Salt Lake Secures Sweep of Las Vegas in Wild Extra-Inning Affair
The Salt Lake Bees took down the Las Vegas Aviators for the third game in a row on Sunday evening, emerging victorious in a wild extra-inning affair by a final score of 9-8 to secure their first series sweep since the 2019 season. The key to the Bees success over
The Salt Lake Bees took down the Las Vegas Aviators for the third game in a row on Sunday evening, emerging victorious in a wild extra-inning affair by a final score of 9-8 to secure their first series sweep since the 2019 season.
The key to the Bees success over the first two games of the series was getting the bats going early, and Sunday proved to be no exception to that, with the offense striking for three runs in both the first and second innings to help the team jump out to a commanding lead. The first outburst came on quickly, as base hits by Jack L贸pez and Michael Stefanic and a walk by Jason Martin loaded the bases with just one out in the opening frame. Jordyn Adams would take advantage of this situation by drawing a run-scoring walk, and immediately after, two more runs would come across on an error by the Aviators, their first of five on the night. The bats ramped things up again the next inning, with an RBI single by L贸pez, a groundout by Cole Tucker and a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch by Bryce Teodosio plating the second trio of runs to make it 6-0 in favor of the Bees.
Keeping up the pressure 馃挭
— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) July 22, 2024
Jack L贸pez smacks a base hit up the middle and we're up 4-0 in the second! pic.twitter.com/sXDxoba4CQ
After scoring again on a L贸pez groundout in the third to bring the lead up to seven, Salt Lake started to cool off at the plate a bit, allowing Las Vegas to jump right back into things in rapid fashion. The Aviators took Bees starter Zach Plesac out of cruise control in a hurry in the fourth inning, with a three-run homer by Jordan Diaz, a solo shot by Armando Alvarez and a two-run blast by Carlos P茅rez hanging six runs on the board and cutting the team鈥檚 deficit to just one. The Bees did manage to tack on an important insurance run in the seventh on another Las Vegas error, but this would not hold for long, as Colby Thomas homered off of Bryan Shaw in the eighth to bring it back to a one-run game and P茅rez banged a double off the wall in center field off of Jos茅 Marte with two outs in the ninth to tie the game and send things to extra innings.
In the top half of the tenth, the Bees took advantage of yet another Aviators mistake, scoring the go-ahead run with one out on a wild pitch by Gerardo Reyes that allowed Martin to race home from third. Armed with the lead once again, Marte came up big in his second inning of work, inducing a long flyball for the first out and then stranding the tying run at third with strikeouts of Thomas and Diaz to lock down the sweep of Las Vegas. This marked the team鈥檚 first series sweep since July 27-29, 2019, when they took home three wins in a row on the road over the Albuquerque Isotopes.
We'll take it!
— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) July 22, 2024
Jason Martin comes in to score on a wild pitch and we've got our lead back in the top of the 10th! pic.twitter.com/8QRDebJKno
The Bees will now look to ride this wave of momentum into their next series, when they come home to square off against the El Paso Chihuahuas for the first time this year. The first game of this set is scheduled for Tuesday at 6:35 p.m., and it will feature the return of Mike Trout to Salt Lake City for the first time in 12 years when he comes to Smith鈥檚 Ballpark for the start of his MLB rehab assignment.