Sacramento Starts Strong, Shuts Out Albuquerque

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Much like they did in 2024, the Sacramento River Cats started the 2025 in shutout fashion as Sacramento put together a complete effort in taking down the Albuquerque Isotopes, 8-0.

Though not an identical copy of last season, there were many similarities in the 2025 River Cats (1-0) season opener as Brett Auerbach became the second Brett in as many years to launch the River Cats’ first homer of the campaign. His third-inning solo blast was Sacramento’s first homer of the season and wound up as the game’s winning run, much like Brett Wisely’s walk-off blast in the bottom of the ninth that gave Sacramento a 3-2 win in 2024.

Following that dinger, a Marco Luciano walk (his first of two in the game) set up a Wade Meckler RBI, pushing the lead to 2-0.

Marco Luciano provided in a big way during the fifth inning, smashing his first homer of the year with a towering blast to right-center field. Luciano’s first moonshot of the season came much faster than 2024, when it took until his 20th game of the season for his first round-tripper.

Sacramento’s final three runs of the contest were produced by a pair of doubles, both of which came in the sixth. The first of which was in the from the bat of Hunter Bishop when he drove in both Jake Lamb and Osleivis Basabe, while Wisely traded places with Bishop two batters later.

The offense was hot but could not overshadow the starting effort from Sacramento pitcher Carson Seymour, who spun four scoreless innings and scattered a trio of hits and one walk with eight strikeouts. It was the first time he had punched out eight batters since he did so against this same Isotopes squad in Albuquerque on Aug. 6, 2024.

Speaking of Seymour, this was the second straight season in which he drew the Opening Day start, making him the first River Cats pitcher to do so since Andrew Suarez did so in consecutive years in 2018 and 2019 against Tacoma.

Continuing the trend was the bullpen, including Tristan Beck (1-0) who shut down Albuquerque for two frames and allowed a hit and walk with one strikeout. Each the trio of Miguel Diaz, Justin Garza and Joel Peguero tossed a spotless inning, allowing just two combined base runners in that time.

Seven different bats recorded a hit in the game for Sacramento, with the Brett’s in Wisely and Auerbach logging a pair each. Luciano drove in the most runs with his three-run dinger, while Bishop added a pair and scored once with a two-bagger.

With game one of 150 out of the way, the River Cats will look to keep the trend going when the two teams meet for game two of the series on Friday with first pitch scheduled for 6:45 p.m.