July 1 Game Notes: Tacoma Rainiers vs. Salt Lake Bees

July 1, 2024 – Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Tacoma Rainiers News Release

TACOMA RAINIERS (45-36) vs. SALT LAKE BEES (35-45)

Monday, July 1 – 7:05 PM – Cheney Stadium – Tacoma, WA

RHP Blas Castano (0-0, -.–) vs. RHP Ryan Langford (0-0, 1.35)

TONIGHT’S GAME: Tacoma and Salt Lake will start their six-game series tonight with game one of three at Cheney Stadium before heading to Smith’s Ballpark for the final three games. Blas Castano will make his Tacoma Rainiers debut, set to make his 16th appearance and 13th start of the season. Castano has spent the entire season up to this point with Double-A Arkansas, going 0-4 with a 3.31 ERA over his 51.2 innings with the Travelers. Over that span, the right-hander has allowed 19 earned runs on 50 hits and 19 walks while striking out 34 batters. Opposite Castano will be Ryan Langford taking the ball for Salt Lake, pitching in his fourth game and third start for the Bees. Langford started Salt Lake’s game on Saturday and threw 1.2 perfect innings, striking out a batter along the way before the game got suspended due to rain. In his three games with the Bees this year, Langford is 0-0 with a 1.35 ERA, allowing one earned run on four hits and three walks while striking out three batters in 6.2 innings.

START A NEW ONE: Tacoma wrapped up the month of June last night in Sugar Land, losing their final two games of the month. They tied their season-high for wins in a single month with 15, going 15-11 while they went 15-10 in April. Tacoma’s hitting numbers stacked up with April as well, while their pitching metrics were unique. They had their second-highest ERA for a month at 4.64, walking 20 more batters and striking out seven more than any other month this season. Their 116 walks in June marked the first time they reached triple-digit walks in a single month, and their 203 strikeouts was the first 200+ strikeout month of the season as well. They started the month of June with two losses and will look to start July on a better note tonight.

WATCH OUT: Tacoma is 7-5 through their first 12 games against Salt Lake, but the Bees have a new offensive weapon that they didn’t have when the two teams played in the first half of the season. Keston Hiura was released by Detroit on June 3 and signed by the Angels on June 11, getting sent to Salt Lake that day. The infielder is in his fifth season at the Triple-A level and is scorching hot entering this series against Tacoma. The 27-year-old enters play tonight hitting .397…