Crisantes Homers Early but Sacramento Swipes Opener from Reno

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A second-inning leadoff blast from Demetrio Crisantes put the Reno Aces on the scoreboard first in their series opener with the Sacramento River Cats, but a pair of four-run frames for Sacramento pushed Reno to a 9-2 defeat on Tuesday.

Though seven innings the Aces (31-38/63-81) managed to produce only one run thanks to a solo homer that started the second inning from Demetrio Crisantes, his third at Triple-A this season. While that blast briefly gave Reno the edge, the River Cats (36-34/78-64) turned the tides by scoring four times in both the fourth and sixth innings.

In the first of those innings Reno starter Kohl Drake (3-9) surrendered three home runs, marking the 16th time in Aces history and the 11th time in the PCL this season that a pitcher has yielded three or more homers in the same inning.

Reno was finally able to add more to their total in the top of the eighth inning, all starting with the first Triple-A from Trent Youngblood after a deep fly ball to right hit off the wall. Youngblood quickly scored in the next at-bat on an RBI groundout from Santiago Espinal.

Adrian Del Castillo pitched in a double and Crisantes logged his second hit with a single to keep that eighth alive, but both runners were left stranded.

Only Jonatan Bernal tossed a scoreless appearance on the night for the Aces, working 1.2 frames while walking one of the four batters he faced.

Unfortunately, that meant an end to the 13 consecutive scoreless appearance streak for Gerardo Carrillo, who allowed only one run but did so on a collection of four unlucky hits. However, Carrillo did punch out the side for a second straight appearance, and he pushed his scoreless streak to 15.2 total innings which matched the longest streak by an Ace since Austin Pope also logged 15.2 innings without a run.

Crisantes’ two hits led the way for Reno in four trips to the plate, scoring once thanks to his second inning leadoff blast. In fact, of the four hits in the game for Reno, three went for extra bases as Del Castillo double while Youngblood tripled and later scored.

Now down 1-0 in the series, the Aces will look to reverse their fortunes when these two teams meet for game two tomorrow at Sutter Health Park starting at 6:45 p.m. PT.