Pair of Aces swat grand slams in same inning

The Reno Aces played their cards right Sunday.

The Triple-A affiliate of the Diamondbacks routed the Las Vegas Aviators (A’s) in an 21-3 victory at Greater Nevada Field behind an eight-run fifth inning that featured grand slams by Ronaldo Hernández and Bryson Brigman.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s an efficient way to score. In MLB’s modern era, it's happened seven times, with Mets outfielders Cliff Floyd and Carlos Beltrán the most recent to accomplish the feat in July 2006.

In the Minor Leagues, where games are more abundant, the last two-slam inning occurred last season. Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers' Isiah Gilliam and Ryan Bliss launched two in the first inning on Sept. 19, 2023.

The bottom of the fifth opened for the Aces with Brigman grounding out to first base on the second pitch of his at-bat. Jorge Barrosa followed with a double, Michael Pérez singled and Tristin English was hit by a pitch, bringing Hernández to the plate against veteran right-hander Austin Pruitt (A's) with the opportunity to break a 1-1 tie.

"I felt a little bad with my swing, so I was going to try to look for something like a hanger," Hernández said. "But I'm going to make good contact with any pitch."

The 26-year-old designated hitter needed just two pitches before he clobbered his 10th homer of the season off the scoreboard in left-center field on a fastball atop the zone. It marked the Colombian-born player’s sixth grand slam in nine Minor League seasons.

"It's Ronnie, man," Brigman said. "He hits bombs all the time. He's got grand slams like nobody else."

Five batters later and with a second out on the board, Brigman joined Hernández beyond the left-center field wall with his seventh homer of the season off Pruitt. The 29-year-old’s first grand slam as a professional knocked the righty out of the game.

"Honestly, I was more worried about making two outs in one inning because that’s never fun," Brigman laughed. "So I was just trying to make sure I put something in play hard."

Brigman didn't even realize what the Aces accomplished at first, and he also didn't want to let a struggling Aviators pitching staff off the hook. Reno notched 11 more runs across the next two innings, with both Brigman and Hernández recording three-hit performances.

"It almost feels like people were diving to the bat rack, trying to get up here and get one more at-bat," Brigman said. "But on those days, the ball just looks like a beach ball, and honestly, it was just business as usual."

📩 CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO BEN'S BIZ

Reno tagged the Aviators for 21 hits -- six extra-base knocks -- and drew 11 walks. All nine starters took six or more trips to the plate and recorded at least one hit with six collecting multihit games.

"Obviously, it's great to have the personal accolades," Brigman said. "But at the end of the day, we're all just showing up and trying to compete for the guys next to us and just trying to move the line along."