Philip Stalzer
KNOXVILLE, TN – Knoxville heads south to Pensacola as they take on the Blue Wahoos in the first series of a two-week road trip to the beaches of Florida and Mississippi.
Knoxville is coming off of a series win against Rocket City at home, including winning their last five against the Trash Pandas, putting themselves firmly back in first place in the Southern League North, three games ahead of Rocket City.
Pensacola has been red hot since July 21 when they hosted Columbus. Since that date, Pensacola is 19-6 and has won their last six games, sweeping the struggling Biloxi Shuckers.
This matchup will mark Knoxville and Pensacola’s third meeting this season. The first matchup in April was the Smokies first road trip of the season, in which the teams split the series 3-3. Their second matchup came just a couple of weeks ago, when Pensacola came to Covenant Health Park to take on the Smokies. Pensacola, who was just in the beginning of their current hot streak, took four out of six in Knoxville. Now Knoxville travels down to Pensacola looking to cool off the fish.
Because Knoxville won the Southern League North in the first half, they have already secured their playoff spot for September and are just keeping their players in shape and feeling out their potential playoff competition.
Pensacola on the other hand has not yet punched their ticket, but their late-season hot streak has certainly put them in a position to do so and soon. Pensacola is currently in first place in the Southern League South, four games ahead of the Montgomery Biscuits in second place.
Montgomery is playing the Columbus Clingstones as they look to separate themselves from Columbus and gain ground on Pensacola.
Knoxville will be looking to play spoiler for the Blue Wahoos and help out Montgomery by making it a much closer race in the Southern League South while Pensacola will look to stay hot at home and continue to build a lead as the end of the regular season draws closer.
After a tough stretch coming out of the All-Star break and a bad month of July where the Smokies lost 15 of 24, the Smokies have started to find some footing again as the calendar turned to August.
The rough stretch in July was in large part due to the departures of players like Owen Ayers and Jace Beck being called up to Triple-A and Jefferson Rojas being traded to the New York Mets at the trade deadline for Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor. Those moves and a handful of other callups to Triple-A have made room for a new group of young talent for the Smokies.
The biggest name on the list… Kane Kepley. The 22-year-old is currently the Cubs’ No. 5 ranked prospect and has been tearing it up in Knoxville since his callup on August fourth. In his first nine games with the Smokies, Kepley is slashing .303/.439/.636, good for an OPS of 1.075, already collecting 10 hits, three doubles, a triple, and two home runs while also walking more than he’s striking out.
The numbers that stand out the most, however, are his numbers with runners in scoring position. Already given 13 chances to drive in runs, Kepley has nine hits with an OPS of 3.043 while driving in 10 runs. In his very young Smokies career, Kepley has provided a massive spark to the offense that was missing so much production after Ayers was called up to Triple-A.
Other players like Miguel Useche and Ariel Armas have started to get hot too, providing some depth to the lineup, and Alex Ramirez has started to look more like he did in the first half, smashing balls all over the park. Coupled with the Smokies’ starting pitching staff that has been one of the best in Double-A all season, it has allowed the Smokies to get back into the winning groove, taking 10 of their first 14 games in August.
Pensacola has been playing very well-rounded baseball over the course of their hot streak. Since July 21, the Smokies have the second best team batting average (.263) in the Southern League and the third lowest team ERA (3.59) in the Southern League. The combination of offense and defense has allowed the Blue Wahoos to beat some strong teams such as the Smokies and the Biscuits over the course of the hot streak, and beat up on the Shuckers, who are in the midst of a terrible 11-game losing streak.
Despite the hot streak, the Blue Wahoos’ pitching staff has taken a bit of a dip in productivity since the beginning of August. So far this month, their team ERA is 4.57 while being tied for the most innings pitched this month at 128. If Knoxville can take advantage of a stumbling Pensacola pitching staff and keep up their pitching dominance, especially from the starters, the Southern League South could look very different by this time next week.
First pitch for the series is set for 7:05 p.m. ET on Tuesday night.
Players to Watch
For the Smokies, the player to watch this week is Drew Bowser. Since August first, Bowser has been on fire. Batting .387 in the month of August so far, Bowser lifted his season batting average from .171 to .273.
Bowser hasn’t played much for the Smokies since getting called up on June 30 as he was mostly playing behind Jefferson Rojas at third base, but now with Rojas gone, he should expect more playing time.
Bowser has played in nine games so far this month and has logged at least one hit in eight of them. Bowser has hit all three of his home runs this season in August, and has three multi-hit performances in his last four games, including a three-hit game on August 16.
Bowser isn’t just hitting for himself either. With runners in scoring position, Bowser is batting .300, putting together quality at bats and supplying offense in big spots. With infielders like Dom Krupinski and Edgar Alvarez struggling mightily so far in August, expect Bowser to get some starts this week and really lengthen this reinvigorated Smokies’ lineup.
Pensacola has a player to watch for a different reason. Joey Volini is a starting pitcher for the Blue Wahoos and is slated to make his start on Sunday against the Smokies. Volini hasn’t quite found his footing in Double-A since being called up on July 17, going 1-2 with a 4.38 ERA in Double-A this season.
The young lefty doesn’t have big strikeout numbers in Double-A, posting just a 6.57 K/9 ratio and a 2.20 K/BB ratio. This is especially amplified by the fact that Volini has a 1.46 WHIP and a .287 BAA in Double-A this season.
His last start was his best start, allowing three runs on six hits while striking out five and only walking one across seven innings, but it was in an outing against the Biloxi Shuckers, who are batting .226 in August and have struck out 132 times in 14 games this month.
Before that, Volini has gone into the sixth inning one time and has allowed two or more runs in three of his four previous starts, including six runs (four earned) over four innings against Montgomery.
The Smokies’ righty-heavy lineup should matchup great against a young, struggling lefty, especially the way Knoxville has been hitting the ball as of late.
Probable Pitching Matchup
8/18 Tuesday, 7:05 p.m. ET
RHP Dawson Netz (6-3, 2.91 ERA) vs. LHP Luis Palacios (4-1, 2.62 ERA)
8/19 Wednesday, 7:05 p.m. ET
RHP Connor Schultz (4-4, 4.38 ERA) vs. RHP Luis Moreno (6-6, 6.03 ERA)
8/20 Thursday, 7:05 p.m. ET
RHP Brody McCullough (1-2, 2.66 ERA) vs. RHP Eliazar Dishmey (3-1, 3.25 ERA)
8/21 Friday, 7:05 p.m. ET
LHP Jackson Brockett (1-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. RHP Orlando Ortiz-Mayr (2-4, 6.48 ERA)
8/22 Saturday, 7:05 p.m. ET
RHP Brooks Caple (4-3, 3.21 ERA) vs. RHP Jacob Kisting (2-0, 0.90 ERA)
8/23 Sunday, 5:05 p.m. ET
RHP Kevin Valdez (1-1, 3.91 ERA) vs. LHP Joey Volini (1-2, 4.38 ERA)
Wrap Up
With the end of the regular season less than a month away, the Smokies are starting to size up their potential postseason competition. Coming off of a big series win, including winning their last five against Rocket City, Knoxville is looking to get and stay hot through the end of the regular season and into the playoffs.
For Pensacola, they need to stay hot against a postseason team in order to create some more separation in the Southern League South as they look to hold on and win the South in the second half and punch their ticket to the playoffs.
Which team’s hot streak will end first? Tune in and find out at https://www.milb.com/knoxville/fans/audio-listen-live and buy tickets to upcoming Smokies’ regular season and playoff games at https://www.milb.com/knoxville/tickets/single-game-tickets