Davis homers twice again as Grizzlies beat Rainiers

Fresno got Tacoma back for its Thursday-night onslaught on Friday, jumping on newly-acquired David Rollins early and often in an 8-1 win.

JD Davis led the Grizzlies offense for the second straight night, turning in his second-consecutive two-home-run day and going 3-for-4. He now has six homers in his past four games.

“He’s had two really good games,” Rainiers manager Pat Listach said after the game. “We’ll go back to the video and see if we can find a weakness in his swing, but right now, it doesn’t seem like he has one. Everything he’s hitting is hard.”

Three batters into the top of the first inning, Fresno had its first run, and Rollins had yet to record an out. The Grizzlies stretched their lead further in the top of the third, plating three on JD Davis’ third home run of the series thus far to make it 5-0.

Davis’ fourth — leading off the top of the sixth — stretched it even further, and two batters later, Taylor Jones knocked Rollins out of the game. His first night back in Tacoma ended with eight runs given up on 10 hits in 5 ⅓ innings.

“The ball was flying out pretty good today,” Listach said. “He had a couple of bad innings… they got the ball up in the air, and they ended up going out.”

Ian Miller cracked the shutout in the bottom of the sixth, lining his second home run of the season over the fence in right field to make it 8-1.

Behind Rollins, four Tacoma relievers combined for 3 ⅔ shutout innings.

Casey Lawrence, back from Seattle, is slated to start Saturday night for Tacoma in Game 3 of its four-game series with Fresno.

Gamel heating up (even more)

Ben Gamel didn’t exactly come to Tacoma slumping, building up a .290 batting average in 72 games. But ever since rejoining the Rainiers, he’s been one of the hottest hitters in the PCL.

“I feel good.” Gamel said at Cheney Stadium before Friday night’s game. “I’m just trying to take it one pitch at a time and swing at my pitches.”

The numbers speak for themselves: in his 13 games since being optioned, Gamel has 19 hits for a .373 average, eighth in the PCL in that span. He’s gone hitless in just one of his 12 starts, but has six multi-hit games.

“That’s what he does,” Rainiers manager Pat Listach said at Cheney Stadium before Friday night’s game. “He really dominates this level; that’s why he’s a big-leaguer… He’s a big-league hitter.”

He’s been even better in the friendly confines and wide open outfield of Cheney Stadium, hitting an even .400 at home with seven of his 11 RBIs since coming back to the Rainiers.

In Thursday night’s win over Fresno, Gamel produced the first big blow of the game, clearing the bases with a two-out double to give the Rainiers a 4-2 lead. A 1-for-4 night with three RBI has become standard for him in this recent stretch, but after the game, he told the coaching staff his swing didn’t feel quite right.

“That’s when guys start to play really well, when they know how to fix themselves, and they don’t necessarily need a coach as much, and that’s where he is,” Listach said. “He had some things he wanted to work on with his swing today, we talked about it last night, and we said, ‘We’re going to be here for you.’”

With the Mariners designating John Andreoli for assignment Friday, Seattle now has six outfielders on its 40-man roster (seven counting Dee Gordon), pretty much solidifying Gamel’s spot in the dugout come Sept. 1. But right now, he says his focus is completely in Tacoma.

“I’m going out here with these guys and battling every day,” Gamel said. “That’s really all I can control.”

Whalen moves down

Rob Whalen’s spot in the Rainiers rotation would have come up Friday, but the 24-year-old wasn’t in Tacoma to fill it.

After starting last Sunday in Salt Lake City, Whalen was sent all the way down to short-season Single-A Everett. Listach said it wasn’t injury-related, but it’s looking unlikely that he’ll come back to Tacoma this season.

“He’s probably going to go to Double-A,” Listach said. “He had some personal things going on, so we took him off of our roster, and we replaced by putting someone on who took his spot, so there’s really no room for him to come back once (Casey) Lawrence got sent down.”