Pence helps Sacramento hold off Zephyrs

Hunter Pence homered and doubled in a rehab appearance for the Sacramento River Cats, who held off a late rally to defeat the New Orleans Zephyrs on Thursday night, 5-4.

Playing in his second game with the River Cats and first since Saturday, the three-time All-Star was a late addition to the lineup, then took Justin Nicolino the opposite way in his first at-bat for a home run to give Sacramento a quick 1-0 lead.

Pence tested his injured hamstring on his second at-bat, stretching a single into a double on a line drive to right-center field. Singles by Andrew Susac and Travis Ishikawa brought Pence in to score, and Myles Schroder added a sacrifice fly to give the River Cats a three-run cushion.

The Zephyrs got on the board in the bottom of the third after Robert Andino roped a leadoff single and eventually scored when second baseman Rando Moreno made an errant throw attempting to complete a double play.

Susac responded in the fourth with a two-run homer, his second of the series and seventh of the season, boosting the Sacramento lead to 5-1.

The Z's capitalized on two errors in the fifth to scratch across an unearned run, and Cole Figueroa's sacrifice fly an inning later closed the gap to 5-3.

Sacramento turned to Jean Machi in the ninth, but Tomas Telis led off with his second double of the game, Kenny Wilson reached on a one-out infield single, and Dee Gordon ripped an RBI single to right to draw the Zephyrs within a run.

Andino walked to load the bases, and Machi fell behind Xavier Scruggs 3-1 before battling back to strike out Scruggs for the final out and preserve his sixth save.

Gordon had two stolen bases in his fourth game with the Zephyrs, who lost for the ninth time in the last 11 meetings with the River Cats.

Chris Stratton (7-4) allowed three runs - one earned - on seven hits in six innings to pick up the victory.

Nicolino (4-4) was nicked for five runs and eight hits in five innings to take the loss, only the second time in eight outings with New Orleans this season the left-hander failed to turn in a quality start.

Asher Wojciechowski, Brian Ellington and Cody Ege combined to limit the River Cats to one hit over the final four innings.

The Z's begin a four-game trip to Oklahoma City on Friday at 7:05 p.m.