Rainiers notes: McCaughan takes no-no into eighth, Tacoma splits six-game set
For most of Wednesday night, Sacramento hitters were left confused and stymied by the unique slider of Darren McCaughan.
The pitch was “cutter-ish” in the words of manager Tim Federowicz. McCaughan’s self-proclaimed best offering, moving at roughly 80 miles per hour, felt better than it had all season, said the 26-year-old starting pitcher on Saturday at Cheney Stadium. Federowicz, a former major league catcher, warmed up McCaughan before the outing.
“(It was) almost like a rise-ball,” Federowicz recalled Saturday. “It was impressive to watch.”
McCaughan found and harnessed the remainder of his arsenal and mixed in an efficient sinker and changeup. The Tacoma starter fell behind in counts with a four-seam fastball but worked back with an array of off-speed offerings.
For 5-2/3 innings, McCaughan was perfect.
“I was on the mound, and I just started rolling and got in a groove,” McCaughan said. “Pitching out of the windup was comfortable, and I was able to do that for a while.”
It wasn’t until he took to the mound that McCaughan knew the power of Wednesday’s arsenal. The morning and pregame routine was, for the most part, a normal one, he said. He struck out Sacramento’s Steven Duggar to start the game, and retired the next 16 batters. A two-out walk in the sixth to Ka’ai Tom spoiled the perfecto, and McCaughan took a no-hitter into the eighth inning in what eventually became a 4-1 Rainiers win.
For seven innings, as McCaughan trotted back to the home dugout with a no-no intact, were players chatty about the performance? Or did they leave the right-hander to his thoughts, reluctant to disrupt McCaughan’s best start of his Triple-A career?
“It was the same vibe in the dugout. Nobody was talking about it or anything,” McCaughan said. “I wasn’t really thinking about it too much.
“I was just trying to (take) it one pitch at a time, and stick to my plan and see what the game has, and pitch off of that.”
His final line featured 11 strikeouts, a career-best with the Rainiers. Sacramento’s Isan Diaz ripped a double into right-center field with one out in the eighth inning, ending McCaughan’s no-hit bid.
When Diaz broke up the no-hitter, Federowicz removed McCaughan, who had thrown a season-high 116 pitches. The remainder of his box score: 7 ⅓ innings, one hit, two walks, and one earned run. Relief pitcher Anthony Misiewicz allowed Diaz, considered an uninherited baserunner, to score on an ensuing RBI double.
Had the no-hitter remained, did McCaughan have enough left in the tank for a ninth inning?
“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “My body was feeling fine and everything. I was just trying to take it one pitch at a time and hit my spot, and that’s what the key was.”
Added Federowicz: “I was going to see how he was doing. If he went out there (in the eighth) and went, like, three straight strikes to every single batter… but he started to struggle a little bit. It would’ve been a tough call. But we would’ve seen where we were after the eighth.”
McCaughan became the first Tacoma starter to win four straight starts this season, and in those starts, has lasted at least five innings and allowed two or less runs. His 66 strikeouts rank seventh among PCL pitchers.
The stretch is an improvement from the opening month of his season, when McCaughan posted a 7.57 earned run average through five April starts and hitters slashed .275/.336/.495 against him.
The former figure is down to 2.60 in three June outings, as hitters struggle to connect with an improving changeup that Federowicz considers the difference-maker for an upward-trending McCaughan.
“I stopped trying to really force things,” McCaughan said. “I just (wanted to) play the game for what it is. The windup and everything (else) feels good mechanically, so I think when that’s solid, you’re really just focused on executing the pitch.”
Wednesday’s win was Tacoma’s third straight, and the club’s second straight over the River Cats in an eventual series split across the week-long set. The Rainiers took the first contest over Sacramento on Tuesday, 3-1, and won again Thursday night, 6-5, behind back-to-back fifth-inning homers from Erick Mejia and Marcus Wilson.
Tacoma dropped each of the final three games at Cheney Stadium with Sacramento over the weekend, the first on Friday by a 7-1 score. The Rainiers lost again Saturday, 5-2, by fate of four River Cat home runs, and failed to grab the set Sunday, losing 12-1.
Despite the three-game skid, Tacoma has yet to lose a series in June, their last to Las Vegas at home from May 24-29. The Rainiers are 9-8 this month and 15-15 across their last 30 games.
RAINIERS TO ‘WAIT AND SEE’ WITH WHITE
Evan White returned to Tacoma’s lineup Tuesday night after re-aggravating a sports hernia-related injury suffered at spring training in March, but the 2020 AL Gold Glove winner has yet to appear since.
The 26-year-old first baseman continues to work through daily soreness, though Federowicz was hopeful White would “be back out there soon.”
Seattle’s first-round draft choice in 2017, White debuted for the Mariners in a pandemic-shortened 2020 season and impressed defensively, taking home Gold Glove honors in his rookie campaign. White slashed .176/.253/.346 in 54 games (202 plate appearances) with eight home runs and 26 RBI that season.
A hip injury ended White’s sophomore season in less than two months, his last appearance in a Mariners uniform on May 13, 2021. By spring training earlier this year, Ty France had earned split-time at practice after a stellar season as interim-turned-starting first baseman, and cemented his fixture in Seattle’s lineup as, arguably, the best bat in the lineup.
“He’s got to take it slow,” Federowicz said of White. “It’s a lot of time, building your body back up.
“We’re waiting to see how he rebounds. He’s got more things to check off on his checklist, and then he’ll be back.”
His first game action this season came on May 18 in Sacramento, and in nine total games, White is 3-for-27 with one RBI and five walks.
SHORT HOPS
▪ OF Jarred Kelenic limped out of Cheney Stadium on June 11 after running out an infield single at first base, but returned for three of Tacoma’s six games with Sacramento last week. Said manager Federowicz: “Everything’s good.”
The 22-year-old and former top prospect served as designated hitter in Tacoma’s 6-5 win Thursday and appeared in left field Friday and Sunday. Kelenic received a scheduled off-day Saturday.
“We’re just being cautious here and there, so he’ll probably get a few more days off,” Federowicz added Saturday. “He has one today, and will probably get a couple more next week.”
▪ Tacoma’s 91 stolen bases lead the Pacific Coast League by 10 (Reno, 81). Bench coach Seth Mejias-Brean, who appeared in 96 games for Tacoma in 2018 – at third base for 91 of them – works regularly with starting and relief pitchers to improve pickoff moves and helped instill the team’s desire for aggression on the base paths.
“Seth has really taken ownership of the baserunning,” Federowicz said. “He’s done a great job.”
▪ Tacoma hitters have struck out 675 times this season, most in the PCL.
How do the Rainiers lessen the whiffs?
“They need to know what they’re good at, and stick to their plan,” Federowicz said. “The majority of the time, when hitters start to chase, they just get out of their plan. They try to guess along with the pitcher. They don’t focus on what they do well. When they focus on what they do well, it’s usually a better foundation.”
ON TAP
Tacoma (26-39) gets Monday off and travels to Sugar Land for an upcoming six-game set with the Triple-A Space Cowboys. The Rainiers kick off the series Tuesday, with first pitch scheduled for 5:05 p.m. PST.
This story was originally published June 21, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
