Sacramento Scores First and Last in 5-3 Win over Tacoma on Saturday

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – While it’s usually better to score last, the Sacramento River Cats also scored first as they tallied two in the first and three in the seventh leading to a 5-3 victory over the Tacoma Rainiers on Saturday.

With their opening set of swings the River Cats (33-23) plated a pair, all of which started with a single from Austin Slater as he continued his rehab assignment. Still standing on first after a quick pair of outs, David Villar brought him home with his eighth homer of the season, a 428-foot blast that left the bat at 104.5 mph.

Quickly the Rainiers (30-26) responded, countering Sacramento’s first with their own pair of runs in the top of the second. A leadoff hit was again the catalyst, as Tyler Locklear tripled down the right field line and stood 90 feet away from home, though it hardly mattered when Luis Urias hammered a home run to left-center field on a 3-1 pitch to knot the contest.

Not long after Tacoma took an advantage, as former River Cat Jason Vosler continued his hot series by driving in a run with a single into center field to score Urias. For Vosler, he now has hits in four straight games and is batting .412 (7-for-17).

That score held until the home half of the seventh when the River Cats strung together a rally, once more starting the frame with a leadoff knock courtesy of a double from Donovan Walton. Following that was Donny Sands, making it back-to-back doubles after his liner bounced over the wall in right field to bring Walton home as the tying run.

Continuing the pressure, the second knock of the night from Slater resulted in the go-ahead run, while a bases-loaded walk to Blake Sabol pushed in some insurance for Sacramento.

Picking up the win and staying perfect on the season was Juan Sanchez (3-0), yielding only a single hit and two walks while striking out a pair over 2.0 innings. Also tossing his own pair of scoreless frames was Justin Garza (S, 2), his second save in as many appearances after allowing a pair of base runners while punching out two.

Not factoring into the decision was starter Carson Whisenhunt, who went 5.0 innings for the third time in his past four outings and surrendered the trio of runs on five hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

Doing the majority of the damage tonight was Slater, Villar and Sands, all of whom had two hits on the night. They scored all five runs and combined on four of five RBI, with doubles coming from Villar and Sands. For Villar, he has tallied hits in 10 of his past 11 games and is batting .390 (16-for-41) in that time. Meanwhile, Sands has logged hits in six straight games (9-for-24, .375).

There were a trio of Giants on rehab assignments in the contest, including Slater as well as Michael Conforto and Nick Ahmed. Slater is now 3-for-13 on his current assignment, but the latter two were each hitless as Ahmed was 0-for-3 while Conforto went 0-for-2 and is now 1-for-5 on his current rehab assignment.

Having secured at minimum a series split with Tacoma, the River Cats will attempt to win the series outright in the finale of this six-game set that gets underway from Sutter Health Park at 1:05 p.m. (PT) on Sunday.