Rainiers outgun Grizzlies in 10-6 series opening win
Pat Listach has a pretty solid rule about swinging on 3-0 counts:
“Basically, my rule is if you can tie the game or put us in the lead, I want you being aggressive on 3-0,” Listach said after the Rainiers game Thursday night at Cheney Stadium.
So when David Freitas came to the plate with two on and one out in a tie ballgame in the bottom of the seventh, he had his green light, and he took advantage of it.
“He got a good pitch to hit, and he didn’t miss it,” Listach said.
Freitas’ second home run of season brought home three runs and gave the Rainiers back the lead late. Tacoma added one more run on a bases-loaded walk, and rode out 10-6 winners over Fresno.
Tacoma needed less than five innings for every starter to get a hit. The Rainiers finished with 14 — including five doubles — and put three crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
“We had a great team effort on offense,” Listach said.
Freitas went 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and four RBIs. Zach Vincej led the Rainiers in the hit column, going 3-for-5 with a double, and RBI, and a run.
Ben Gamel gave the Tacoma the lead in the bottom of the second on a two-out, 3-RBI double to right field, capping a four-run frame. The Rainiers added two more in the bottom of the fifth on an Andrew Aplin pop up that Alex De Goti lost track of at shortstop and a Freitas single.
Roenis Elias’ third appearance of his rehab stint in Tacoma was by far his most efficient, needing just six pitches to retire the side in order in the top of the first.
Ross Detwiler came in to pitch the second and got off to a rocky start, allowing a double, a two-run home run, and a walk before he recorded an out. After that, though, he retired the next eight batters he faced, allowing one more run in 4 ⅔ innings of work.
“He wasn’t feeling his best,” Listach said. “He was a little nauseous before the game; that’s why I took him out early. He wasn’t feeling well.”
Nick Rumbelow took a blown save, but the big seventh inning gave him his first win of the season. Shawn Armstrong earned the four-out save, striking out three.
David Rollins will get his first start for Tacoma on Friday, as the Rainiers and Grizzlies continue their four-game series at 7:05 from Cheney Stadium.
Into the stretch
It’s Aug. 16, and the Tacoma Rainiers have hit the home stretch.
The Rainiers’ flight didn’t get back into town until Thursday afternoon after leaving Albuquerque earlier in the morning, giving them a late start on beginning their final homestand of the season, a 12-day, 11-game stretch with four games against Fresno.
After that, the Rainiers go on the road for seven more games, ending the regular season Sept. 3. But everyone on the team is hoping for their season to last much longer.
Not because of the playoffs. At 10 ½ games out of first place in the division with 18 remaining, Tacoma would need multiple miracles to make the postseason. But for every player already on the Mariners 40-man roster, and especially for the ones still trying to crack it, the Sept. 1 call-ups loom large..
There are 11 Rainiers already on the 40-man roster — five pitchers and six position players. Others, like Ian Miller, Shawn Armstrong and Tyler Higgins, have been right on the cusp of their first call-up for the past months.
“We’ve got a lot of pieces to the big league team in this clubhouse, and I think a lot of guys will go up and help in September,” Rainiers manger Pat Listach said.
So while the final weeks of the Triple-A season may be a slog, and the players may not be feeling the freshest, it’s not a time to start winding down.
“If you’re tired in August in Triple-A, you’re probably not a big leaguer,” Listach said. “It’s been a grind, but the guys know there could be a lot of baseball left, and hopefully there is.”
The Tacoma roster is full of players with multiple years of MLB experience, looking for another crack at the big leagues. For some of the younger players, still new to Triple-A, these next few weeks could be the most important they’ve had.
“For a guy like Ian Miller, this is probably the most exciting time of his career, if he gets the call,” Listach said. “But a guy like Gordon Beckham, he’s got eight years (in the MLB), and you can still see the smile on his face when they get called up.”
Return of Rollins
With all of the chaos going on the Seattle pitching staff, the Rainiers added to their arsenal, bringing David Rollins back to Tacoma.
Rollins spent the 2015 and 2016 seasons going back and forth between the Mariners and the Rainiers, coming out the bullpen 44 times in Tacoma and 31 times in Seattle.
“What jumps out at me the most that I remember from two years ago is that he didn’t walk a batter until August,” Listach said. “So he’s a strike-thrower.”
Rollins began the 2017 season with the Cubs in Triple-A Iowa, but was released in August. He started this season in independent ball, pitching 113 innings in 16 starts — averaging over seven innings per start — with a 2.23 ERA for Sussex County of the Canadian-American Association.
This story was originally published August 16, 2018 at 7:12 PM.