RENO, Nev. – Last week the Reno Aces traded results with their opponent, but this week they will look to capitalize on the momentum of a series split as they enter a six-game set over the July 4 holiday week in the Pacific Northwest against the Tacoma Rainiers, Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.
Six different Aces finished the week batting above the .300 line, five of which had 10 or more at-bats. Tops among them was Christian Cerda, who ended his week at a .500 clip with three doubles, five RBI, two walks and a 1.383 OPS. Ryan Waldschmidt also had an impressive week batting .400, scoring four runs, totaling three extra-base hits (two doubles, one homer) and four RBI, and recording a 1.283 OPS.
Those successes and three consecutive run-scoring innings had Reno on pace to a series win, but the Oklahoma City Comets stormed back and stole a victory in the set finale to split the six-games. Reno had started the 2026 second half on a hot note, winning each of their first two contests on June 23 and 24, then snatched game five on June 27.
The Aces and Rainiers met just once in the first half, as the two teams opened with three games in Reno to start the season from March 27-29. That weekend helped the Aces start on a hot note as they snatched games one and three to begin the campaign with a series win.
That small edge has helped the Aces maintain an edge in the all-time matchup by a decent margin, 161-137 (.560). With 298 games in their shared history, Tacoma will become the third team in Aces history to play 300 shared games. Even further, those 161 victories rank second most in Aces history against any one opponent and are only two behind the 163 wins Reno has logged against Las Vegas in a franchise-high 315 games (163-152, .517).
Tacoma went on to finish the first half just one game ahead of the Aces (32-43) in seventh place of the PCL standings at 33-42. That momentum has seemingly carried into the second half as the Rainiers dropped four of six against Round Rock last week, holding the Express to two combined runs in a pair of 12-1 and 5-1 wins in games two and five.
Last week the Rainiers found themselves right in the middle of the pack for ERA, tying for fifth in the PCL along with Sacramento at 5.33. Despite that, the Rainiers posted the third best WHIP (1.39) and third most strikeouts (55), but more impressively tied for the second fewest walks along with two others with just 21 issued.
Hitting even had its moment for the Rainiers with the third highest batting average of the league at .270 while their .886 OPS was tops of all 10 PCL squads. Only 39 times did they strikeout, tied for second fewest. However, they tied for just the fifth-most runs with 33, and they tied for seventh-fewest walks drawn with only 21.
On an individual level, Tacoma had three of the top-20 batting averages last week with a minimum of 10 at-bats, best among them the .412 clip from Patrick Wisdom. In addition to that mark, he scored seven runs (second most in the PCL), doubled once, crushed a PCL-leading five homers, and tallied a 1.898 OPS.
A little further behind him was Blake Rambusch, as the infielder hit .375 with four runs scored, two doubles, one homer, two RBI and a 1.162 OPS. Last among them was Colin Davis in a tie for 16th at .368.
Currently the Mariners have just two of Seattle’s top 30 prospects, best among them Brock Rodden at No. 18. So far this season he is hitting .272 in 61 games played with team bests in both doubles (17, tied) and home runs (11). The only pitcher is Robinson Ortiz, checking in at No. 23, who thus far is 0-2 in 26 relief appearances with a 4.80 ERA and 38 strikeouts to 20 walks.
This six-game series begins on Tuesday night at Cheney Stadium beginning at 6:05 p.m. PT.