Late Sacramento Rally Falls Just Short Against Tacoma

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Sacramento River Cats rallied late with a pair of home runs, one in each the eighth and ninth innings, but still Sacramento fell short in the series finale against the Tacoma Rainiers by a 5-4 final on Sunday.

A two-out, three-run rally in the second inning by the Rainiers (19-14) had the River Cats (21-12) in a hole nearly all game, but Sacramento did its best to climb out of it by scoring all four of their runs in their final two sets of swings. Unloading on the first homer in the eighth was Brandon Martorano, as he clubbed a two-run blast that had scored Ismael Munguia and kept the River Cats from being shutout.

This was just the third Triple-A game for Martorano, but already he has two homers and has driven in at least one run in each contest that he’s played in. He’s had a hit in each of his two games this season and is 4-for-7 (.571), and owns a career Triple-A batting average of .625 (5-for-8) and a 2.000 OPS.

In the top of the ninth Tacoma added two crucial runs of insurance, both coming against Nick Avila which were the first runs he had allowed all season. The Modesto, Calif. native had gone five games and 6.1 innings without even allowing a hit entering today’s contest.

Avila’s first run came from a failed pick off at second base, where a ricochet sent the ball into left field and allowed the Tacoma baserunner to score from second. A short while later, former River Cat Jason Vosler struck for his fourth home run of the campaign, a solo blast that landed in the bullpens beyond the right-field wall.

If it were not for those two runs, Heliot Ramos would have played the hero yet again as he hammered a 1-0 pitch for a dinger to straightaway center field for his team-leading eighth blast of the year, scoring Trenton Brooks after he kicked off the inning by working a free pass. Even though the River Cats were able to get the tying run aboard following the home run, they were not able to push him around and force extra innings.

Taking the loss in his Triple-A debut was Landen Roupp (0-1), as he allowed the three early runs on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts in just 1.2 innings of work.

A bright side of the Sacramento pitching were scoreless appearances from Tommy Romero and Clay Helvey, with the former lowering his ERA to 1.01 on the season thanks to scattering three hits over 4.1 innings with six strikeouts. Additionally, the River Cats struck out a total of 12 batters, their fifth time punching out double-digit batters in their past six games and the 12th time in the past 14 contests.

However, Sacramento did allow seven stolen bases in the contest, which was easily their most yielded in a game this season this season and the most since they also allowed seven on July 16, 2017 during a 14-11 road win over Salt Lake.

Earning credit for the win was Tacoma starter Michael Mariot, who went 6.0 strong and yielded only three hits with one walk and three strikeouts.

Three River Cats had multi-hit games including the duo of Ramos and Martorano, each smacking a two-run homer in the contest while Munguia closed his game 2-for-4 with a run scored.

Sacramento will enjoy the off day in town on Monday before traveling to Salt Lake City to face the Bees on Tuesday, kicking off a six-game series on Tuesday with first pitch from Smith’s Ballpark at 5:35 p.m. PT.