Rockers at Lexington series preview, May 21

By Sam Sinder
High Point Rockers vs. Lexington Legends

The Rockers and Legends will start a three-game set on Tuesday, May 21 at Legends Field. The two clubs continue to spiral in opposite directions. Lexington has lost eight of its past ten games and remain nine games back of both Gastonia, and High Point, which lead the South Division. The Legends had been swept in consecutive three game sets vs Charleston, then lost two out of three to both High Point and Gastonia. The Rockers are coming off a sweep of the Charleston Dirty Birds and have won five straight contests dating back to when the Rockers took the final two out of three against Lexington last week at Truist Point. This is the Rockers first five-game winning streak since they did it to start the season, with four of those five coming in a four-game sweep at Legends Field. The Rockers and Legends play 25 times this season, and have 18 games remaining, however just six of those will be in Lexington.

About the Rockers:
The Rockers enter into this series at 14-8, tied with Gastonia for first in the South Division, one game ahead of the Charleston Dirty Birds who the Rockers swept this past weekend. After the Rockers got off to a scorching start, winning their first five games, they dropped three straight series. However, they have since found their footing. The Rockers had a nine-game homestand where they went 7-2, winning all three series vs Southern Maryland, Lexington and Charleston. They look to stay hot and handle business on the road, a place where they are 5-2 so far this year.

Key Players:

Ryan Grotjohn:
Grotjohn started the season in a slump that saw him putting together quality at-bats and hitting the ball hard across the field, but not getting results. It felt as though every ball he hit hard was right at a fielder. However, through it all he remained confident, knowing if he continued to make good contact, those balls would fall. It took a couple weeks, but he was right. Over Grotjohn’s past ten games he is hitting .300 and clubbed his first homerun in the first game of the Rocker’s doubleheader Sunday vs the Dirty Birds. His bat has been a big reason why the Rockers have gone on a five-game tear, and has the potential to carry this team and continue the streak.

Gavin Johns:
Last Wednesday the Rockers signed Gavin Johns and since then, they haven’t lost. Johns has provided energy and been a spark plug for this team. He has hit safely in three of his four games thus far with two of his three being multi-hit games. He earned Rocker’s Player of the Week honors and looks to continue to drive in runs in this series against the Legends.

Keys Trends:

HR ball:
The Rockers have the most homers in the Atlantic league with 33 and have won every game this season in which they hit more homers than their opponent. More than 45% of their offensive production comes via the HR, demonstrating how vital it is to the Rockers success. However, the Rockers offense is evolving to not be reliant on the home run. Over the Rockers past six games, just 21% of their runs have come from the long ball. And in two of the Rockers three wins against Charleston over the weekend, they were out homered. Those two games were the first such games this season where the Rockers were outhomered and lost, making their record in those games 2-6.

Comeback Kids:
The first 13 games this season the Rockers did not see a lead change, however since then all but one game has had a lead change. To go even further, all but one of the Rockers seven wins since then have been comeback wins. The Rockers have even had the walk off magic going with two of their last three games being won on walk off hits. The Rockers will look to handle Lexington whether that be in wire-to-wire fashion or with a comeback victory.

Dominance on the mound:
In 2023, High Point had the best strikeout to walk ratio in the Atlantic League. They had the second-most strikeouts and fewest walks, with 69 fewer than any other club. This season the Rockers are demonstrating a similar dominance. They have the best ERA at 3.64 and have a strikeout to walk ratio of 3.91, which is nearly 1.3 more than Gastonia, the team with the second-best mark. Rockers pitchers have plenty of strikeout stuff, striking out more than 12 batters per nine innings and have 54 more strikeouts than Gastonia, the team with the second-most Ks. The Rockers have had as many or more strikeouts than their opponent in 19 of their 22 games this season.

About the Legends:
Lexington comes into this three-game series at 5-17, the worst mark in the league, nine games behind High Point and Gastonia, which pace the South Division. The Legends have dropped eight of their past ten games, which includes losing two of three to the Rockers last week. They are by far the youngest team in the league, and their inexperience has cost them thus far.

Keys Players:

Dustin Beggs:
Beggs was Lexington’s opening day starter this season and an arm they will have to lean on again to try to turn their season around. Beggs has had a rough season to this point. He has made four starts and has pitched to a 7.36 ERA. What has hurt Beggs the most has been the eight home runs he has allowed this year. This is not a new problem for him, who allowed 24 homers last year with Spire City. In his two starts against High Point, Beggs is yet to earn a win. With an ERA of 9.00 and four homers allowed, Beggs will have to do a better job of keeping the ball in the yard to give Lexington a chance.

Kole Cottam:
Cottam joined Lexington about a week and a half ago but since he has been a Legend, he has been on fire. He’s hit for a .333 batting average and parked four homers while showing great discipline at the plate walking ten times and striking out just six. Cottam has been a problem for the Atlantic League for a couple seasons now. He slugged 30 homers and 24 doubles for Spire City last year and has not slowed down one bit this season.

Key Trends:

Can the offense keep up:
Going into last week’s matchup between Lexington and High Point, the Legends had scored the second-most runs in the league and had the most doubles. However, after being held to three runs all series against Gastonia, they now have scored the second-fewest runs. They’ve hit the second-fewest homers, but get on base and try to cause havoc. Lexington’s pitching staff will give up runs, and Lexington’s offense will have to score a bunch to keep up.

Keeping the ball in the park:
The Legends have the highest ERA in the league at 7.33, primarily because of their inability to limit home runs. The Legends have allowed 39 homers this year, seven more than any other team in the ALPB. They’ve walked 134, 24 more than any other club. The Rockers have hit the most homers in the league and draw the third-most walks, making this series a matchup of strength vs weakness. Lexington has to be able to prevent throwing ball four, and keep the ball in the park to give themselves any shot.

Pitching Matchup:
Fri: HP – Ben Braymer vs LEX – Dustin Beggs
Braymer: 0-0, 0.00 ERA (first appearance of 2024)
Beggs: 22 IP (5G-4GS) / 7.36 ERA / 9BB:17Ks / 8HR allowed

Sat: HP – Taylor Guerrieri vs LEX – TBA
Guerrieri: 12IP (4G-2GS) / 8ER (6.00 ERA) / 15Ks / 4BB / 4HR allowed

TBA:

Sun: HP – Brandon Leibrandt vs LEX – Jose Acuna
Leibrandt: 19.1IP (4GS) / 2ER (0.93 ERA) / 7BB / 24Ks
Acuna: 16.2IP (4GS) / 7.02 ERA / 24BB:10Ks / 3HR allowed

Keys for Rocker Starters:
The Rockers are happy to not be seeing Nick Laio, who shut them down last Tuesday at Truist Point. Instead, they’ll see Dustin Beggs and Jose Acuna, two arms the Rockers have had a lot of success against. For High Point, Braymer will make his first appearance of the season. He is a former Major Leaguer and pitched to a 1.16 ERA with the Rockers last year. Guerrieri has been exceptional this year excluding one rough start against Southern Maryland. In his last start, he took on Lexington and held them down to just one run over four innings. Leibrandt has been brilliant for the Rockers as well, he’s allowed just two earned runs over 19.1 innings and has used his fastball, slider, changeup pitch mix to baffle hitters. He has struck out 24 so far and should be in line for more against Lexington this series.

Milestone Watch:
Rockers manager, Jaime Keefe, has the third best active win percentage in the Atlantic League and picked up wins 300 and 301 when the Rockers swept their doubleheader Sunday against the Dirty Birds. He has another milestone on the horizon, needing just nine more games to hit 2,000 games managed for his career.

How Can I Tune In?
Tuesday and Thursday our coverage will start at 6:20 p.m. EDT with a first pitch time of 6:45 p.m. EDT. Our pregame coverage for Wednesday’s 10:15 a.m. EDT game will begin at 9:50 a.m. EDT. This series will be broadcast exclusively on MixLR as we will call the game remotely.