Game #130 Preview — Power at RiverDogs
Game #130 — Road Game #62
WV Power (33–30, 70–59) at Charleston RiverDogs (28–36, 61–71)
Friday, August 31–7:05 p.m.
Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park (Charleston, S.C.)
REYES ROLLS POWER TO SERIES SWEEP: Samuel Reyes tossed his first career quality start and West Virginia’s offense pulled away with a three-run eighth inning to cap a four-game series sweep with a 5–1 victory over the Hagerstown Suns Thursday evening at Appalachian Power Park. Reyes dominated over six innings, allowing an unearned run on four hits while striking out a career-best seven batters. Hagerstown tallied its only run against Reyes in the first inning after Cole Freeman ripped a one-out double and then scored on a throwing error two batters later. The Power’s offense was silent over the first four innings against Andrew Lee, but Deon Stafford managed to reach on a fielding error to kick off the fifth. The next batter, Rodolfo Castro, ripped a double into the right-field corner to score Stafford and tie the game. Castro later crossed the plate on a passed ball to put West Virginia in front for good. The Power tacked on three runs of insurance in the eighth as Calvin Mitchell stroked a two-run double and Stafford brought in Mitchell when he reached on a two-base error later in the inning. West Virginia’s bullpen spun three scoreless innings to finish off the game, with John Pomeroy, Joel Cesar and Beau Sulser allowing just two hits combined.
PITCHING MATCH-UP: RHP Hunter Stratton (6–5, 4.33 ERA) gets the nod for West Virginia, while Charleston counters with righty Roansy Contreras (0–2, 4.08 ERA).
POWER LINEUP:
Travis Swaggerty — CF
Connor Kaiser — SS
Cal Mitchell — DH
Deon Stafford — C
Rodolfo Castro — 2B
Raul Hernandez — 1B
Chris Sharpe — RF
Jesse Medrano — 3B
Lolo Sanchez — LF
Hunter Stratton — RHP
ODDS AND ENDS:
QUALITY STUFF: West Virginia’s rotation turned in four consecutive quality starts over their four-game sweep of the Suns. In their 24 innings pitched, Ike Schlabach, Oddy Nunez, Sergio Cubilete and Reyes allowed four earned runs on 15 hits while totaling 21 strikeouts, good for a 1.50 ERA. Here’s each of their lines in their most recent starts:
8/27 vs. HAG; Schlabach: 6 IP, 6H, 2R, 3BB, 5K
8/28 vs. HAG; Nunez: 6 IP, 2H, 2R, 3BB, 4K
8/29 vs. HAG; Cubilete: 6 IP, 3H, 0R, 5BB, 5K
8/30 vs. HAG; Reyes: 6 IP, 4H, 1R (unearned), 0BB, 7K
GOOD GRIEF, THAT’S SOME RELIEF: The Power’s bullpen was stellar over the team’s four-game brooming of Hagerstown. Over these four games, the relief corps surrendered just one earned run over 12 innings of work, ceding only seven hits and three walks while striking out nine batters and posting a 0.75 ERA in that stretch. West Virginia’s bullpen capped a streak of six straight games with a save with three consecutive in the first three games of the series against Hagerstown. Three relievers also made their SAL debuts (Cam Alldred, Nicholas Economosand Ryan Valdes).
BREAK OUT THE BROOMS: With their 5–1 win Thursday, the Power completed their fourth series sweep of the season. West Virginia’s first sweep of the year was from May 9–11 in Hagerstown. The Power also broomed the Augusta GreenJackets in a four-game series at SRP Park from June 11–14 and Hickory from June 21–23 at L.P. Frans Stadium.
LUCKY SEVENS: The Power is riding a seven-game winning streak as the team heads down the home stretch in 2018, their longest winning streak of the season. West Virginia’s last winning streak of longer than seven games came from August 2–9, 2017, when the team put together eight straight wins against Lexington, Delmarva and Lakewood.
MULTI MITCHELL: Mitchell went 1-for-4 with two RBI, a double and a run scored in Thursday’s 5–1 win against Hagerstown. The California native recorded his 15th multi-RBI game of the season, tied for the most multi-RBI contests on the team with Oneil Cruz. Mitchell also notched his 61st and 62nd RBI of the year, the most RBI on the Power.
SWIPING SANCHEZ: Lolo Sanchez swiped his 30th stolen base of the season Thursday. Sanchez is the first Power player to steal 30 bases in a season since Tito Polo took 46 in 2015. The Dominican native has continued to hit very well in August, averaging .315 (23-for-73) with one homer, seven RBI, 16 runs scored and a .776 OPS over 23 games.
STRATTON STRUTTING HIS STUFF: Friday starter Hunter Stratton has become a very reliable member of the Power’s rotation over the last month. 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. The Bristol, Tennessee, native also leads the team with 79 strikeouts on the season.
CLOSING IN ON THE PLAYOFFS: Asheville defeated Kannapolis, 5–4, in 10 innings Thursday, moving West Virginia’s magic number down to three in the Northern Division Wild Card race with four games remaining in the season.
POWER POINTS: The Power is 30–16 when their starter goes six innings… West Virginia went 2-for-9 with RISP.
ON THE AIR: West Virginia Power games can be heard on WSCW 1410 AM The Light 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. Friday’s pregame coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on the West Virginia Power Baseball Network.
