Cats Fall on Walk-Off Homer In 10th Inning Against Isotopes

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Despite receiving excellent pitching performances over the first seven innings and taking a 2-1 lead into the eighth, the Sacramento River Cats saw the lead slip at the very end when Greg Jones launched a three-run, walk-off homer for a 5-2 victory by the Albuquerque Isotopes on Thursday.

Drawing the start for the River Cats (15-21/59-52) was Tristan Beck, his first appearance of the year at any level as he worked his way back from an aneurysm in his shoulder. The Stanford product was sharp early, picking off a one-out single in the first and striking out three in the first two frames.

However, Beck was tagged for the game’s first run in the home half of the third when Grant Lavigne’s leadoff single came around to score on a Jordan Beck two-out knock into center, giving the Isotopes (16-20/42-69) the early advantage.

On next was Trevor McDonald, who did not miss a beat and retired each of the first eight hitters he faced. His work allowed the Sacramento offense time to work, taking the lead in the top of the sixth starting when a Christian Koss double scored in the next at-bat on a single from Wade Meckler.

Grant McCray continued the chain with a single into right center, putting runners at the corners but also extending his hitting streak to 14 games. There to pick up Meckler at third was David Villar, who singled through the left side and put the River Cats in front.

Much like Beck, McDonald ran out of steam in the final inning of his outing, when again a Lavigne hit turned into a run, this time on a sacrifice fly form Elehuris Montero. For McDonald, he still punched out five and walked only one while yielding one run on four hits in 4.2 innings of work.

Left-hander Kolton Ingram helped the game get into extras by working a scoreless 1.1 innings, giving the River Cats a chance to win the game in the top of the 10th. Starting with the free runner at second in Blake Sabol, a walk to Donovan Walton had a pair on with no outs. Unfortunately, the River Cats could not capitalize, as Sabol was thrown out trying to score on a groundball in the infield.

Coming in with all the momentum, the Isotopes used a sacrifice bunt to move their free runner to third. After a walk was issued to set up a double play, Greg Jones ended the contest with one swing as a high flyball got caught in the wind and carried over the wall in left field for a walk-off home run.

It was the eighth walk-off loss of the season for Sacramento, bringing their record to 4-8 in such games, and they also fell to 3-5 in extra-innings contests. Additionally, they have now lost five of their past six contests.

Taking the loss was Tanner Andrews (3-6), as his only hit yielded was the wind-aided home run that counted for only two earned runs (three total) in 0.1 innings.

Only Villar had a multi-hit night by going 2-for-4 with an RBI, while Meckler’s RBI single means he’s batting 10-for-31 (.323) in his six games back with Sacramento.

Trailing two games to one in the series, the River Cats will look to pull even once more when the two teams face off in game four of this series at 5:35 p.m. (PT) on Friday.