Orta Exits Early in 7-0 Shutout Loss

Following up on the most dominant performance by the Raptors all season, the lineup went cold as they faced Daniel Silva on the bump who was painting the corners all night long. With Silva topping out at 87 on the mound, he relied on pinpoint control and disruptive offspeed to keep the Raptors lineup off-balance and secure the Chukar's 1st complete-game shutout win of the year. He kept the potent Raptors lineup in their place, limiting them to just 2 base hits, walking 2, and striking 6 batters out. It was a night for the ages for Chukars starter Daniel Silva, however, for the Raptors, it was a night they will likely soon want to forget. Just 1 night after their most explosive offensive output all year, they found themselves down in an early 6-nothing hole. With the 2nd inning lead and Silva having his A+ stuff on the rubber, there was nothing the Raptors could do to keep pace with the Chukars in this one. The series to this point has been nothing but a 2 sided affair; All games have been either nail-biters or complete blowouts and not much in between. 

The Raptors are in need of a lengthy Arevalo start tonight, especially after working their bullpen as much as they did last night. After getting hit on the hip with a 102 MPH line drive, Ronny Orta’s 3rd appearance of the year was cut short, forcing Ed Baram and the rest of the bullpen to pick up the slack and enter the game much earlier than they had originally anticipated. While the bullpen did yet again post another phenomenal outing, giving up just 1 run in 7 and ⅓ innings of work, expecting 22 outs from them is a huge ask. It’s hard to win ballgames when your starting pitcher is knocked out of the game within the 1st 2 innings. If the Raptors want to compete in Game 5 of the series, they will need to get more length out of their starting pitchers, and the offense will need to keep pace with the Chukar’s attack to provide some run support for their guys on the bump. The Raptors will look to take the series lead tonight in game 5 in a matchup between Dusty Baird of the Chukars and Pablo Arevalo for the Raptors. Arevalo aims to pick up where he left off and post another beautiful outing to stay locked in and get this ball club back on the right track.