LOUISVILLE BATS GAME NOTES
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 - 7:05 P.M. E.T. Louisville Bats (47-48, 8-14 2nd Half) at Toledo Mud Hens (46-50, 12-10 2nd Half) RHP Jose Franco (2-3, 4.17) vs. RHP Carl Edwards Jr. (3-4, 7.18) Bats Media Relations: Aaron Cheris (acheris@batsbaseball.com), Nick Curran (ncurran@batsbaseball.com), Owen Graham (ograham@batsbaseball.com) X/Twitter: @BatsBaseball
UPCOMING PROBABLE PITCHERS (All Times EST)
BATS LEAGUE RANKINGS Bats Batting/IL Rankings
AVG:...............264................ 3rd OBP:...............346...............12th SLG:...............448................ 3rd Runs:............. 497........... T-10th Hits:............... 841................ 3rd Doubles:........ 154...............13th Triples:............ 17.............. T-7th Home Runs:.. 133.................4th RBI:............... 469...............10th Walks:............ 365...............17th SO:................ 810...............17th SB:.................. 81................18th CS.................. 18................20th Bats Pitching/IL Rankings
Wins:............... 47............ T-10th ERA:...............5.14.......... T-14th WHIP:.............1.54.......... T-17th AVG:................263..............16th Shutouts:......... 6.............. T-2nd Saves:............ 24.............. T-6th Hits:............... 842.................6th Runs:............. 510.................9th Home Runs:.. 109............T-11th Hit Batters:...... 37................18th Walks:............ 421............. T-9th Strikeouts:..... 856.................8th
RECORD BREAKDOWN Overall Record:................... 47-48 First Half:............................. 39-34 Second Half:.......................... 8-14 Last 10:.................................... 3-7 Home:.................................. 25-24 Road:................................... 22-24 Day Games:........................ 15-19 Night Games:...................... 32-29 Extra Innings........................... 4-2 Series Record W-L-T............ 7-6-4 Doubleheaders W-L-T:.......... 0-3-4 Shutout W/L:............................ 6-8 Last At-Bat W/L........................ 7-5 Walk-Off W/L:.......................... 4-4 Score First:.......................... 33-16 Score 2nd/Didn't Score:....... 14-32 1-Run Games: ����������������������� 11-8 2-Run Games:..................... 12-10 3-Run Games:......................... 3-4 4+ Run Games:................... 21-25 March:..................................... 4-0 April:.................................... 14-12 May:..................................... 12-14 June:.................................... 11-12 July:....................................... 6-10 August:.................................... 0-0 September:.............................. 0-0 Leading after 6:..................... 39-5 Leading after 7:..................... 43-3 Leading after 8:..................... 38-1 Tied after 6:............................. 5-3 Tied after 7:............................. 3-4 Tied after 8:............................. 5-2 Trailing after 6:....................... 3-40 Trailing after 7:....................... 1-39 Trailing after 8:....................... 1-35 With HR:.............................. 34-28 Without HR:......................... 13-20 Allow HR:............................. 26-36 Allow No HR:....................... 21-12 With Error:........................... 14-23 Without Error:...................... 33-25 Vs. LH Starter:..................... 14-14 Vs. RH Starter:.................... 33-34
Date/Opponent Thu., 7/23 @ TOL Fri., 7/24 @ TOL Sat., 7/25 @ TOL Sun., 7/26 @ TOL Tue., 7/28 vs. IND
Game Time Bats Starter 7:05 PM RHP Davis Daniel (5-8, 4.82) 7:05 PM RHP Johnathan Harmon (Triple-A Debut) 7:05 PM RHP Jose Acuña (1-1, 5.63) 4:05 PM TBA 6:35 PM TBA
Opponent Starter RHP Ty Madden (2-0, 4.71) RHP Dylan File (5-6, 5.63) RHP Sawyer Gipson-Long (2-4, 4.78) TBA TBA
GAME NOTES SIX-GAME SKID: The Bats continue to battle through an uncharacteristically slow offensive stretch between the series in St. Paul last weekend, and and the start of the Toledo series. In four games against the Saints, including a doubleheader on Saturday, the Bats managed to cross just five runs, and were outscored 26-5 on the weekend. This was capped off with a 5-1 loss on Sunday to wrap up the series, where the Bats were no-hit until the sixth inning and were shut out before Hector Rodriguez broke the scoreless drought with a solo home run. The struggles continued on into the opener against Toledo, where the Bats posted just four hits in a 5-1 loss to the Mud Hens. The only run scored was due to a throwing error by Toledo, making Louisville come up empty in the RBI category as well. As a result, Louisville is now in its longest losing streak of the season at six games. Since their first loss to start the streak on 7/12 against Omaha, the Bats are batting a league-worst .179 in their last six games. They also rank dead last in the International League in runs (8), RBI (7), on-base percentage (.246) and OPS (.537) in that span, and look to turn things around as the series moves forward. TOGLIA TIME: Although he's missed a chunk of games in recent times, Michael Toglia has continued a consistent stretch of play in the summer months. Toglia had his best month of baseball in June, where he slashed .291 with 17 RBI, seven doubles and six home runs. After being the leader in doubles and among the team leaders in batting average in June, Toglia has gotten off to a good start on his return from the temporary inactive list. Toglia has posted a hit in each game since he's been back, and has already recorded two doubles. Despite playing in only four games from 7/17-7/21, his pair of doubles is tied for third among the Bats in the month. Toglia was the lone extra-base hitter on Tuesday night with a double. FORGETTING THE FIRST: The Bats suffered more early struggles from the hands of Toledo, who plated two early runs in the bottom of the first on Tuesday night to secure a lead they would never lose. Max Clark slugged a leadoff home run against Louisville starter Brandon Leibrandt, marking the fourth leadoff homer given up by the Bats this season. A sacrifice fly gave up the second run shortly thereafter. This continues some first-inning troubles Louisville have face so far this year, as they've given up the fifth-most hits (106) and tied for the fourth-most home runs (17) surrendered by International League pitching staffs in the first frame. HEN HOUSE OF HORRORS: Despite an earlier series win against the Mud Hens this season, the Bats have had great difficulty against the Toledo Mud Hens for the past few years. In their last six series dating back to 2024, including this current series, the Bats have struggled, going 15-27 against their IL West Division rivals. That streak includes 17 straight losses to the Mud Hens from 7/23/24-8/10/25. The Bats avoided a third straight series sweep to the Mud Hens on 8/10/25, winning the series finale 9-6 to end a 406-day streak of defeats to Toledo. In their final road series of the 2025 season, the Bats earned a split of the six-game series with the Mud Hens from 9/9-14 at Fifth Third Field. Last season, the Mud Hens won the season series 13-4 after taking it 10-7 in 2024. However, the Bats flipped the script from 4/14-4/19 this year, as they took a home series win 4-2 at Louisville Slugger Field ABS SUCCESS: Louisville has used ABS Challenges to their advantage and have been among the best teams in all of baseball when challenging balls and strikes. Entering tonight's game, the Bats as a team rank 5th in all of Triple-A with a strong 59% success rate (121-206) when challenging balls and strikes. For comparison, their opponents own just a 50% success rate (113-228). The strong numbers are mainly due to the catching trio of Will Banfield, P.J. Higgins, and Dayne Leonard. Combined, the trio have been right with 68% (67-99) of their challenges. Banfield leads the way with 41 successful challenges in 63 attempts while Higgins is 15-21 and Leonard is 11-15 in limited time behind the plate. Last year, Bats catchers were especially successful, led by P.J. Higgins' 84% success rate (41-49) throughout the season while Banfield was at 74% (25-34). HEROIC HECTOR: Hector Rodriguez has rewritten the Louisville record book this season. In the Bats' final series before the All-Star break, he began the week with back-to-back multi-home run games on Tuesday and Wednesday against Omaha on 7/7 and 7/8, homering in the first and third innings in each game to become just the fifth player in Louisville franchise history to record back-to-back multi-home run games, joining Kevin Barker (1999), Joey Votto (2007), Mike Hessman (2013), and Phillip Ervin (2019). Rodriguez now has four multi-home run games this season while his 23 home runs have already surpassed his previous career high of 19, set over 135 games between Louisville and Double-A Chattanooga last season. Earlier this season, Rodriguez became the first player in Louisville franchise history to hit an inside-the-park home run as part of a three-home run game on 5/27 against St. Paul. Two weeks later, he hit for the cycle with seven RBI in Louisville's 20-5 win over Iowa, becoming the only player in franchise history to record both a cycle and a three-home run game in the same season. He enters play batting .280 with 23 home runs, 60 RBI, 66 runs scored, 15 doubles, and four triples in 92 games. Rodriguez is now within striking distance of the Louisville single season home run record, as he is 10 behind the 33 hit by Mike Calise during the Louisville Redbirds' inaugural season in 1982. ALL-STAR SUCCESS: The Bats returned from the All-Star break with a 47-43 record, marking their third winning record at the break in the last four seasons after also finishing above .500 in 2023 (45-40) and 2024 (48-43). Prior to the current stretch, Louisville had not reached the All-Star break with a winning record since going 50-47 in 2014. Between 2015 and 2022, the Bats finished below .500 at every All-Star break (excluding the canceled 2020 season and 2021, when there was no All-Star break at the Triple-A level). Louisville's best All-Star break record since 2010 came in 2014 (50-47), while its worst was 33-59 in 2012. The Bats have posted five winning records at the All-Star break over 15 seasons with an All-Star break since 2010: 2011 (49-43), 2014 (50-47), 2023 (45-40), 2024 (48-43) and 2026 (47-43). PROSPECT RANKINGS: Louisville's current active roster features four of the Reds' Top 30 prospects according to MLB. com. They are outfielder Hector Rodriguez (No. 4), along with right-handed pitcher Jose Franco (No. 8), outfielder Carlos Jorge (No. 14), and right-handed pitcher Julian Aguiar (No. 15).