Rockers vs. Gastonia preview, June 18-20

High Point Rockers vs. Gastonia

The Rockers and Gastonia will begin a three-game set on Tuesday, June 18 at CaroMont Health Park.

This is the first matchup between the two clubs who will see each other a lot over the next two months. High Point and Gastonia will play 25 times between now and the end of August, with all of those being midweek series. As a matter of fact, over the next eleven weeks, High Point and Gastonia will face each other in nine of those weeks. This series may have a playoff baseball feel with one game separating the two teams at the top of the South Division as the first half winds down. Both teams have 16 games remaining in the first half, with nine of those coming against each other. Gastonia has the best record in the Atlantic League and has been hot of late winning eight of their past 10 games. They just wrapped up a six-game series with the Lexington Legends, a series where they took four of the six games, but suffered a pair of walk-off losses. Meanwhile, the Rockers have been on another level recently. High Point has won or split its last 11 series and is on a season-long eight game winning stgreak. The Rockers are just one game behind Gastonia and find themselves in a situation where they could leapfrog them in the standings if the winning streak were to continue.

About the Rockers:

The Rockers come into this game at 31-16, one game behind Gastonia (32-15) for first place in the South Division. High Point is on an eight game winning streak and are eight games better than the Charleston Dirty Birds, in essence making it a two horse battle for the division. The Rockers have not lost a series since they dropped a three-game set to the Blue Crabs on May 9th. At the time that was the third straight series in which High Point was defeated. However, they have since found their footing. Despite their improved play over this long stretch, they still trail Gastonia. The Baseball Club has won eight of their past ten games and the Rockers may only surpass them by defeating them head-to-head. The Rockers are coming off a nine-game road trip that started with a series against a competitive Staten Island team, which the Rockers swept. Then they took on a Lancaster team which had tied an Atlantic League record with 15 straight victories; the Rockers swept them. Now the road trip concludes against aforementioned Gastonia, which holds the best record in the Atlantic League. Out of the Rockers six longest winning streaks in franchise history, which are all at least seven games, they do not have a single win against Gastonia. That will have to change if they want the current win streak to hit nine and tie Gastonia atop the South.

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 .528 with three homers and has an even better mark of .579 over his past five. His hot stretch has seen his batting average on the season go from .230 on June 2nd to a team best .322 average just over two weeks later. Out of his past six games he has recorded two three hit games, and in the finale against Lancaster Sunday had a four-hit game. High Point will need Grotjohn’s torrid run to continue in order to triumph over Gastonia

Connor Owings:

Connor Owings has been one of the most consistent Rocker bats all season, but prior to the start of the High Point’s road trip against the Staten Island FerryHawks, Owings had been in an 0-17 rut. How did Owings escaped the slump playing where he is most comfortable, on the road. Owings has hit .400 with seven of his eight homers on the road. He had two two-run homers in the Rockers sweep over the Lancaster Stormers. Both long balls were huge as all three games that High Point won were by three runs or fewer. The Rockers have a league-best 16-7 record on the road and Owings is a huge reason why.

Keys Trends:

HR ball:

The Rockers have the second most homers in the Atlantic league with 67 and have won all but one game this season in which they hit more homers than their opponent. More than 47% of their offensive production comes via the HR, demonstrating how vital it is to the Rockers success. The Rockers are 20-1 when they outhomer their opponent and 27-3 when they have as many or more homers than their opponent, compared to just 4-13 when they fall short.

Gold Glovers:

The Rockers defense has gone through stretches this year when they’ve been outstanding as well as times when they’ve been sloppy, but overall they have committed the third fewest errors with just 34. They have guys like Ben Aklinski, DJ Burt and Ryan Grotjohn who routinely make diving catches that save runs and give the team momentum. However, over the Rockers past ten games, they have taken this to another level. The Rockers have made just one error in their past ten and have not had a miscue in any of their past seven games. There is no question this correlates to the Rockers eight-game winning streak and they’ll have to continue to make plays in the field to keep it going.

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 the next closest club. This season the Rockers are demonstrating a similar dominance. They have the best ERA at 3.41 and have a strikeout to walk ratio of 3.47. Rockers pitchers have plenty of strikeout stuff, striking out more than 10.8 batters per nine innings and have 57 more strikeouts than the next closest club. The Rockers prevent runners from getting on base because they don’t walk a soul. They have walked just 138 guys all year, which can explain in part why they have stranded more runners than their opponent in 24 of their past 26 games.

About Gastonia:

Gastonia comes into this three-game series at 32-15, one game ahead of the Rockers. Gastonia has won eight of its past ten games and has led the South Division for almost a full month.

Keys Players:

Patrick Mazeika:

The former New York Mets backstop has been one of the best in the Atlantic League this season. Mazeika has a .276 average, 13 homers and 32 runs batted in on the season. He has been even better of late, hitting .364 over his past 10 games. The Rockers have no difficulty striking batters out, but Mazeika may prove to be a challenge as he has only gone down on strikes 14% of the time this season.

Josh Stowers:

Stowers had difficulty finding his footing in affiliated ball as he was with a different team in four of his five seasons. His tenure with Gastonia may last the same duration if he continues to hit the way he has this season. Stowers has a .276 average with 10 homers, but in his past 10 games has hit .359 with three homers and 18 RBIs. He is also a massive threat on the bases as the Gastonia outfielder has stolen 19 bags this year. His plate discipline is also quite good as he has walked 23 times. The Rockers must tread carefully with Stowers to keep this big piece of Gastonia’s dangerous lineup in check.

Key Trends:

Complete Offense:

Gastonia leads the league in home runs, but their offense is in no way one-dimensional. Gastonia has drawn the third-most walks, contributing to their second-best on-base percentage of .360. They also steal the fourth-most bases making them not only a power threat, but on-base and speed threats as well. The Rockers will have to be prepared for all that Gastonia is capable of.

Defense Wins Championships:

Gastonia has been a superb defensive team for the entirety of the season. They have committed the fewest errors in the Atlantic League with only 25. However, that has not been the case recently. Gastonia has made 10 errors in their past eight games and at least one error in each of their past six prior to the finale against Lexington on Sunday. Gastonia will have to return to playing clean defense if they want to help out their pitching staff and give themselves the best chance of winning.

Pitching Matchup:

Tue: HP – Jonah Scolaro vs GAS – Ryan Conroy

Scolaro: 32.1IP (6GS) / (2.23 ERA) / 11BB / 28Ks / 4HR allowed

Conroy: 34.2 IP (8GS) / 4.93 ERA / 32K / 7BB / 8HR allowed

Wed: HP – Ben Braymer vs GAS – Nick Wells

Braymer: 16.1 IP (5GS) / 3.31 ERA / 4BB / 15Ks / 4HR allowed

Wells: 19.2 IP (4G-3GS) / 1.37 ERA / 24Ks (11K/9) / 9BB (4.1BB/9) / 1HR allowed

Sun: HP – Neil Ramirez vs GAS – Mike Wright Jr.

Ramirez: 30IP (9G-4GS) / (3.30 ERA) / 7BB / 41Ks / 5HR allowed

Wright Jr.: 12.2 IP (3GS) / 6.39 ERA / 8Ks (5.7K/9) / 4BB / 3HR allowed

Starting Pitching Keys:

Gastonia has pitched to a second-best 3.91 ERA this season. They have allowed the third-fewest walks and struck out the third-most hitters. Gastonia’s rotation includes Ryan Conroy who has struggled to the tune of a 4.93 ERA. He has completely eradicated the walks, with just seven allowed this season. For context, that number is less than the eight home runs he has allowed this season. The Rockers should look to exploit both those numbers. Wells has only thrown 19.2 innings, but has dazzled over that span. He has a 1.37 ERA and an impressive 24 strikeouts along with it. High Point should look to extend at-bats and get to the bullpen as quickly as possible. In the finale they will see former big leaguer Mike Wright Jr. The big 6’6” righty has struggled in his Atlantic League introduction posting a 6.39 ERA over his first 12.2 innings. He has also had his strikeout stuff fall off the table with just eight Ks to his name. In addition, three homers over that short sample size is a large number and expect the Rockers to tee off if he leaves pitches over the middle of the plate.

The Rockers pitching staff has been the heartbeat of the team and all three starters in Scolaro, Braymer and Ramirez have certainly contributed. The Rockers starters have allowed just two earned runs over their past 27 innings. Scolaro has been magnificent this season but is coming off his toughest start to date and that’s saying something. He threw five innings of three run ball, struck out two and gave up two homers in that outing. That is not a bad outing, but a downgrade from the four-game stretch prior that where he threw 23.2 consecutive scoreless innings. For the season he has a 2.23 ERA, but the one area that has cost him has been the home run ball. Out of the eight runs Scolaro has allowed, six have come in via the long ball. Braymer has had a strong year as well. He is coming off his best start, one where he went six innings and gave up only one run. Similar to Scolaro, Braymer has been bitten by homers. All six of the earned runs he has allowed have come off the homers. Ramirez has been a strikeout machine this year. In his past three starts he has stuck out nine, seven and five respectively. His last start was his best though. He threw six innings of scoreless ball, allowing just one hit against Lancaster on Friday. He was extremely efficient as well, completing the outing in just 55 pitches. He’ll look to build on that in what could be his most important start of the year so far against Gastonia on Thursday.

How Can I Tune In?

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