Southpaw Matt Gage began a rehab assignment Saturday night with Sacramento after being placed on the 15-day IL on July 4 and transferred to the 60-day IL on August 2 due to a left elbow strain.
Gage opened the game for the Cats, allowing a pair of singles to Ryan Bliss and fellow rehabber J.P. Crawford to start. Next, Arroyo grounded in a forceout a second, followed by a walk to Lazaro Montes. Connor Joe flied out into another forceout at second thanks to Bo Davidson’s arm strength, and Joe immediately got caught attempting to swipe second to end the inning.
The Kitties answered back with an RBI double from Parks Harber that scored a speedy Scott Bandura from first base. Parks has looked exceptional in his time with Sacramento, reaching base safely in 27 of 30 total games, and hitting safely in 24.
Will Bednar entered in place of Gage and sent down the Rainiers in order.
Nate Furman extended his Triple-A hitting streak to 10-straight games with an RBI single in the second. Though Furman didn’t record a hit in the majors, he held a three-game hitting streak with Sac before having his contract selected on August 1 and continued it upon being optioned on August 14. He is batting .415 (17-for-41) with four doubles, nine RBI, four walks, two stolen bases, and a .969 OPS during that span.
Harber knocked yet another double in the third, and scored on a wild pitch by Tacoma starter Nolan Kingham to extended Sacramento’s lead to 3-1. It marked Harber’s second multi-double game this season, the other being June 6 with Double-A Richmond.
Lazaro Montes blasted a 415-foot, two-run shot to lead off the fourth. Montes also recorded a longball last night that gave Tacoma the go-ahead run. It was 115.9mph off the bat, the seventh-highest exit velocity in Triple-A at the time.
Montes has homered in consecutive games twice already this season since joining Tacoma on July 7, both being three-straight games. The first was from August 4-6 at Las Vegas, and the other August 12-14 vs. Reno. So, if pattern holds, he’s set to knock another one tomorrow in the series finale.
Spencer Bivens entered in place of Bednar and immediately gave up a two-out RBI double from Nick Raposo followed by an RBI single from Miles Mastrobuoni to put Tacoma ahead, 4-3.
Despite a strong push in the fourth with a double from Furman and a single and stolen base from Scott Bandura; Harber, Davidson, and Grant McCray struck out swinging back-to-back-to-back to end the inning.
Biv’s struggles continued into the fifth with a pair of singles to Crawford and Montes, topped off by a 381-foot, three-run dinger to Connor Joe. Bivens has allowed two homers and 12 earned runs in his last three outings since August 14.
Finally, a glimmer of hope as Shay Whitcomb knocked his 10th homer and first as a member of the Giants organization.
And that rallied the Kitties into an astonishing seven-run inning. Diego Velasquez and Furman knocked singles and Adrián Sugastey walked to load the bases. Bandur singled, scoring two runs. Harber singled, scoring another. Suddenly, it’s a tie game again.
The unstoppable Bo Davidson blasted an RBI double to extend his hitting to streak to 10-straight games. He is batting .535 (23-for-43) with 12 runs scored, seven doubles, six home runs, 17 RBI, a 1.116 slugging percentage, and a 1.699 OPS in that span since August 12.
And to top it off, McCray scored two more runs with a single. It was the sixth time this season the Cats have scored seven-or-more in a single frame. After things were looking hopeless; suddenly, Sacramento is up 10-7.
But not for long. Wilkin Ramos, who has struggled in recent outings, gave up a three-run smash to J.P. Crawford to tie once again, 10-10.
Nick Raposo would break the tie in the seventh on a sac fly to score Stuart Fairchild.
At the top of the eighth, Tacoma would score yet another home run, a 394-foot, two-run shot to left center field. It was the 14th time this season and fourth time this month the Rainiers have recorded four-or-more long balls in a game. They recorded four-plus homers in three-straight games from August 4-6 at Las Vegas.
Nolan Jones doubled in the eighth to score two more and put Tacoma up 15-10.
Scott Bandura knocked an RBI double in the ninth, but it wouldn’t be enough as Sacramento dropped the game, 11-15, marking their first time with back-to-back losses since dropping three-straight from August 5-7 vs. Round Rock.
All nine River Cats recorded a hit for the 10th time this season; they are now 7-3 in such games. They recorded 16 total hits, their fourth time this season knocking 16-or-more, and first time losing when doing so.
It also marked just the second time this season they have been dealt a loss when earning double-digit runs, the other being August 5 vs. Round Rock when they lost 10-13 in 11 innings.
Spencer Bivens and Wilkin Ramos were each dealt a blown save, Biv’s second and Ramos’s first; and Braxton Roxby was dealt his third loss, allowing five total runs on five hits (1 HR), with one walk and two strikeouts in 1.2 innings. It was the third time the River Cats’ pitching staff has allowed four-or-more home runs in game.
The only pitcher to record a scoreless outing was Nick Zwack who pitched 1.1 innings hitless to close out the game, allowing two walks and fanning two batters.
A silver lining, however, was that Sugar Land was also dealt a 1-5 loss vs. Oklahoma City, so Sacramento stays just 5.0 games behind in the second half standings.