More one run games, McGovern’s double dip, & Delaplane’s 2018 — Game Notes

Today’s Preview: The Clinton LumberKings (A, Mariners) meet the Burlington Bees (A, Angels) for the sixth and final time this season with the finale of a three-game series. The LumberKings last faced the Bees in Burlington and took two of three for their first series win in the month of August. Overall the Lumberkings will end the 2018 season having won the head-to-head meetings as they enter with a 9–5 record against the Bees this year. In the head-to-head meetings going back to 1962, the LumberKings trail the head-to-head series 425 to 435. Since becoming a Seattle Mariners affiliate in 2009, the LumberKings own a narrow lead in the head-to-head meetings, 89 to 85.

LumberKings Starter: Ray Kerr, 23, makes his 26th appearance and start of the season for the Clinton LumberKings and his final outing of the 2018 season. The California native, turned in an abbreviated three inning start against the Quad Cities River Bandits at Ashford University Field. Kerr allowed two runs on two hits while walking three and striking out three. This will be his third start of the season against the Burlington Bees. He has combined to go 1–0 with a 0.82 ERA over 11 innings of work and has allowed just one run, while walking two and striking out 15. The Seattle Mariners signed Kerr as a nondrafted free agent out of Lassen Community College on August 24th, 2017. An avid fisherman, Kerr has said if he were not playing professional baseball he would be a professional fisherman.
Bees Starter: Mitchell Traver, 24, makes his 21st appearance and start of the season for the Burlington Bees. The Sugarland Texas native, was given a no decision for his last assignment which came on the road against the Cedar Rapids Kernels. Traver turned in four innings of work and did not allow a run and did not walk a batter while striking out four. This will be his sixth start of the year against the LumberKings. He has combined to go 1–3 with a 1.64 ERA over 22 innings of work in which he has allowed nine runs, four earned, while walking three and striking out 22. A 20th round pick by the Los Angeles Angels in last year’s draft, Traver pitched his college ball at TCU where he had to overcome injuries as an under classmen before becoming a mainstay in the Frogs starting rotation his sophomore year. Highly touted coming out of high school, Baseball America ranked him as the 52nd best prospect in the 2012 draft and the 37th best freshmen entering his first season at TCU. He was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 39th round out of high school but did not sign. As a draft eligible sophomore in 2015, Traver was again drafted, this time by the St Louis Cardinals in the 28th round but did not sign. In his junior season he was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 17th round of the 2016 draft but did not sign. Traver’s collegiate baseball career took a slow start, an injury in the fall of 2012 forced him to miss his entire first season and the following year he missed the majority of the 2014 season with another injury.

Last Time Out: Sam Delaplane struck out his 100th batter of the season and Keegan McGovern homered twice in a 4–3 Clinton LumberKings win over the Burlington bees at Community Field on Sunday afternoon. The win for Clinton (30–39, 69–70) gives them a chance for a sweep of the Bees (20–45, 50–84) which would mean a 500 record for the 2018 season. The LumberKings initiated the scoring in the top of the first against Burlington starter Austin Krzeminski. With two out in the inning, McGovern lifted a home run to straight away center field that touched off a string of four straight hits. The rally was capped by a Juan Camacho RBI single to right that put Clinton in front 2–0. The lead did not last long. In the bottom of the first, Burlington answered back with a two-run home run by Orlando Martinez off Clinton starter Clay Chandler that tied the game at two. Martinez home run was his third of the season. Kyle Wilcox preserved the lead by stranding the bases the loaded in the eighth and earning his seventh save of the year. The final out of the game was record when Harrison Wenson was thrown out attempting to run back to third base following a pitch that had got past catcher Camacho.
One-run Fever: For the seventh time this season the Clinton LumberKings played the Burlington Bees close with their game two win on Sunday afternoon by just one run. Clinton will end the season having won the head-to-head meetings and are 12–5 against the Bees this year. Oddly enough in all seven of their meetings that have been decided by one run the LumberKings have won, including winning all three extra inning games they have played in with Burlington.

How About That: Sam Delaplane has been with the Clinton LumberKigns since Opening Day and has worked exclusively out of the bullpen. Primarily serving as a late reliever, he leads the teams in save with 10. Delaplane will likely be more known, and more proud, in a milestone that came in the bottom of the eight with his strikeout of Spencer Griffin. The K was his 100th of the year giving Delapane a rare distinction as a reliever of over 50 innings pitched and 100 strikeouts. As a result, he will end the season with highest strikeout per nine inning ratio of any reliever in the Midwest League this year 15.08.
History: With Ryne Inman’s fourth strikeout of the game on Sunday of Gilbert Lara the Clinton LumberKings set a new franchise record for strikeouts in a single season. The LumberKings went on to strikeout nine in the contest to bring their season total to 1,193, good for second most in the Midwest League behind the River Bandits. The strikeout milestone passed the 1987 Clinton Giants mark of 1,188 that had stood for over thirty year.

Double Dip: A two homer day by Keegan McGovern on Sunday was the first of his professional career and gives him three home runs for the series. The multi-homer game was the fifth of the season by a LumberKing and upped their season home run total to 108. It marks just the fifth time in franchise history that Clinton has homered over 100 times in one season. The LumberKings enter the final game of the year in third in the Midwest League in home runs.
This date in baseball history: On this date in 1880, At Strawberry Hill, located on the shores of Nantasket Beach in Hull, Massachusetts, the first night baseball game is played under artificial light with teams made up of employees from the retail competitors of Jordan Marsh and R.H. White. The contest, illuminated by lights placed on three wooden towers erected five hundred feet apart from one another by the Northern Electric Light Company that supply the equivalent brightness of 90,000 candles, ends in a 16–16 tie, when the players need to catch the last ferry back to Boston.
Broadcast Information: Erik Oas returns for his second season as the “voice” of LumberKings baseball. All games will be broadcast live on 100.3 FM WCCI and online at LumberKings.com via the TuneIn Radio App.
