Rodriguez ties Bees' RBI record

Sean Rodriguez blasted his way into the Salt Lake Bees record book Tuesday, homering twice and driving in a career-high eight runs in a 20-7 rout of the Tacoma Rainiers at Franklin Covey Field.

Beginning his fourth week in Salt Lake City after a 22-game stint with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Rodriguez had an RBI groundout to cap a three-run second inning that put the Bees (55-36) in front, 5-2.

Prentice Redman and Charlton Jimerson slugged back-to-back solo homers as Tacoma (45-47) scored four times in the fourth to regain the lead. But Salt Lake answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning as Rodriguez, walked, stole a base and scored.

The 23-year-old second baseman got going in the fifth with a three-run homer, then stroked a two-RBI double and scored in a five-run sixth. He added a two-run blast in the eighth to become the fifth player in franchise history to collect eight RBIs in a game. Rodriguez joined Bernardo Brito (May 17, 1994), Scott Stahoviak (May 30, 1994), A.J. Pierzynski (Aug. 10, 2000) and Angels teammate Robb Quinlan (May 12, 2002).

It's been an up-and-down stretch for the former third-round Draft pick, who went 11-for-24 over five games from June 30-July 4. But he was mired in an 0-for-8 slump before picking up two hits in Monday's 3-2 triumph over the Rainiers.

Rodriguez eclipsed his previous career high of six RBIs, set on July 16, 2004, when he went 6-for-6 for Rookie-level Provo of the Pioneer League, and duplicated on Aug. 6, 2004.

Jordan Czarniecki nearly made history for the Bees, falling a single shy of the cycle while going 3-for-4 with four runs scored and three RBIs. Matt Brown doubled twice and also drove in three runs, and Chris Walker contributed three hits, four runs scored and a pair of RBIs. The 20 runs and 19 hits were season highs for Salt Lake.

Nick Adenhart (6-8) snapped a personal five-start losing streak, despite giving up seven runs on 10 hits over five innings. Kasey Olenberger and Daniel Davidson each followed with two frames of scoreless relief.

Reliever Scott Shoemaker (1-2) was tagged with the loss after surrendering seven runs on five hits and three walks in 3 1/3 innings.

Wladimir Balentien also homered for the Rainiers, who have lost three in a row.