RENO, Nev. – During their series opener on Tuesday the Reno Aces showed their muscle by hitting four homers, but the Tacoma Rainiers rallied with eight straight runs to eventually secure an 8-7 decision.
The Aces (20-20/52-63) had raced out to an early 4-0 lead, scoring once in each of the first three innings including twice in the second. LuJames Groover got the action going with an RBI single in the first in front of a pair of homers, a two-run blast from Gavin Conticello in the second and a solo shot from Adrian Del Castillo in the third.
What allowed the Reno offense to build their lead was the starting effort from Yu-Min Lin (6-9), who had retired each of the first nine batters he faced including a trio of strikeouts. However, Lin ran into trouble in the fourth, allowing the first five runs of what would become an eight-run span to take the lead by the Rainiers (17-23/50-65).
That large fourth inning against Lin was highlighted by a pair of RBI doubles, ultimately chasing him from the game after 3.2 innings of work with four hits allowed in addition to two walks and four strikeouts.
Meanwhile, the Rainiers continued their surge with a three-run sixth, all of which scored courtesy of a Nick Raposo three-run dinger.
Reno continued its power surge in search of a comeback bid, the first from Jose Fernandez with a solo shot in the seventh. One inning later in the eighth and it was Arizona’s No. 1 prospect Demetrio Crisantes leaving the yard for the first time at Triple-A, crushing a 2-1 fastball a total of 390 feet over the wall in left center.
Continuing the rally, Reno had the game’s tying run on base and the go-ahead run at the plate, but the eighth inning came to an end following a strikeout and ground out. The Aces once more had the game’s tying run in scoring position in the ninth, and though they managed to pull within one on a sacrifice fly, they could not complete the comeback.
Despite the four home runs, the third time this season that Reno has slugged four or more big flies, the Aces suffered the loss which drops them to 19-14 when hitting multiple homers and 39-34 when hitting at least one home run. It was just one shy of the season-best five homers that Reno has reached on two occasions, the last on July 24 against Tacoma.
Additionally, this marked the first time in this season that the Aces have lost when hitting four or more homers, the 13th total time in team history and the first since April 16, 2023 in a loss to Sacramento at home. Interesting enough, the last time it happened on the road was also against Tacoma on July 5, 2021.
The Aces collected a total of 13 hits in the contest, including multi-hit efforts from the quartet of Fernandez, Del Castillo, Crisantes and Conticello. Of that group, the former was just a triple shy of the cycle in addition to a pair of runs scored. For Conticello, it was his fifth homer since his Triple-A debut on July 11 which leads the Aces, and he was the only to finish the day with multiple RBI.
Reno will look to snap their four-game losing streak when they meet Tacoma for game two of this series on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. PT.