River Cats Victorious Again, Up to 11 Straight at Home

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Sacramento River Cats scored in just two innings during their contest with the El Paso Chihuahuas on Thursday, but both were multi-run frames leading Sacramento to its 11th straight victory at home thanks to a 6-5 win over El Paso at Sutter Health Park.

In the third inning was when the River Cats (29-19/65-58) broke the scoreless tie, dropping a four-spot for the early advantage. All started with Tuesday night’s hero, Osleivis Basabe, as he crushed a solo homer on an 0-1 count out to center field for his 10th blast of the year.

Singles from Wade Meckler and Jesus Rodriguez put a pair on in front of Brett Wisely, who doubled both home on a ball into right field. Driving home the last run of the frame was Drew Ellis, who’s single to left scored Rodriguez.

The Chihuahuas (29-18/67-55) took an inning but nearly erased the deficit in one set of swings, scoring three times that featured an RBI double from Cody Roberts and two-RBI single from Ripken Reyes. An inning later and the comeback was complete, plating a run in the sixth when a leadoff walk to Mason McCoy came back to bite when Luis Campusano singled through the right side.

Sacramento has been excellent in late and close situations, and tonight was no different. Heading into the bottom of the seventh, Jesus Rodriguez did his past and kept the inning alive with a two-out walk just in front of Sacramento’s top offensive threat, Bryce Eldridge.

As he’s done for much of his time at Triple-A this season, Eldridge delivered in the clutch yet again with a two-run blast out to right field on the first pitch that he saw, sending the pitch out to right field at 111.0 mph. That marked his 14th total homer of the campaign, seven of which have given the River Cats the lead (one game-tying homer).

Tasked with going the rest of the way was Sean Hjelle (4-1), who had entered just prior to the River Cats taking the lead. While he did allow one run on one hit in the ninth, Hjelle was otherwise untested and walked one while yielding only a single tally in 2.2 innings for the win.

Tonight’s victory was the 11th consecutive win at home for the River Cats, which now leaves them just one shy of their franchise record 12 straight home wins from July 29-Aug. 31, 2015. Overall, Sacramento has won 14 of the past 15 games at Sutter Health Park and is a season best 31-23 when playing at home.

Starting the game for the River Cats was Seth Lonsway, who did not factor into the decision but had his longest Triple-A outing of his career by working 6.1 frames. Though he did allow four runs on four hits, he had retired each of the first 10 batters he had faced, ultimately ending with five strikeouts and three walks.

Eight of nine River Cats in the lineup had a knock in the game, including a pair of hits each for Eldridge and Wisely, the former going 2-for-3 with his two-run homer and a walk while the latter was 2-for-4 with a run scored, double and RBI. Also driving in two was Ellis, his fifth RBI in the past three games played, while Basabe’s only hit was his home run.

Sacramento has won each of the first three games of the series to guarantee a series split, and Sacramento will aim for the outright series win when the two teams meet for game four of this series on Friday at 6:45 p.m. (PT).