The Sky Sox have not gotten off to a good start here in the second half, and that continued in the form of a 7-2 loss at the hands of the Rainiers, Saturday night at Cheney Stadium. Former Sky Sox pitcher Jarrett Grube began the game with three perfect innings and was given a 4-0 lead by his offense over those four frames. Kyle Wren worked a walk to begin the fourth inning and later scored on a Josmil Pinto single which made it 4-1. Tacoma responded with three doubles against Aaron Wilkerson in the next half inning and put it out of reach for good at 6-1. The Sox would get a run in the fifth, but no more and the Rainiers would pick up a run on a Rob Brantly solo home run in the 8th to cap their offensive attack.

FULL RECAP HERE – Quick Hits Portion of the Blog Below Today’s preview. 

Before we get to today’s game, the Brewers and Sky Sox have announced the following transactions:

SUMMARY:
ADD: LHP Josh Hader reinstated from the temporary inactive list

DEL: RHP Zach Davies recalled to Milwaukee
LHP Mitch Lambson reinstated from the disabled list and transferred to Double-A Biloxi (7/16)

This afternoon, Colorado Springs and Tacoma face off in the final game of four at Cheney Stadium in what is the first series of a two-part, eight game road trip for the Sox. The Sky Sox fell for the third time in the second half with a 7-2 loss at the hands of former Sky Sox Jarrett Grube and the Rainiers and dropped back to two games below .500 at 44-46.  Heading into the finale, the Sky Sox will send righty Jorge Lopez  to the hill for the ninth time on the road and the Rainiers will counter with right-hander Joe Wieland. Lopez is 1-6 with a 6.33 ERA in 16 games (15 starts) with Colorado Springs while Wieland is 6-5 with a 6.63 ERA in 17 games with the Mariners top affiliate. The Sky Sox are 0-3 against Tacoma this season 169-170 all time against them and 73-105 on the road.

Today’s Game Notes / Listen Live at 2:00 MDT / Lineups 

Colorado Springs Sky Sox (44-46) at Tacoma Rainiers (52-40) – 2:35 p.m. – Cheney Stadium – Tacoma, Washington

Pitching Matchup: RHP Jorge Lopez (1-6, 6.33) at RHP Joe Wieland  (6-5, 6.63)

Sky Sox Pitcher: RHP Jorge Lopez gets the start in the finale of the four-game series and will make his 17th appearance (16th start) of the season. Over his first 16 outings, Lopez is 1-6 with a 6.33 ERA and has allowed 59 runs (53 earned) on 92 hits, 9 homers, 52 walks, 4 hit batters, and 62 strikeouts in 75 1/3 innings of work. Opponents are hitting .302 against the righty from Puerto Rico. Lopez is 0-4 in his last eight outings. Lopez is 0-5 with a 6.51 ERA away from SSF and tonight will mark his 9th appearance on the road. He has allowed 7 homers in his last four games. Lopez was selected by the Brewers in the 2^nd round of the 2011 draft out of the Caguas Military Academy in Puerto Rico. In 106 career minor-league outings he is 31-33 with a 4.34 ERA and 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA in two big-league starts, his win coming against the Padres at Petco Park on September 29, 2015

Last Time Out: 7/9/16 vs. Iowa – Lopez climbed the hill against Iowa and pitched into the sixth inning before being pulled. He recorded 15 outs and logged five innings of work, allowing 4 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits, 2 homers, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts. He threw 102 pitches, 60 for strikes and did not factor into the decision in a game the Sky Sox lost 8-5.

Last 10 games:

Rainiers Pitcher: Right-hander Joe Wieland looks to help Tacoma get off on the right foot in the finale against the Sky Sox. The Reno, Nevada native is 6-5 with a 6.63 ERA in 17 games with Tacoma. He’s allowed 61 runs (54 earned) on 106 hits, 11 homers, 27 walks, 60 strikeouts in 73 1/3 innings. Today will mark his 10th start at Cheney Stadium, at which he is 4-2 with a 4.64 ERA as opposed to the 2-3 record and 9.39 ERA he has accrued on the road. Wieland is 2-1 in his last five games and opponents are hitting .334 against him in the PCL. He took the loss against Sacramento in his last outing on July 8th. The righty was originally selected by the Rangers in the 4th round of the 2008 draft. In 7-plus pro seasons he is 51-32 with a 3.86 ERA in 134 minor-league games and 1-5 with a 5.85 ERA in 11 big-league games.

Last Time Out: 7/8/16 at Sacramento – Wieland was stuck with the loss against Sacramento his last trip to the mound. He allowed 5 runs on 10 hits and 1 strikeout in five innings of work. He threw 92 pitches, 65 for strikes in a game the Rainiers lost 7-4.

Last 10 games –

Dan Karcher (@SkySoxKarch) continues his 27^th season behind the mic for Sky Sox games, he will have the call of tonight’s game from Cheney Stadium at 8:05 p.m. I will get Sky Sox Warmup fired up and running at 7:30 MDT on XTRA Sports 1300.

Quick Hits from the Sky Sox 7-2 Loss at Tacoma – 

Hitting Notes –

Colorado Springs picked up a series-high 2 runs on a series-low 3 hits in the third game of the series against the Rainiers. The totals now sit at 4 runs on 13 hits in 27 offensive innings against Tacoma…Some may say those numbers are downright offensive…

Garin Cecchini had a hit and a run scored and he made it 6-2 on Kyle Wren’s sacrifice fly in the fifth inning.

Kyle Wren was on base twice with two walks and scored the first run for the Sox on Josmil Pinto’s single in the fourth. He also picked up an RBI, his 13th with the Sky Sox.

Josmil Pinto reached base twice with a hit and a walk and tallied his 37th RBI in the fourth with an RBI single.

Michael Reed had the other hit for Colorado Springs in the 7-2 loss.

Pitching Notes – 

Aaron Wilkerson came off his four scoreless innings form Sunday and was greeted by the very patient, very good Tacoma offense on Saturday. The righty couldn’t make it out of the fourth inning in his first road start with the Sox. He finished his evening after 3 1/3 innings and allowed 6 runs on 9 hits, 2 walks, and 5 strikeouts. The big blows that ended his outing were the D.J. Peterson 2-run homer in the third and the three doubles in the fourth. He threw 76 pitches, 49 of which went for strikes and took the loss.

The bullpen was again outstanding for the Sky Sox as three pitchers combined to allow one run over 4 2/3 innings.

Austin Ross was called upon first and he turned in 2 2/3 scoreless innings and allowed just one hit while striking out four.

Brent Suter turned in a scoreless frame.

Damien Magnifico gave up a solo homer to Rob Brantly in the eighth, but that was it in his one inning of work.

Play of the Game – 

There really wasn’t much on the Sky Sox to choose from in this game, so we’ll go with D.J. Peterson’s 2-run homer in the third that made it 4-0 Tacoma and ended up being the game winning hit.

Pregame Interview with Dan Karcher and Former Sky Sox Lance Painter (Part 1) – 

Thanks for reading – See you on the radio,

Dan

@Dan_Acheson