Gamel goes deep, but Tacoma drops second straight to Oklahoma City

The Tacoma bats woke up after sleeping through yesterday’s series opener against Oklahoma City, but it just wasn’t enough as the the Dodgers struck early en route to a 6-3 win over the Rainiers.

Adam Law had three of Tacoma’s 10 hits and Ben Gamel hit a home run in his first game back in Tacoma since being optioned by the Mariners, but it wasn’t enough, as the Rainiers lost their second straight to drop them three games under .500.

Tacoma had another tough night with runners on, going 2-for-8 with men in scoring position and leaving nine on.

“Our situation hitting still has to get better,” Rainiers manager Pat Listach said after the game. “It’s been two weeks now where we’ve struggled situationally, especially with the bases loaded, we haven’t gotten them in.”

Tacoma loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh with one out, bringing the tying run to the plate, but Daniel Vogelbach popped out and Cameron Rupp struck out looking on a full count to end the frame with a whimper.

Rob Whalen struggled out of the gate, hitting Tim Locastro to lead off the top of the first inning. Henry Ramos followed that with an RBI double to immediately put the Dodgers up 1-0. Oklahoma City got another on an RBI single a batter later, and should have had two more on a deep fly ball off the bat of Kyle Farmer, but John Andreoli jumped at the wall to pull it back, double off the runner at first, and limiting the damage.

“That was a great catch,” Listach said. “We need our defense to make plays like that. That’s how you win ball games.”

The Dodgers continued to get to Whalen, putting up six runs (five earned) on four hits, including a two-run homer off the bat of Angelo Mora in the top of the fifth. Whalen struck out five and walked three.

Mike Morin pitched two clean innings, allowing one base hit and striking out three. Marc Rzepczynski and Justin Grimm both made their first appearances for Tacoma, combining to take care of the eighth. Nick Rumbelow allowed a pair of hits, but struck out the side in a scoreless ninth.

Tacoma broke onto the scoreboard for the first time this series on an Andreoli RBI single in the bottom of the third, scoring Law. Seth Mejias-Brean made it 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI of his own.

After Oklahoma City extended its lead, Gamel pulled a ball 379 feet deep into the hill beyond the right field wall at Cheney Stadium to bring it back to 6-3.

Bryan Evans is slated to start for Tacoma in the third game of the four-game series against Oklahoma City tomorrow. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Vincej back (and confident)

Zach Vincej has started 582 games at shortstop in his minor league career, playing over 5,100 innings there since 2012. Pretty much all of his other game experience has been at second base, but he’s always been prepared for different circumstances.

“I’ve been taking a lot of ground balls at third over the past couple of years just in case if something were to happen,” Vincej said at Cheney Stadium before Thursday night’s game.

As it turned out, something did happen, and Wednesday, Vincej got just his second career start at the hot corner — in front of 47,447 fans at Safeco Field.

Vincej got his call up to Seattle while the Rainiers were in New Orleans, coming up to fill in as an emergency infielder when Kyle Seager went on paternity leave. Then, Ryon Healy’s back tightened up, and it was time for Vincej’s second career MLB start.

“It was up in the air, I wasn’t supposed to start that day.” Vincej said. “I just got the call that I was playing; you have to be prepared at all times.”

Playing out of position, Vincej made the one play that came his way, but made more noise at the plate, where he went 2-for-4 with his first career big league RBI.

Listach was busy preparing for his own game as Vincej was playing his, but after hearing about his success, he sent his congratulations to his starting shortstop. He was unaware, though, that Vincej’s run with the Mariners had already ended.

“I said ‘Nice job today, go get you a nice steak dinner tonight, you earned it,’” Listach said. “’ And he goes, ‘Thanks, I’ll see you tomorrow.’ I didn’t know he had gotten sent back down.”

Vincej did get his nice dinner with his fiance before reporting back, though.

“I just enjoyed it and relaxed,” Vincej said. “Nothing too crazy. It was just a good day.”

Now back in Tacoma and patrolling short at Cheney Stadium, Vincej is back with the confidence that only a big-league call-up can bring.

“You get confidence, because you know that you can play up there,” Listach said. “This game is such a negative game as far as the percentage of outs you make.

“Half of this game is confidence. If you think you belong up there, you probably do… If you go up there and have success, you come back here saying, ‘I know I can do it because I just did it.’ It breeds confidence, and confidence is contagious.”

Roster moves

The Tacoma roster is still in a bit of a flux, feeling the repercussions of Seattle’s moves at the trade deadline.

With Vincej back, Ryne Ogren was sent back to short season Single-A Everett. Gordon Beckham cleared waivers, but has yet to report back to Tacoma, leaving the Rainiers with four infielders on the active roster.

Casey Lawrence and Ben Gamel both reported to Tacoma after being sent back from Seattle; Gamel got the start in right field Thursday night. Justin Grimm came back from the disabled list. To clear up space, Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Tucker Healy were released.

This story was originally published August 2, 2018 at 6:27 PM.