The River Cats played their second of six games vs. the Salt Lake Bees tonight and won it in spectacularly walkoff fashion.
Joe Whitman was the starter, falling back into the position last month after spending all of July coming of the bullpen.
The Bees struck first on a 413-foot, solo shot from nine-hole hitter Ben Gobbel in the third, his eighth home run with Salt Lake since joining the Bees on June 10. It was 104.6 off the bat, ranking in MLB’s 90th percentile.
The Cats knocked their first hits on back-to-back singles from Will Brennan and Diego Velasquez in the fourth but were unable to capitalize as Charlie Szykowny and Thomas Gavello each grounded out.
Velasquez extended his hitting streak to seven-straight games, dating back to August 26. He is batting .417 (10-for-24) with two doubles, four walks, and a 1.000 OPS in that span.
Despite a few more singles from both sides, the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings remained quiet.
The Cats would see a spark in the bottom of the eighth as Aeverson Arteaga doubled to lead off the inning. Newcomer Fernando Gonzalez, who joined Sacramento on Tuesday from Double-A Richmond, was out on a sac bunt that pushed Arteaga to third. Scott Bandura grounded out to first, followed by a walk to Parks Harber that put runners at the corners.
However, Bo Davidson drew a 3-0 count then swung and grounded out to second base.
Things weren’t looking great as the Bees got two on in the ninth on a Pablo Reyes hit by pitch followed by a Sebastián Rivero single to put them in scoring position. But a stroke of luck got the Kitties out of the inning when Jeimer Candelario lined sharply into a double play; Thomas Gavello to Aeverson Arteaga.
One last shot.
Brennan doubled on the first pitch of the ninth to lead off the bottom of the ninth, followed by a walk to Velasquez.
Finally, Charlie Szykowny, in his fifth game with Sacramento, knocked a 392-foot walk-off home run to give Sacramento a 3-1 victory.
It was Szykowny’s third walk-off hit in his career and first home run. The other two were both walk-off singles, August 7, 2025 with High-A Eugene and July 9, 2024 with Single-A San Jose.
It marked the sixth walk-off victory by Sacramento this season, and second walk-off home run, following Nate Furman’s pinch-hit, walk-off grand slam on July 26.
Joe Whitman threw 8.0 innings, his career high and most by a River Cats pitcher since Jake Dahlberg did so on October 3, 2021 vs. Albuquerque (Sacramento victory, 5-1).
Alex Carillo earned the win, his second with Sac, throwing a scoreless ninth inning, allowing one hit.
With Sugar Land being defeated 2-1 by Reno, the River Cats gain a full game in the second half standings, now just 3.0 games behind first place.