Triple-A baseball: El Paso Chihuahuas (Rowley) at Reno Aces (Vasquez)

The Reno Aces host the El Paso Chihuahuas at 4:05: p.m. at Greater Nevada Field. The Aces are the top minor league club of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Chihuahuas are the top dogs of the San Diego Padres.

Today’s Game: Reno comes into game two of the four-game series looking to tie the series up following last night’s loss. Chris Cron will send southpaw Anthony Vasquez to the mound for the second time this season. Vasquez did not record a decision in his first start, but went five innings and allowed four runs on eight hits with four strikeouts. He’ll square off against Chris Rowley who did not record a decision in his first start but went five innings and allowed four runs on six hits.

Oh, For What: Reno is 0-3 in games following a win this season. Joel Payamps (Aced Injured List), Taylor Widener and Stefan Crichton both earned losses in their respective starts. Opponents are batting over .300 in these games and have hit five home runs.  Travis Snider is batting .636 (7-for-11) with a double and two RBI in these contests.

Sample Size: It’s been just four games at Greater Nevada Field in 2019 and thus far the Aces offense has yet to duplicate their success from years past. The Aces are batting .262 (34-for-130) in the friendly confines with two home runs and 16 RBI. Travis Snider leads the way with an average of .571 (8-for-14, 2B, 2 BB). Yasmany Tomas (.429) and Abraham Almonte (.364) are the only other Aces not named Snider with averages north of .300.

 The Debut: Back from the big leagues, Jon Duplantier looked right at home in Triple-A. MLB.com’s No. 72 overall prospect dazzled in a brief debut at the Minor Leagues’ highest level, tossing three hitless innings before Reno fell to El Paso, 6-4, on Friday night at Greater Nevada Field. Duplantier saw his first action this season with the big club, leaping over Triple-A in the process. Working out of Arizona’s bullpen, the 24-year-old threw three scoreless innings on April 1 and another scoreless frame six days later. All told, he allowed two hits and two walks while striking out three over his pair of Major League outings.

Quotable: “I’ll get back into the routine of stretching it out, having days when I stretch it out and bring it in,” Duplantier said. “Each day will have its own unique focus. That’s kind of what I got away from when I was relieving because you don’t necessarily have the liberty of, ‘I’m not going to pitch today so I can go ahead and stretch it out and come in and fuzz it up.’ Today can be my velocity or today let’s come in and make sure the ball is spinning. Nope, when you’re relieving, today I’ve got to get loose, make sure my ball is spinning right, make sure I’ve got my rhythm every day.

April’s in the 775: At the time of this writing (7:18 a.m.), the forecast in Reno shows 70 degrees at first pitch! If that remains to be true, it will be the first game at Greater Nevada Field this season where the weather climbs above 58 degrees. In 2018, the 775 had 14 days above the 70-degree mark in April,  with the hottest day coming on 4/26/18 at 82. The average temperature in Reno on April 13 since 2009 is 61.4. Reno has never won at home on April 13.  70° – 2009 | 61° – 2010 | 48° – 2011 | 46° – 2012 | 70° – 2013 | 64° – 2014 | 75° – 2015 | 64° – 2016 | 55° – 2017 – Suspended due to weather | 61° – 2018 |

— Jackson Gaskins, RenoAces.com