Listach said. “He’s getting good pitches to hit and he’s not missing them."
This story was originally published July 2, 2018 at 6:16 PM.