The Rainiers haven’t exactly had a fun trip to Albuquerque, losing four of the first five games prior to today’s series final, but catcher Joe Odom has been enjoying certain aspects of it.
For the second game in a row on Saturday night, Odom launched a behemoth home run. This one was a 446-foot rainmaker to left-center at Isotopes Park, a two-run shot in the second inning.
This came one day after he blasted a 452-foot homer, also to left-center, on Friday night.
We have these measurements because Statcast numbers are now available for PCL games through Baseball Savant. Some trickery is required to bring up PCL games, but once you do it’s all there. Apparently this is a side effect of the Automated Ball-Strike system that is already installed in all ten PCL ballparks and will be implemented next month.
Albuquerque is a high-elevation ballpark and you see a lot of home runs here that wouldn’t get out of other ballparks. Both of Odom’s home runs would have left any stadium.
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The Mariners have traded for pitcher Riley O’Brien from the Cincinnati Reds, and he is a candidate to join the Rainiers starting rotation once he arrives in town. He made 22 starts for Triple-A Louisville last year, and this year he has made one start for Louisville and one in the big leagues for the Reds.
O’Brien is a local, born in Seattle and a graduate of Shoreline High School. He was drafted by Tampa out of the NAIA College of Idaho in 2017. He’s the grandson of Johnny O’Brien, who with his twin brother Eddie were Pacific Northwest sports stars in the 1950s. Both of the twins played in the majors.
Rainiers starting pitchers have combined for a 10.98 ERA so far this year, so Triple-A rotation help is certainly a priority in the eyes of the organization.
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Today’s game is the last game of the road trip. The Rainiers are off on Monday, and open a six-game homestand on Tuesday against Sugar Land. A game/series preview post will go up around noon on Tuesday.
RAINIERS DAILY
YESTERDAY: Albuquerque’s Sean Bouchard launched a first inning grand slam and the Isotopes never looked back in a 10-3 win over Tacoma on Saturday night. It was the third grand slam that Albuquerque has hit against Tacoma in this series. Joe Odom blasted another tape measure homer, and Sam Haggerty had two hits.
TODAY: Tacoma Rainiers (3-8) at Albuquerque Isotopes (5-6), 12:35 PT.
OPPONENT AFFILIATION: Colorado Rockies.
OPPOSING MANAGER: Warren Schaeffer.
SEASON SERIES: Albuquerque leads, 4-1.
PITCHERS: LHP Nick Margevicius (0-1, 11.57) at RHP Frank Duncan (0-0, 11.05)
Margevicius makes his second Tacoma start today. The Rainiers saw Duncan in the first game of this series, so maybe seeing him again so quickly will help the hitters.
ROSTER MOVES: Yesterday reliever Brayan Perez was transferred back to extended spring training, and pitcher Tyler Driver joined the club from Low-A Modesto. The Mariners called up Donovan Walton, replacing Mitch Haniger who went on the injured list.
HOT HITTERS: Mike Ford is 10-for-21 and has scored eight runs over the first five games of the Albuquerque series… Joe Odom has homered in back-to-back games, and both were massive bombs.
OPPONENT NEWS: Albuquerque had a rough opening series, dropping five of six games at Oklahoma City… third baseman Elehuris Montero is considered the top prospect on the ‘Topes roster… former Rainiers infielder and Mariners 2013 first round draft pick D.J. Peterson is on the Albuquerque roster, and he homered in the series opener on Tuesday… other former Rainiers now with the ‘Topes include Tim Lopes, Zach Lee, Dillon Overton, and their hitting coach Jordan Pacheco.
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.
PCL SCOREBOARD: Follow all league games in real-time with links to broadcasts and Gameday screens right here.
Links:
- Here’s the game story from the Albuquerque Journal.
- Justin Verlander was dealing and the Astros shut out the Mariners last night, 4-0.
- Mitch Haniger was placed on the Covid IL.
- Here’s a weekly update on division rival Las Vegas. I’m sad to see that we’re missing Finn The Batdog T-Shirt Night by just a couple days.
June 7, 2023