Z's skid at four games with loss to Reno

Andy Marte homered and drove in two runs and Mike Bolsinger struck out 11 batters in six innings as the Reno Aces defeated the New Orleans Zephyrs, 6-3 on Saturday night.

New Orleans has lost at least four home games in a row for the third time this season, and has dropped 18 of its last 26 games to slip five games below the .500 mark for the first time since May 22.

Reno loaded the bases with two outs in the first inning against Z's starter Robert Morey, and scored the game's first run when Juan Diaz booted a grounder by Garrett Weber.

The Zephyrs took advantage of a fielding miscue by Reno to briefly take the lead an inning later. With two on and one out, Zack Cox laced a sinking liner to center that went past Roger Kieschnick for a triple to put New Orleans on top, 2-1.

The Aces answered in the third when Danny Dorn singled with two outs and scored on a double by Weber. Morey was injured on the play and had to be removed from the game.

With Rett Varner pitching, Reno batted around in the fourth. Nick Ahmed ripped a go-ahead double into the left field corner and scored on a single by Marte. Two batters later, Weber knocked in his second run of the game on a bases-loaded single to give the Aces a 5-2 lead.

Marte struck again in the sixth against Grant Dayton, driving his 16th home run of the season deep over the left field wall. The Pacific Coast League's leading hitter with a .334 average, Marte has a 16-game hitting streak and is batting .396 (53-for-134) over his last 32 games.

Bolsinger (8-3) scattered six hits over six innings and struck out 11, one shy of his season high, including five in a row at one point.

The Zephyrs greeted reliever Joe Paterson by putting the first two runners on base to lead off the seventh. The Aces turned to Kevin Munson, who walked Mark Canha to load the bases but got Justin Bour to bounce into a double play and struck out Kyle Jensen to limit the Z's to one run.

New Orleans loaded the bases against Will Harris with no outs in the eighth, but Harris rebounded to strike out Kyle Skipworth and Brian Bogusevic, and induced an inning-ending ground out from Kike Hernandez to escape the threat.

Jake Barrett struck out two in a perfect ninth inning to pick up his 12th save.

Varner (4-1) was charged with the loss after allowing three runs and four hits in 1 1/3 innings.

Canha went 2-for-4 for New Orleans, his team-leading 38th multi-hit game of the year, but the Z's finished 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 baserunners, one fewer than Reno's total.

The Zephyrs and Aces play the second game of the series on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.