Close Contest Completed in Favor of Cats, 3-1

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A single run in the first, third and seventh innings were all that were needed for the Sacramento River Cats on Saturday, as Sacramento snatched a win in the penultimate game of the season thanks to a 3-1 decision over the Sugar Land Space Cowboys.

During the first set of swings for River Cats (36-38/80-69) they tallied the game’s first run, forcing home a run on a balk with the bases loaded by Space Cowboys (43-30/92-56) starter Colton Gordon (8-2). Two innings later and they produced a run of their own making, as a Luis Matos single with two outs in the inning scored Thairo Estrada, who had reached on a single of his own and promptly stole second.

Sugar Land was able to reach the scoreboard for the first time in the top of the seventh, which came on a swing of the bat by Jacob Melton when he sent a 3-1 offering over the wall into left field. However, the River Cats quickly stole the run back in the bottom half of the inning when Sacramento countered with their own solo homer, this from Blake Sabol to mark his 11th of the year on the first pitch he saw in the at-bat.

Outside of that, the contest was mostly about pitching as Sacramento kept the Space Cowboys to just three hits on the night, two of which were allowed by River Cats starter John Michael Bertrand (1-0) as he earned his first win by blanking Sugar Land over 6.0 innings, the first quality start of his Triple-A career.

Two other pitchers turned in a scoreless outing, as the duo of Ryan Watson and Justin Garza (S, 4) each turned in a clean inning with Garza working the ninth for his fourth save of the campaign.

The only River Cats to log hits in the contest was Sabol and Estrada, with Sabol launching a homer for one of his hits after entering the game off the bench while Estrada was 2-for-3 with two runs scored.

Sacramento holds a slim 3-2 lead in the series and looks to close out the season on a high note in the season finale on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. (PT).