June 30 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers at Sugar Land Space Cowboys

June 30, 2024 – Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Tacoma Rainiers News Release

TACOMA RAINIERS (45-35) @ SUGAR LAND SPACE COWBOYS (52-28)

Sunday, June 30 – 4:05 PM PT – Constellation Field – Sugar Land, TX

RHP Michael Mariot (4-4, 5.98) vs. LHP Eric Lauer (1-2, 7.13)

TONIGHT’S GAME: Tacoma and Sugar Land will close out the series with the sixth and final game tonight. The Rainiers will send Michael Mariot to the mound for his second start of the series. Mariot suffered a loss in the opener back on Tuesday, entering play tonight with a 4-4 record and a 5.98 ERA through 14 games (11 starts) for the Rainiers this season. The right-hander has allowed 37 earned runs on 55 hits and 11 walks while striking out 50 batters over his 55.2 innings pitched. Opposite Mariot will be Eric Lauer taking the ball for Sugar Land, set to make his 15th appearance and 12th start of the year overall. The southpaw spent eight games (six starts) with Triple-A Indianapolis, going 2-2 with a 5.52 ERA over that span before getting released and signed by Houston to a minor league contract. In his six games (five starts) with the Space Cowboys, Lauer is 1-2 with a 7.13 ERA, allowing 19 earned runs on 36 hits and eight walks while striking out 26 batters in 24.0 innings.

COULDN’T ADD ON: Tacoma started the game with two runs in the first inning thanks to a two-run triple off the bat of Jason Vosler. Unfortunately for the Rainiers, that is all they would score the rest of the game, eventually losing 3-2. They had opportunities to bring more runs in but couldn’t push anything else across the plate and it cost them when Sugar Land scored two in the ninth to win it. Despite going 1-for-9 last night, Tacoma is hitting .252 with runners in scoring position on the season.

GO FOR THE SPLIT: The Rainiers come into play tonight trying to earn a series split after dropping three of the first five games. The series could have already been won by Tacoma had they closed out two of the three games they have lost. On Thursday, they were up three runs entering the eighth and allowed six runs to lose by three. Last night, they led Sugar Land with three outs to go and couldn’t close it out, allowing two runs in the ninth to drop yet another game. The Rainiers could easily be 4-1 entering play tonight, but instead are 2-3 entering the series finale.

TOO MUCH SWING AND MISS: Tacoma lost by one run last night, stranding eight men on base and going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. As a team, the…