Pippins Preview: June 24 vs. Corvallis

After dropping the first two games of a 3-game series to the Corvallis Knights, the Pippins look to salvage a game in the series finale tonight at Yakima County Stadium. Mark Woinarowicz will make his second start of the summer for the Pippins, while Corvallis has yet to announce a projected pitcher. First pitch is set for 6:35 PM PT, with pregame coverage beginning with Miles Klotz at 6:20 PM at pippinsbaseball.com/live.

Full Game Notes

PIPPINS PITCHING STRUGGLES IN SERIES LOSS TO CORVALLIS: The Pippins’ offense broke out for the first time in several games against Corvallis on Sunday, but the pitching staff continued its recent struggles as Corvallis toppled the Pippins, 10-7, to clinch the 3-game series with a game to play. With newcomer Tyler Frazier making his first start of the mound, Corvallis pounced early, striking for four runs in the 1st inning and 3 more in the 3rd and 4th innings. While the Pippins had the game tied at 6 after 3 innings due to a pair of 3-run frames, the offense slowed down from there, grabbing just one more run in the sixth inning. A.J. Wood took the loss in relief, allowing 3 runs in 3 innings as Corvallis used contributions from up and down the lineup to stretch the lead to 3, with Briley Knight’s 4 RBIs and Jake Holcroft’s 4 hits leading the way.

FOR THE PIPPINS: Right-hander Mark Woinarowicz will make his second start of the summer tonight against Corvallis. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound right-hander from Cal State East Bay posted a quality start in his first start of the summer last week against Kelowna, going 7 innings and allowing one earned run while striking out a pair. On the season, the Yorba Linda, California native is 3-1 with a 1.53 ERA. Those 3 wins are tied for the most in the West Coast League with Joseph Brandon of Victoria, and the 1.53 ERA ranks 6th league-wide. Additionally, Woinarowicz had pitched 17.2 innings, 7th-most in the league.

FOR THE KNIGHTS: Corvallis has not announced a projected starter for Monday’s series finale.

THE HITS ARE COMING: The Pippins tied a season-high with 12 hits on Sunday, their third game in the last four in which they collected double-digit hits. Five different players for Yakima Valley had multi-hit games on Sunday, while all but two starters collected hits on the day. The Pippins have improved their team batting average to .249, which ranks 9th in the West Coast League.

POHLMANN POSTS ZEROES: One of the more unheralded standouts of the season so far for the Pippins has been Ty Pohlmann, the team’s most-used reliever, who tossed a scoreless ninth inning on Sunday, his fourth scoreless appearance out of six in the regular season. It was the fourth time this year that Pohlmann has pitched in the ninth inning (the most out of any Pippins pitcher); he has also pitched the eighth inning 4 times. Despite just 3 strikeouts in 9.2 innings, Pohlmann has the lowest ERA of any Pippins reliever with a 1.86 mark (minimum 3 appearances), and opponents are hitting just .219 off of the tall right-hander from UNLV.

PARKER PACES THE OFFENSE: Pippins infielder Tanner Parker continued his recent hot stretch with another multi-hit game on Sunday, going 2-for-5 with an RBI. The two hits extended Parker’s hitting streak to 12 games, the last 6 of which have come from the leadoff spot in the batting order. Over that stretch, Parker has collected 8 extra-base hits (6 doubles and 2 home runs). His .381 batting average ranks 6th in the West Coast League, and 3rd-best amongst players from the WCL’s North Division.

ODDS & ENDS: The Pippins have lost 8 of their last 10 games after a 6-1 start…the Pippins committed a season-high 5 errors on Sunday, their sixth consecutive game with multiple errors…the Pippins are tied for 2nd-to-last in the WCL with Wenatchee in fielding percentage at .946, ahead of only Portland (.943)…the Pippins were 1-for-2 on stolen base attempts on Sunday; their 9 stolen bases are the fewest in the WCL, and the only team in single digits in stolen bases…their 14 SB attempts are also fewest in the WCL.

By Miles Klotz

June 24, 2019