Sunday Shutout Seals Series for Sacramento

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – For the second Sunday in a row the Sacramento River Cats blanked their opponent, shutting down the Albuquerque Isotopes and winning five of six games in the series thanks to a 7-0 final.

From the jump the River Cats (39-24) were ready, taking an early advantage over the Isotopes (18-45) thanks to a sacrifice fly from Ryan McKenna that scored Luis Matos, who had opened the frame with a single.

During the third Sacramento plated another, as Ismael Munguia drew a walk to start the inning and advanced to second when a foul out took Albuquerque catcher Willie MacIver into the dugout. That moment proved crucial, as Munguia scored from second on a single into center field from David Villar, who was playing in his first game since June 1.

While the offense was building its lead, Sacramento starter Tommy Romero (4-1) was working on a solid performance from the bump. After putting up five scoreless in his last outing on June 4, Romero was back at it by spinning 6.2 scoreless frames in the contest today. That was the longest outing by any River Cats pitcher this season and was also the first Sacramento quality start in 2024. All told, Romero finished with just two hits allowed and six strikeouts, running his scoreless steak up to 11.2 innings in his fourth victory of the year.

More insurance was added in the fifth and eighth innings for the River Cats, starting with another sacrifice fly as this one came from the bat of Bishop. Shortly after Donovan Walton singled on a ball to shortstop that forced home a run, while the last three runs all scored from free passes with the bases loaded.

Following Romero, the duo of Spencer Bivens and Justin Garza continued to show why the Sacramento bullpen has been not just one of the best in Triple-A, but all of professional baseball. After picking up the final out of the seventh, Bivens finished with 1.1 scoreless innings which pushed his scoreless streak up to 11 games and 19.0 combined innings, while Garza worked a perfect ninth. The River Cats bullpen has allowed just two runs in the month of June, spanning eight games and 33.0 innings for a 0.55 ERA.

Only Brett Auerbach logged an extra-base hit and multi-hit effort, going 2-for-3 with a run scored and his two-bagger. A total of seven different River Cats recorded hits, which included Bishop and Villar who tallied a pair of RBI each.

The shutout victory was the seventh of the season for the River Cats, which is their most in a single season since they had a franchise record-tying 10 shutout wins in the 2016 campaign (also had 10 shutout wins in 2006). This marked the 11th time that Sacramento has shut out Albuquerque since 2005, and the River Cats now have 115 shutout wins in that time.

After an off-day on Monday, the River Cats will travel to Reno to take on the Aces in a six-game set from Greater Nevada Field beginning on Tuesday evening at 6:35 p.m. (PT).