Reyes de Plata belt four home runs in fourth straight victory

The Aviators took the field Tuesday night at Las Vegas Ballpark as their alter ego, the Reyes de Plata, and engaged in an old-fashioned home run derby battle with the Sacramento River Cats. And while the visitors raced out to a big early lead — both with the long ball and on the scoreboard — Las Vegas continued what has been an early-season trend: It shook off the early body blows, fought back and, once again, delivered the knockout blow.

The Reyes de Plata got home runs from four different players — as well as incredible relief pitching for the fourth straight game — on the way to a 10-7 victory over Sacramento before a limited-capacity crowd of 4,682. The victory was the fourth in a row for Las Vegas (4-2) after dropping the first two games of the season-opening six-game series.

Reyes de Plata outfielders Chad Pinder and Skye Bolt hit solo home runs in the first and seventh innings, respectively, and in between second baseman Jacob Wilson blasted a two-run homer in the third and third baseman Edwin Diaz crushed a tiebreaking three-run shot in the fifth.

Bolt, Wilson and Diaz’s bombs came after the River Cats (2-4) built a 6-1 lead on the strength of a monster second inning, when they bashed four home runs in the span of five batters.

Sacramento’s early assault came against Reyes de Plata starting pitcher Matt Milburn, a substitute for scheduled starter James Kaprielian, who earlier in the day was promoted to the Oakland A’s. Milburn’s night actually started out great, as he needed just 11 pitches to retire the River Cats in order in the top of the first, including striking out leadoff batter Bryce Johnson — a noteworthy achievement, given that Johnson had collected eight hits in his previous nine at-bats, including six in a row.

After the 1-2-3 top of the first, Pinder — the A’s veteran utilityman who joined Las Vegas on a rehabilitation assignment Monday — staked Milburn to a 1-0 lead when he deposited Sacramento starter Anthony Banda’s 0-2 pitch into the back of the River Cats’ bullpen in right-center field. The solo shot gave the Reyes de Plata a first-inning lead for the fifth consecutive game.

Alas, that lead would be very short-lived.

After cleanup hitter Jason Vosler flied out to start the top of the second, Sacramento began teeing off on Milburn: Jason Krizan hit a solo home run to right and Justin Bour singled before the final three hitters in the River Cats’ lineup — Chadwick Tromp, Drew Robinson and Mitchell Tolman — belted back-to-back-to-back home runs. Robinson’s long ball was particularly emotional and drew a loud ovation, as it was the Coronado High School alum’s first homer since surviving a suicide attempt that cost him his right eye a year ago.

Following Tolman’s solo shot, Milburn retired the next two hitters to escape further damage, but Sacramento pushed across another run in the third on Krizan’s RBI groundout. That gave the River Cats a comfortable 6-1 lead — well, it was comfortable for roughly five minutes.

That’s about how long it took the Reyes de Plata to ambush Banda in the bottom of the third. Luis Barrera led off with a walk and scored following consecutive singles by Pinder and Pete Kozma. Frank Schwindel then ripped Banda’s 0-1 pitch to the wall in right-center field for a two-run double, and Wilson annihilated the very next pitch for a two-run homer to left field — his second in as many games and his fourth of the season.

Just like that — in the span of five batters — Las Vegas erased a five-run deficit to tie the game 6-6.

Although the River Cats put runners in scoring position in their next two at-bats — and the Reyes de Plata did the same in the bottom of the fourth — the score remained unchanged until two outs in the bottom of the fifth. That’s when the unlikeliest of heroes came up huge for Las Vegas: Following walks to Carlos Perez and Francisco Pena, Diaz snapped an 0-for-15 season-opening slump by hammering River Cats reliever Gregory Santos’ 0-2 pitch for a three-run homer and a 9-6 lead.

Bolt added to the offensive onslaught with one out in the seventh when he hit the eighth homer of the game (and fourth for his team), but it turned out the insurance wasn’t necessary. That’s because the Las Vegas bullpen completely dominated the River Cats.

Following Milburn's departure with no outs in the third inning, five relievers — Brian Schlitter, A.J. Puk, Argenis Angulo, Miguel Romero and Matt Blackham — limited Sacramento to eight baserunners (four hits, three walks and a hit batter) until one out in the ninth, when Blackham allowed a run on a double and two groundouts.

After Schlitter allowed four runs on three hits in the sixth inning of Saturday’s 11-10, 10-inning victory over Sacramento, the Las Vegas bullpen was almost untouchable, allowing just three runs, 13 hits and six walks while striking out 24 in 20 1/3 innings.

Add that bullpen dominance to an offense that erupted for 36 runs over the final four games — after tallying just five runs in the first two — and you get the perfect recipe for a four-game winning streak.

GAME NOTES: Going back to last season, Las Vegas is now 8-1 when playing as the Reyes de Plata, outscoring their opponents 84-46. … Barrera (six games), Wilson (five) and Bolt (four) all extended their hitting streaks. Not only did Barrera hit safely in every game of the series, but he recorded multiple hits and scored at least one run in each of the last five contests. He’s now batting .462 (12-for-26) with a homer, triple, nine runs, four RBI and one stolen base. … Angulo, who was forced to leave Monday’s game against Sacramento after injuring his right ankle in the sixth inning, returned to action Tuesday and pitched a perfect sixth, striking out two. … Johnson — who went 13-for-19 (including 5-for-5 on Monday) with two homers, eight runs, five RBI and five doubles in the first five games — finally cooled off in the series finale. The Sacramento outfielder went 0-for-4, reaching on a hit-by-pitch in the eighth.

ALL OR NOTHING: The Aviators and River Cats gave fans a first-hand glimpse of modern-day baseball during the six-game series. The Triple-A West rivals combined to hit 21 home runs while striking out 116 times. Each team fanned 58 times, and 37 percent of all recorded outs were strikeouts.

TRANSACTION ACTION: Upon receiving the news early Tuesday that he was heading to the big leagues for a second time, Kaprielian immediately took off for Boston, where he’s scheduled to start Wednesday in the second game of Oakland’s three-game series against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Kaprielian, who gave up two runs in 4 2/3 innings of an 8-1 Opening Night loss to Sacramento, made his big-league debut with the A’s last season. In two relief appearances spanning 3 2/3 innings, the 27-year-old right-hander surrendered three runs on two hits (including two home runs).

In other roster news, the A’s sent Puk (biceps) to Las Vegas to begin a rehabilitation assignment. Puk became the first left-hander to pitch for the Aviators when he entered Tuesday’s game in the fifth. He faced five batters in one inning of work, allowing a single and a double while striking out three on 20 pitches. He was credited with the victory.

Puk is the second A’s player in as many days to join the Aviators on a rehab assignment, following Pinder, who arrived in Las Vegas on Monday. Pinder, who finished 3-for-4 with a walk Tuesday and played the entire game in right field, will travel with the Aviators to Reno and is scheduled to play all nine innings of Thursday’s game against the Aces. If all goes well, he’ll return to Oakland on Friday and be activated.

The length of Puk’s stay in Las Vegas is undetermined.

ON DECK: The Aviators will enjoy their first off day on Wednesday (which will be an off day for every Triple-A West team throughout the season). They’ll be back in action Thursday in Reno to kick off a six-game series against the Aces (5-1). Las Vegas will return home May 20 for a six-game series against the Salt Lake Bees.

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