Game #129 Preview — Power vs. Suns
Game #129 — Home Game #68
Hagerstown Suns (24–36, 51–77) vs. WV Power (32–30, 69–59)
Thursday, August 30–7:05 p.m.
Appalachian Power Park (Charleston, W.V.)
SANCHEZ AND CASTRO HOMER IN 4–1 WIN: Lolo Sanchez and Rodolfo Castro stroked a pair of solo home runs in the eighth inning to power West Virginia to a 4–1 victory over the Hagerstown Suns Wednesday evening at Appalachian Power Park. Sergio Cubilete spun six scoreless innings in his second quality start of the season, allowing just three hits while striking out five and walking a career-high five batters. Cubilete worked in and out of trouble all night long, but managed to strand seven Hagerstown base runners. The Power were held in check by Tim Cate the first time through the order, but Calvin Mitchell broke up Cate’s perfect game in the fourth with a bloop single to left. After Mitchell advanced to second on a wild pitch, the next batter, Deon Stafford, ripped an RBI single to make it 1–0 West Virginia. Mitchell added an RBI of his own in the sixth as he and Castro connected for back-to-back doubles to give the Power a 2–0 edge. Nicholas Economos took over for Cubilete in the seventh and twirled three innings in his South Atlantic League debut, ceding just one run on an Armond Upshaw home run in the seventh. He struck out three batters and only gave up two hits while picking up his first South Atlantic League save (and third of his career).
PITCHING MATCH-UP: RHP Samuel Reyes (3–3, 3.16 ERA) gets the ball for West Virginia in the series finale, while Hagerstown counters with righty Andrew Lee (4–4, 4.55 ERA).
POWER LINEUP:
Travis Swaggerty — CF
Connor Kaiser — SS
Cal Mitchell — RF
Deon Stafford — DH
Rodolfo Castro — 2B
Raul Hernandez — 1B
Rafelin Lorenzo — C
Robbie Glendinning — 3B
Lolo Sanchez — LF
Samuel Reyes — RHP
ODDS AND ENDS:
QUALITY STUFF: West Virginia’s starting rotation has turned in three consecutive quality starts over the first three games of this series. In their 18 innings pitched, Ike Schlabach, Oddy Nunez and Cubilete have allowed just four runs on 11 hits while totaling 14 strikeouts, good for a 1.99 ERA. Here’s each of their final 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
MULTI-HIT MITCHELL: Mitchell went 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored in Wednesday’s 4–1 win against Hagerstown. The California native recorded his 32nd multi-hit game of the season, the most multi-hit contests on the team. Mitchell also notched his 60th RBI of the year, surpassing Oneil Cruz for the most RBI on the Power in 2018. The Rancho Bernardo product has posted multi-hit games in his last four contests, tied for his longest streak of the season.
SURGING STAFFORD: Stafford has continued to impress in the season’s final full month, connecting for his 47th RBI of the year and 16th in August Wednesday. Since coming off the disabled list August 4, the Pennsylvania product is averaging .268 (19-for-71) with six homers, 16 RBI, 11 extra-base hits and a .959 OPS, his highest mark of the year.
STREAKING SANCHEZ: Sanchez went 1-for-3 with a home run Wednesday night, stroking his first homer since June 29 vs. the Hickory Crawdads, and his fourth of the season. The Dominican Republic native has continued to hit very well in August, averaging .324 (23-for-71) with one homer, seven RBI, 15 runs scored and a .789 OPS over 22 games.
THE SWEET SIX: West Virginia is riding a six-game winning streak as the team heads down the home stretch in 2018. The Power has tied their longest winning streak of the season, which they have accomplished two previous times (June 11–16 at Augusta and vs. Delmarva and May 7–12 vs. Hickory & at Hagerstown and Lakewood). West Virginia’s last winning streak of longer than six games came from August 2–9, 2017, when the team put together eight straight wins.
BREAK OUT THE BROOMS: With a win tonight, the Power would complete 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.
WINNING WAYS: With last night’s win, the Power secured a winning record at home (35–32), on the road and in the division for the first time since 2015. West Virginia has wrapped up an above .500 road mark, sitting at 34–27 with four away contests left, while their 33–28 divisional record assures them of a winning tally against Northern Division foes.
PLAYOFF PUSH: Asheville doubled up Kannapolis Wednesday, 6–3, vaulting West Virginia ahead of Kannapolis in the league’s Northern Division Wild Card race with five games remaining in the 2018 season. The Power’s magic number to clinch the Wild Card is five, but they still need Lakewood to lock up the second-half Northern Division title. Currently, the BlueClaws are 4.5 games up on the Hickory Crawdads, putting Hickory’s elimination number at one.
POWER POINTS: The Power is 29–16 when their starter goes six innings or more in a game… The bullpen has recorded a save in each of the last six contests.
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. Thursday’s pregame coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on the West Virginia Power Baseball Network.
