Salt Lake Uses Six-Run Sixth to Down Sacramento for Third Consecutive Win
The Salt Lake Bees took home their third consecutive win against the Sacramento River Cats on Saturday evening, riding the strength of a six-run sixth inning to earn the victory by a final score of 6-3. For the first five innings of the contest on Saturday, the Bees struggled to
The Salt Lake Bees took home their third consecutive win against the Sacramento River Cats on Saturday evening, riding the strength of a six-run sixth inning to earn the victory by a final score of 6-3.
For the first five innings of the contest on Saturday, the Bees struggled to get anything going at the plate, getting held off of the scoreboard entirely while mustering just two hits and two walks against Sacramento starter Carson Ragsdale. It wasn’t until the River Cats pulled Ragsdale from the game that Salt Lake found its spark in the box, with the team finally managing to put together its first sustained rally of the night against reliever Spencer Howard. Cole Tucker and Jordyn Adams greeted the new pitcher with a pair of infield singles to put two runners on right out of the gates, and in the very next plate appearance, Keston Hiura took a 1-0 changeup from Howard and smoked it 108.1 miles per hour over the left field wall for a game-tying three-run home run, his 19th in 34 games with the Bees. This wasn’t it for Salt Lake, either, as after Charles Leblanc walked and Bryce Teodosio singled to put two more runners on base, Chad Wallach came up with two outs and took Howard deep for the team’s second three-run homer of the inning, a 389-foot blast that put the Bees on top for the first time all day.
Turned this game on its head 💫
— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) August 18, 2024
Chad Wallach smashes our second three-run dinger of the inning, and we've suddenly got a 6-3 lead! pic.twitter.com/VSKF3hERpq
This impressive turnaround suddenly put Bees starter José Suarez in line for the win, with the lefty working around some traffic on the basepaths to put together a very gutsy effort on the mound. Suarez allowed six hits and three walks during his outing, but he limited the damage to just a two-run homer by Trenton Brooks in the opening frame and a run-scoring wild pitch in the third to finish his day with six innings of three-run ball with eight strikeouts, a performance that netted him his first quality start since coming to Salt Lake in early July. After Suarez’s day was done, the Bees turned the game over to their bullpen, starting with the duo of Adam Cimber and Corey Knebel each working clean innings in the seventh and eighth in what was their respective debuts with the team. Following these two in the final frame was Guillo Zuñiga, and after the River Cats brought the tying run to the plate against the big righty, he got David Villar to fly out harmlessly to right field to slam the door shut on Salt Lake’s victory and earn his second save of the season.
We tried to warn you 😉
— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) August 18, 2024
Keston Hiura makes it 19 home runs in 34 games with a 108.1 (!) mph missile that ties us up at three apiece! pic.twitter.com/Vmi9yXryuh
The Bees will now try to secure the series victory in the finale against the River Cats on Sunday, with Davis Daniel set to take the ball in his return to Salt Lake against Sacramento’s Tristan Beck for first pitch at 2:05 p.m.