Tacoma played a clean, well-executed game on Wednesday to defeat the Sacramento River Cats in ten innings, 2-1.
The Rainiers are still not an offensive force, but they took advantage of the opportunities that they had on Wednesday.
After just three hits through six innings, the team was trailing 1-0.
Chih-Hsien Chiang and Johan Limonta hit back-to-back one-out singles to put runners at first and third. After Luis Rodriguez popped up, the pressure was on Triple-A rookie Brandon Bantz to drive the run in with two outs.
Chiang, the runner at third, knew the situation – he had to get home any way possible. When the fourth pitch to Bantz trickled away from the Sacramento catcher, Chiang lit out for the plate and scored the tying run. It was a bold move – the ball barely got away from the catcher – but the situation called for it, and it worked.
The tenth inning was textbook fundamental baseball: Luis Rodriguez doubled to right-center. Bantz put down a perfect sacrifice bunt, rolling one up the third base line so that Rodriguez could advance to third. Knowing he had to hit a fly ball to get the run home, Trayvon Robinson didn’t panic when he fell behind in the count 0-2, lifting a fly to right-center to drive in the winning run.
The pitching was excellent: Forrest Snow allowed one run on three hits in six innings, striking out eight. Sean Henn got the win, delivering his second straight outing of three innings, no runs. Josh Kinney nailed down the save, and the Rainiers three-game losing streak was over.
We return to night baseball this evening in Sacramento, with first pitch set for 7:05 PM. Tacoma starts LHP Anthony Vasquez (2-0, 1.38) against Sacramento LHP Fabio Castro (1-0, 3.00). As always, you can catch the broadcast on 850 AM in Tcoma and streaming online right here.
Links:
- We start with the Rainiers game story from The News Tribune, with quotes from Daren Brown and Trayvon Robinson.
- The Sacramento Bee has notes from the game and a feature on outfielder Michael Taylor.
- Clay Huntington Way is green – check out this article about the Cheney Stadium Sustainable Stormwater Project.
- The little guys went deep and the Mariners beat the Indians on Wednesday night.
- Remember Hisashi Iwakuma, the Japanese pitcher the Mariners signed in the off-season? He’s still on the team.
- In the PCL, Heath Hembree blew the save and Fresno lost to Reno. One day after going hitless, Justin Christian filled up the box score again.
- Salt Lake is running wild on the bases, and Mike Trout has hit safely in all 14 games. The Bees are now 10-4.
- Two Reno stars were called up by Arizona.
- Dallas Kuechel tossed another gem and Oklahoma City beat Nashville yesterday. Kuechel is 3-0, 0.90.
- Because of a string of catcher injuries, Cody Clark is getting a lot of playing time and thriving with Omaha.
- The New Orleans pitching staff finally got knocked around a bit – Memphis beat Tom Koehler and the Zephyrs, 7-5.
It’s a gorgeous day in Sacramento – Sunny and 75. Should be a fun night at Raley Field.
