The Tacoma Rainiers swept the doubleheader against Sacramento on Monday, 8-4 and 6-5, and moved closer to winning the Triple-A West Regular Season Championship.
Tacoma now has a three-game lead over both Reno and Sugar Land with seven games remaining. Tacoma’s “magic number” to clinch the title over each team is five. That means that if the Rainiers were to go 4-3 over the final seven games, either Reno or Sugar Land would have to go 7-0 to pass Tacoma.
If the Rainiers win the title, the celebration is going to be in El Paso. Tonight’s game is the last home game of the regular season, and Tacoma travels to El Paso for the final six games starting on Thursday night.
A Regular Season Championship seems like a fit for the Rainiers. We’ll have a more detailed post on this later, if warranted, but whenever the playoff situation got weird in the last 50 years of the Pacific Coast League the Tacoma franchise was always involved. And this is definitely a weird playoff situation in 2021, with the Regular Season Championship followed by the “Triple-A Final Stretch.”
Tonight’s game is the last regular season home game for the Rainiers, but don’t forget we have five more home games for the “Triple-A Final Stretch,” September 29 to October 3. Then we hibernate until spring.
RAINIERS DAILY
YESTERDAY: The Rainiers swept a doubleheader from Sacramento on Monday. Tacoma cruised to an 8-4 win in the first game, as Logan Verrett limited Sacramento to one run over the first five innings and earned his tenth win of the season, tying him for the league lead. Jose Godoy and Donovan Walton made their returns to the lineup and each reached base three times. The Rainiers walked them off in the second game, 6-5, as Jantzen Witte singled in the winning run to complete a comeback from a 5-0 deficit. Taylor Trammell hit two doubles and walked twice, and Sam Travis had a double and a homer.
TODAY: Sacramento (48-62) at Tacoma (68-45), 7:05.
OPPONENT AFFILIATION: San Francisco Giants.
OPPOSING MANAGER: Dave Brundage.
SEASON SERIES: Tacoma leads, 15-8.
PITCHERS: RHP Sean Hjelle (1-4, 6.19) at RHP Asher Wojciechowski (0-0, 6.23)
HOT HITTERS: Jantzen Witte has gone 73-for-217 (.336) over his last 55 games… Donovan Walton had an eight-game hitting streak end in the second game of the doubleheader… Marcus Wilson has gone 17-for-52 with three homers and 11 walks over his last 15 games… there was a week between them, but Jose Godoy has had three hits in each of his last two games… Sam Travis is 9-for-21 with three doubles and a homer over his last seven games.
OPPONENT NEWS: Sacramento split a six-game home series against Salt Lake that included the franchise’s first nine inning no-hitter… former Rainier Braden Bishop hit two game-winning home runs – one a walk-off – when Tacoma and Sacramento split a six-game series August 19-24… Bishop has a six-game hitting streak… Wyatt Mathisen was released by Tacoma on August 24 and signed with Sacramento just six days later, and he has homered twice in this series.
BROADCAST: All games will be broadcast free on a live audio stream which is available right here.
Unfortunately, there is no traditional terrestrial radio station carrying the games at this time.
TRIPLE-A WEST SCOREBOARD: Follow all league games in real-time with links to Gameday screens right here.
STORIES YOU MIGHT LIKE:
- News: Seattle has been awarded the 2023 MLB All-Star Game. That will be fun!
- The Mariners won the first game of a critical three-game series against the Red Sox last night, 5-4.
- Catcher Tom Murphy worked his way out of a slump, and Justin Dunn may pitch for the Rainiers this week.
- No Mariners appear in this week’s edition of the Baseball America Prospect Hot Sheet, but here it is anyway.
- Mariners 2021 first round draft pick Harry Ford makes an appearance in Fangraphs “Daily” Prospect Notes.
Listen to every home and away Tacoma Rainiers game for free HERE. You can also download the MiLB First Pitch app for a free and easy one-click listening experience at home, work or in your car. Watch an HD video broadcast of every game with an MiLB.TV subscription. Use code: RAINIERS to save $10 on an annual subscription.
About the Tacoma Rainiers
The Tacoma Rainiers are the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. The Rainiers are a member of the Triple-A West. Tacoma has been a Mariners affiliate since establishing the Rainiers moniker in 1995.
Find more information and purchase single game tickets here. Questions regarding season tickets can be directed to Tickets@WeRTacoma.com.
The most up-to-date news and notes about the Tacoma Rainiers and Cheney Stadium can be found at WeRTacoma.com, or by following the Rainiers on Twitter (@RainiersLand), Instagram (@tacomarainiers) and liking the team on Facebook.
March 16, 2023