Today's Game Notes

LEADING OFF--The Travelers and Sod Poodles open the Texas League Championship Series.

LAST TIME OUT--Arkansas left no doubt as they pummeled the Springfield Cardinals 14-1 on Friday night at Dickey-Stephens Park to claim the Texas League North Division Championship...needing a decisive third game, the Travs put together one of their most complete performances of the season in all facets...six Travelers pitchers limited the Cardinals to seven hits and did not issue a walk... Offensively, a barrage of 15 hits, nine walks and a hit batter produced 14 runs. Arkansas scored at least three runs in every frame from the fourth through the seventh innings...Robert Perez, Jr. homered twice and drove in six while Jake Anchia went 4-4 with four runs batted in.

PLAYOFF PRIMER--Arkansas is in the Texas League Championship Series for the first time since 2013 searching for their first title since 2008...in 2013, the Travs lost a five game series to San Antonio...Amarillo advanced by rallying with a pair of road wins at San Antonio to claim the South Division championship...Sod Poodles are going for their first title since 2019 which was also the franchise’s only previous postseason appearance.

TOP OF THE CLASE--Jonatan Clase stole at least one base in nine of his last 12 regular season games totaling 16 steals...he led the league with 62 swipes despite having not been called up until early May...he is the first Traveler to lead the league in stolen bases since Bernard Gilkey (53) in 1989...it is also the second most in the modern history of the Travelers trailing only Alex Cole who stole 68 in 1987... Clase’s 79 total stolen bases between Arkansas and Everett ranked third in all of the minors...his home run last Tuesday night was his 20th of the season overall making him the first known player ever to achieve a minor league season with 20+ HR and 70+ SB.

DID IT AGAIN--The Travs led the league in overall run differential for 2023 (+48)...Arkansas topped the Texas League in that category for the second consecutive season...last year the Travs were a +108.

A RARE FEAT--Arkansas lost 41 games in the second half of the season after winning 45 in the first half...Tulsa also won 40+ in the first half this season and lost 45 in half two...those are just the 10th and 11th instances of a team winning 40+ in one half and losing 40+ in the other half of a Texas League season since going to a half based schedule in 1977...it is also the first time it has happened to two teams in the same season...Arkansas had never pulled off that feat before.

MEN OF STEAL--The Travs offense established a new franchise single season stolen base record...they took a league best 230 bags obliterating the record of 181 set in 1987...the record was broken on August 17 in the 110th game of the year... Jonatan Clase led the team and the league with 62 while Leo Rivas nabbed 50.

ROSTER SHUFFLE--Prior to the playoffs, the Mariners made several transactions affecting the Travs...INF Connor Hoover returned to Arkansas from Tacoma, LHP Peyton Alford and OF Bill Knight were promoted from Everett to Arkansas...RHP Alex Valverde and OF Spencer Packard were placed on the Development list and INF Edryn Rodriguez was sent back to the ACL Mariners roster.

PROSPECTING--The Travelers active roster is populated with six of the Mariners top 30 prospects according to the MLB Pipeline rankings...on that list are OF Jonatan Clase (#8), INF Tyler Locklear (#11), RHP Prelander Berroa (#15), OF Alberto Rodriguez (#17), RHP Travis Kuhn (#24) and RHP Jimmy Joyce (#28).

THE DIRT ON THE SOD POODLES--The Amarillo Sod Poodles (Arizona Diamondbacks) are South Division champs for the second time in five seasons... managed by Shawn Roof...led the league in nearly every offensive category...Amarillo has seven of Arizona’s top 30 prospects on the MLB.com rankings on their active roster...that group includes LHP Yu-Min Lin (#4), INF Deyvison De Los Santos (#5), OF A.J. Vukovich (#10), OF Kristian Robinson (#11), RHP Dillon Ray (#19), RHP Yilber Diaz (#20) and C J.J. D’Orazio (#25).

Starting Pitcher - RHP Kyle Tyler (0-0, 1.93 ERA)

Kyle Tyler makes his second start of the postseasons after making 27 appearances (26 starts) during the year...allowed only one run over 4.2 innings in playoff opener at Springfield last Tuesday (6 K, 0 BB)...snapped a stretch of three consecutive quality starts on 9/13 at NWA...beat Tulsa on 9/1 and earned his first (and only) win since July (4 H, 2 R, BB, 9 K)...matched a season high with seven innings on 8/26 vs. Wichita but took a hard luck loss (3 H, 2 R, BB, 7 K, HR)...6 starts from 6/25-7/28: 3-1, 2.83 ERA, 35 IP, 9 BB, 27 K, .261 OBA...his start on 6/2 was best of the year to that point throwing six shutout innings with a career high 10 strikeouts in a win over Midland...matched then season high with six innings pitched in a loss on 5/21 in Wichita while not allowing a hit until the fifth inning...over four games from 4/21 - 5/10: 2.00 ERA, 18 IP, 7 BB, 20 K...has pitched 6+ innings on 11 occasions this season including nine quality starts
Tyler faced the Sod Poodles three times this season going 0-2 with a 7.53 ERA...fired six shutout frames on 9/7 at DSP on four hits and three walks with 7 Ks
Kyle had a disjointed 2022 season pitching for two Triple-A clubs (El Paso, Sacramento) and San Diego in the big leagues totaling only 29.1 innings over 21 appearances (two starts)...went to Spring Training on the Angels 40-man roster but was designated for assignment four times by three different franchises before finally appearing in a game on April 17 for El Paso...threw two scoreless innings on consecutive days for San Diego at Wrigley Field on June 14-15...did not pitch for a three week stretch in July after electing minor league free agency...made final four outings with Sacramento (last on August 4) before being released
Spent most of 2021 as a starter at Double-A in the Angels system but also pitched in Triple-A and the big leagues...went 5-2 with a 3.38 ERA in 15 games (12 starts) for Rocket City, striking out 73 and walking 22 in 72 innings...tossed 14 innings in five games (two starts) with Salt Lake posting a 5.14 ERA...made five relief appearances for the Angels notching 12.1 innings and a 2.92 ERA...made ML debut on 9/5/21 vs. Texas throwing three scoreless frames
Did not pitch during the summer of 2020 due to the cancelled minor league season...split the 2019 season between Low-A Burlington (21 games, 102.1 innings) and High-A Inland Empire (4 games, 19.1 innings) starting 18 games and posting a combined 10-1 record and 2.59 ERA with a pair of saves
26-year old played three seasons at Oklahoma making two NCAA regionals...2015 Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year at Westmoore HS (Oklahoma City)

Starting Pitcher - RHP Bryan Woo (2-2, 2.08 ERA)

Bryan Woo makes his 9th start of the season and at the Double-A level...started on Tuesday and took the loss despite allowing just two runs over five innings... did have a season high in walks (3) and a season low in strikeouts (4)...picked up his second straight win on 5/17 in Wichita dealing a strong six innings (7 H, R, BB, 10 K, HR)...threw a career-best seven innings (on only 74 pitches) in a shutout effort on 5/11 vs. NW Arkansas giving up just two hits while striking out seven and earning his first win of the season...retired the first 18 hitters of that game before an surrendering an infield hit to start the 7th inning...pitched on 5/5 at Springfield and was saddled with the loss (4 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 5 K, HR)...dominated Tulsa on 4/29 authoring five shutout innings with eight strikeouts while giving up just one hit...made Double-A debut in home opener on 4/11 throwing four shutout innings (H, BB, 7 K)
Woo also faced Frisco on 4/22 and took no decision after a solid four innings of work...gave up just one run on three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts
Bryan was named Texas League Pitcher of the Week for May 8-14...threw career best 7 IP in win vs. NWA (2 H, 7 K)...retired first 18 hitters of the game
Split last season between High-A Everett, Class-A Modesto and the Arizona Complex League...was held out of game action until June...pitched three times for the ACL Mariners (5.2 innings)...made six starts for Modesto going 0-1 with a 3.98 ERA over 20.1 innings with 29 strikeouts and six walks...made seven starts with Everett to close out regular season posting a 1-3 record with a 4.78 ERA...struck out 46 and walked 16 in 32 innings...earned first pro win on 8/2/22 with Everett vs. Hillsboro giving up just an unearned run on four hits over five innings with a walk and five strikeouts...struck out a career best 11 on 8/19/22 in a six inning start vs. Vancouver and earned Northwest League Pitcher of the Week honors for that performance
Closed his 2022 campaign by pitching in the Arizona Fall League making five starts for the Peoria Javelinas making up for lost innings during the season... allowed just one run over his 10.2 innings of work in the Fall League...took home an AFL Pitcher of the Week Award as well
Did not pitch in 2021 after being drafted...sat out while recovering from UCL replacement (Tommy John) surgery on his right elbow at the end of April
Started just six of 31 games in college over three years at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo with an cumulative ERA of 6.36
23-year old is a native of Alameda, California...went to Alameda High School and was named the West Alameda County Conference MVP

Travs Digital Scorecard

Arkansas Travelers vs. Amarillo Sod Poodles (ARI)

Record: 0-0

Record: 0-0

Today's Game Notes