Game #126 Preview — Power vs. Suns
Game #126— Home Game #65
Hagerstown Suns (24–33, 51–74) vs. WV Power (29–30, 66–59)
Monday, August 27–7:05 p.m.
Appalachian Power Park (Charleston, W.V.)
POWER PULLS AWAY LATE TO CLAIM SERIES: West Virginia’s offense tallied four runs over the final two frames in a 7–2, series-clinching win over the Rome Braves Sunday afternoon at State Mutual Stadium. The Power jumped ahead early against Alan Rangel, as Robbie Glendinning drilled a two-run homer to put West Virginia up 2–0 in the second. The Power added one more in the third on Deon Stafford’s RBI single to left. Hunter Stratton cruised through five innings for West Virginia, ceding just one run on four hits while striking out four batters. Rome was able to climb within one in the seventh against Drew Fischer, but the Power tacked on two in the eighth inning on a fielding error and a wild pitch before Raul Hernandez provided a run-scoring single in the ninth and Glendinning brought in the final run when he reached on an error. Beau Sulser secured his seventh save with 1.2 scoreless innings.
PITCHING MATCH-UP: LHP Ike Schlabach (6–4, 3.87 ERA) toes the rubber for West Virginia, while Hagerstown counters with righty Sam Held (5–6, 3.54 ERA).
POWER LINEUP:
Travis Swaggerty — CF
Rodolfo Castro — SS
Cal Mitchell — RF
Deon Stafford — C
Raul Hernandez — DH
Robbie Glendinning — 2B
Jesse Medrano — 3B
Luke Mangieri — 1B
Lolo Sanchez — LF
Ike Schlabach — LHP
ODDS AND ENDS:
STRATTON STRUTTING HIS STUFF: Stratton has become a very reliable member of the Power’s rotation over the last month. After tossing two consecutive quality starts with six solid innings against Charleston, S.C., August 22, and holding down the Rome Braves over a career-high seven frames August 11, he added five strong frames Sunday afternoon in the series finale. The Walters State (TN) Community College product has hurled at least five innings in each of his last seven starts while allowing two earned runs or less. In that span, Stratton is sporting a 2.54 ERA (11 ER/39 IP) with 22 strikeouts. Stratton extended his team-leading strikeout total to 79 with his four punch outs Sunday.
RIGHTEOUS RAFELIN: In limited play, Rafelin Lorenzo has continued to impress. Over his three games played in Rome, the Power backstop went 6-for-14 with a home run, two doubles, two RBI and five runs scored. In the month of August, the Dominican native is boasting a .308 (12-for-39) stroke in 10 games with a home run and seven RBI.
STREAKING SANCHEZ: Lolo Sanchez has really picked up his average in August. After going 4-for-12 in the Rome series with four runs scored, Sanchez’s August clip has risen to .333 (21-for-63) with six RBI over 19 games, his best monthly average of the season by 35 points. The outfielder swiped his team-leading 28th stolen base of the season Sunday afternoon. The last Power player to steal more than 28 bases in a season was Tito Polo in 2015 (46).
YOU CAN COUNT ON CONNOR: Connor Kaiser has been a very consistent member of West Virginia’s line-up after joining the Power August 15 from the Black Bears. The 2018 third-round pick is riding an eight-game hitting streak since August 16, during which he is averaging .364 (12-for-33) with two doubles, five RBI and four multi-hit games.
SHUTDOWN SULSER: Sulser locked down his team-leading seventh save of the season Sunday after taking over for Logan Stoelke in the eighth. Over his last nine appearances, the Dartmouth product has ceded one earned run over 14 innings (0.64 ERA) with 20 strikeouts. Sulser has tied RHP Matt Seelinger for the most saves on the Power among all members of the team in 2018. Meanwhile, Sulser’s seven saves are tied for fourth-best in the Pirates’ system. The right-handed reliever has only allowed one of his 16 inherited runners to score this season, totaling a measly six percent.
ESCOBAR PROMOTED: Following Sunday’s 7–2 win, the Pittsburgh Pirates announced that LHP Elvis Escobar has been promoted back to the Double-A Altoona Curve, who clinched their fourth consecutive Eastern League playoff berth last night with their victory over Richmond. In his time with West Virginia, Escobar was 3–2 with a 2.08 ERA in 15 appearances, during which he tossed 26 innings and recorded 28 strikeouts to 12 walks while holding batters to a .187 average against him. The southpaw did not allow an earned run in each of his last six appearances (and in 11 of his 15 total outings), spanning 10 innings. In that stretch, the Venezuelan native struck out 14 batters and ceded four hits.
PLAYOFF PUSH: The Intimidators also won their series finale against the Augusta GreenJackets Sunday to remain two games in front of West Virginia in the South Atlantic League’s Northern Division Wild Card race with eight games remaining in the 2018 regular season. Kannapolis begins a four-game series with the Asheville Tourists at home tonight before hitting the road for four games against the Hagerstown Suns to wrap up their campaign. Meanwhile, the Power takes on the Suns Monday through Thursday at Appalachian Power Park before finishing their season in Charlie South against the RiverDogs at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park from August 31-September 3.
POWER POINTS: The Power is 11–8 when Stratton is the starting pitcher this season… West Virginia is 30–1 when scoring seven or more runs in 2018… Glendinning recorded his first home run since July 29 vs. Asheville, as well as the Power’s 83rd home run of the season overall… West Virginia was 2-for-16 with RISP, stranding 11 men on base Sunday.
ON THE AIR: West Virginia Power games can be heard on The Jock 1300 & 1340 AM in the Kanawha Valley, online at wvpower.com and on the TuneIn Radio App. David Kahn and John Kocsis will handle play-by-play duties in 2018. Monday’s pregame coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on the West Virginia Power Baseball Network.
