Four Homers Not Enough for Cats on Wednesday

SALT LAKE CITY – Four home runs could not counter the four errors committed by the Sacramento River Cats against the Salt Lake Bees on Wednesday, as the miscues led Salt Lake to an 11-7 victory over Sacramento.

Though the Bees (13-21) scored first when a single came around to score aided by a throwing error by catcher Brandon Martorano, the River Cats (21-14) took the lead when they tallied a trio of runs in the top of the second. Making up for the error was Martorano, who delivered with two on and two out by launching a three-run shot to left field for a 3-1 edge.

The lead was short-lived, as Salt Lake plated five during their response in the bottom of the frame. There were two key errors in the frame by Sacramento, as the first batter reached on a Marco Luciano error at short while a Casey Schmitt throwing was part of five total runs scoring in the frame. Also mixed in were RBI singles by Jason Martin and Zach Humphreys.

Sacramento struck for solo home runs in both the top of the fourth and fifth, the first coming from Trenton Brooks when he crushed his third of the year on a 2-1 pitch to kick off the fourth. He was joined by Luis Matos in the fifth, who also opened the frame with his third dinger of the campaign on a 2-1 pitch the opposite way. For Matos, it was his first home run since he hit a pair during his season debut for Sacramento on April 3 at Reno.

However, the Bees had plated two in the home half of the fourth on their own home run, a two-run big fly from Charles Leblanc to left field. After a quiet sixth, they added one more in the seventh and two in the eighth, building their lead out to 11-5.

Not going down quietly, the River Cats fought for a pair of runs in the top of the ninth, once again coming from the bat of Martorano when he launched a two-run homer to right field after a walk to Yusniel Diaz. That homer made Martorano the fifth River Cat this season to have a multi-homer game, and already marks his third of the season in just four games. Going back to his debut in the final game of the 2021 season, Martorano has crushed four homers in five Triple-A contests.

Thanks to the pair of dingers Martorano drove in five of the seven River Cats runs, which are a new career. His previous best was four, which he had done three times before with the last instance coming on May 14, 2022 as a member of the Richmond Flying Squirrels.

Today’s contest signaled the second time this season in which they have hit four homers, the other instance coming on April 30 in 6-4 win over Tacoma at home.

Martorano was one of three River Cats to finish with a multi-hit game, his third of the season as each game that he has recorded a hit have been two-hit contests. Also collecting a pair of knocks was Matos, who ended 2-for-5 with his homer while Ismael Munguia was 2-for-4.

Despite that, the River Cats still dropped their third straight game, just their second losing streak of three games or more. Charged with the loss for Sacramento was starter Carson Seymour, who lasted just 2.0 innings while giving up six runs, only one earned, on three hits with three strikeouts and four walks. Each Sacramento hurler allowed at least one run, though only five of the 11 runs scored on the day were earned.

That was due to a total of four River Cats errors, their most in game this season and the most since they also made four on July 29, 2023 in a 10-9 loss at Albuquerque. Sacramento also allowed double-digit runs for the second consecutive game, marking the first time they have allowed 10 or more runs in consecutive games since they did so in four straight games last season from Aug. 11-15, 2023 in two games against Las Vegas and two against Tacoma (1-3 in those contests).

The River Cats will look to get back into the win column in another early contest on Thursday, with first pitch of game three tossed at 10:05 a.m. (PT) from Smith’s Ballpark.