Bee Boppin’:  La Familia swat 5 homers in third straight win

Tacoma, WA (7/28/23) – The Tacoma Rainiers (50-50, 13-12) built a big early lead to outlast the Salt Lake Bees (47-52, 10-15) 7-6 at Cheney Stadium on Friday, their third win in a row. The Rainiers improved to 5-0 this season in their “La Familia de Tacoma” uniform set (Copa de la Diversion). Tacoma mashed five home runs in a game for the first time this season.

Didi Gregorius started the scoring for Tacoma with a first inning solo shot to put his team up 1-0. Gregorius, who had a homer in yesterday’s win, has home runs in back-to-back games for the first time since September 23-24, 2021 when he was in the Major Leagues with Philadelphia. The blast also guaranteed for a 150th straight game, the equivalent of an entire Triple-A season, the Rainiers would not be shutout.

The Rainiers kept their foot on the gas in the second frame, getting 2-run jacks from both Zach DeLoach and Sam Haggerty to make the score 5-0. Haggerty has three of his five homers this year against Salt Lake, hitting .344 (11-for-32, 7 RBI, 7 R, 4 SB) when he plays against the Bees.

Brian O’Keefe joined in on the mashing in the third inning, slugging a solo shot of his own to extend the Tacoma lead to six runs. The round-tripper was O’Keefe’s 44th in a Tacoma uniform, tying him with Daniel Vogelbach for 18th most in franchise history.

RHP Adam Oller (W, 1-1) started on the mound for Tacoma, pitching five shutout frames and allowing only five hits (3 BB, 5 K). In three starts with Tacoma, Oller has a 2.36 ERA (19.0 IP, 5 ER, 11 H, 10 BB, 19 K) and has thrown 12 straight innings without allowing a run dating to his last start on July 22.

The Bees broke through in the sixth inning with Kevin Padlo (1B) and Zach Humphreys (2B) crossing the plate to trim the deficit to four runs. They continued their comeback bid in the seventh frame, with a 3-run blast from Jack Lopez to get the score to 6-5.

Tacoma got a valuable insurance run off of Jake Scheiner’s 25th home run of the year, a solo shot which tied him for the Triple-A lead in round-trippers and gave Tacoma a 7-5 lead going into the ninth inning. It was also Scheiner’s Triple-A leading 84th RBI of the year, the most RBI from a Rainier since Stefen Romero had 85 in 2016.

Salt Lake added a run in the ninth to make the score 7-6, but Matt Festa (SV, 15) stranded the tying run on second base to end the game.

The Rainiers play the fifth game of their six-game set against the Bees at Cheney Stadium on Saturday, with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 PT. RHP Darren McCaughan will make his 76th career start for Tacoma, tying him with Tim Harikkala (1995-98) for fifth-most in franchise history. LHP Jake Kalish will be on the mound for Salt Lake.

Rainiers broadcaster Mike Curto will have full coverage on TacomaRainiers.com. All 2023 Rainiers games, home and away, can also be heard for free on the MiLB First Pitch app. HD video broadcasts of every home game can be viewed with a MiLB.TV subscription.

About the Tacoma Rainiers

The Tacoma Rainiers are the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. The Rainiers are a member of the Pacific Coast League and have been a Mariners affiliate since establishing the Rainiers moniker in 1995.

The most up-to-date news and notes about the Tacoma Rainiers and Cheney Stadium can be found by following the Rainiers on Twitter (@RainiersLand), Instagram (@tacomarainiers) and liking the team on Facebook.