Amaya and Salazar Each Drive In One To Avoid Shutout

The Tacoma Rainiers (68-50, 25-18) took the lead in the second and never looked back, defeating the Sugar Land Space Cowboys (74-43, 25-17) 8-2 on Friday night at Cheney Stadium.

RHP Ryan Gusto (6-4) pitched a clean first inning before surrendering back-to-back home runs to Tyler Locklear and Jason Voslerto start the second frame. Nick Solak singled and then made his way to third on a wild pitch and a groundout, scoring on a sacrifice fly. The Rainiers added a fourth run with another solo shot from Duke Ellis.

In the third, the Rainiers tacked on a couple more with a two-run base hit from Solak. Two innings later, a pair of RBI singles put Tacoma up 8-0.

RHP Blas Castano (4-2) shut down the Space Cowboys offense for 6.0 innings, allowing just four hits and a walk while striking out eight. RHP Jonathan Hernández took over in the seventh for Tacoma and César Salazar lined a double down the right-field line to put a one-out baserunner on for Sugar Land. Jacob Amaya took a sinker from Hernandez and sent it to right field for a base hit, scoring Salazar from second to put up the first Space Cowboys run of the night, avoiding a shutout.

In their final chance to make an impact in the game, Quincy Hamilton, Dixon Machado and Salazar hit consecutive singles to put another run on the board for Sugar Land with no outs, but RHP Eduard Bazardo recovered to get the final three Space Cowboys out, serving Sugar Land with their third loss in a row.

The Space Cowboys look to snap a three-game losing streak against the Rainiers on Saturday night. Sugar Land’s RHP Rhett Kouba (2-3, 5.63) will take the mound opposite of Tacoma’s RHP Casey Lawerence (8-8, 6.18) for an 8:05 pm CT first pitch. The game can be heard on ESPN 92.5 FM or online here and seen on MiLB.TV, MLB.TV or Bally Live.

ABOUT THE SUGAR LAND SPACE COWBOYS:

The Sugar Land Space Cowboys are the Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros and compete in the Pacific Coast League. They began play as the Astros Triple-A affiliate in 2021 and began playing under the Space Cowboys brand in 2022. The Space Cowboys play at Constellation Field, located at the corner of Hwy-6 and US-90 Alternate in Sugar Land, Texas. Follow the team on Twitter (@SLSpaceCowboys), Instagram (@slspacecowboys), Facebook (SLSpaceCowboys) and their official website (slspacecowboys.com). Fans can purchase full-season and partial-season plans, as well as single-game tickets, by visiting slspacecowboys.com/tickets.