Sandlot Night

Coming off a series split in the border battle, the Reno Aces return home for round two of the Silver State Showdown, presented by America250 Nevada, against the Las Vegas Aviators, Triple-A affiliate of the Athletics this week.

The final three games of the Sacramento series were decided by just two or fewer runs in what was a well-pitched series overall. The Aces, down two-games-to-one pulled off back-to-back ninth inning victories on Friday and Saturday to ensure the split before falling in the finale.

The storyline of the week once again is LuJames Groover. The Georgia native reached base safely in all six games at Sacramento and extended his team-leading streak to 32 consecutive games, a mark that is also tied for the best in Minor League Baseball and tied for seventh-best in Aces franchise history.

On the pitching side, it’s a fellow Triple-A rookie grabbing the headlines in Mitch Bratt. The southpaw turned in another dominant start last week and has lowered his season ERA to an impressive 2.48 through seven starts.

The two of them will lead the Aces into their second series of the season with Las Vegas, looking for revenge from dropping the first meeting in mid-April. The Aviators came to Greater Nevada Field winning four of the six games and outscoring Reno, 38-32, in what was a closer series than the wins/losses reflect.

Reno outhit Las Vegas in that series, slashing .261/.357/.726 but failed to get the big hits when it mattered, leaving 49 runners on base. On the pitching side, Reno failed to prevent the big hits posting a team ERA of 5.89 despite just a 1.27 WHIP.

The BLC-Nine has had plenty of success against Vegas over the years, owning a 76-51 (.598) record against them since the start of 2021 and have won every season series over the Aviators.

Las Vegas enters the week on a three-game losing streak after dropping four of six at home against the St. Paul Saints of the International League. They are currently fourth in the PCL standings, just a single percentage points head of Reno with a 19-18 record.

The Aviators hit .286 with a team OPS of .804 last week but struggled mightily on the mound pitching to an 8.83 ERA, the worst in all of Triple-A. The pitching staff allowed a total of 56 runs in 54 innings, including three games of double-digit runs.

Individually, it is hard to argue there is a hotter hitter in the league than OF Henry Bolte. The fifth-ranked A’s prospect hit .556 with a 1.919 OPS last week including a stretch where he recorded a hit in 12 consecutive plate appearances. For the season, he is slashing .348/.418/.658 with a league-leading 12 home runs.

On the mound, the A’s 17th-ranked prospect RHP Mason Barnett has been the star, recording a 3.07 ERA and .213 opponent batting average in six starts this season. He is also coming off a start in which he tossed six shutout frames with six strikeouts last week.

Overall, the Aviators roster includes eight of the Athletics’ Top 30 prospects, per MLB Pipeline, and three of the Top 10 following the addition of recently promoted INF Tommy White.

The pitching was the headline of the first rendition of the border battle as Reno and Sacramento split their first six-game series of the season at Sutter Health Park this week.

The series opener came out all Reno as the BLC-Nine cruised to a 4-0 shutout victory on Tuesday night. It was the 12th shutout win over the River Cats in franchise history and the first since Aug. 30, 2025. The last time the Aces shutout Sacramento in their home park was Aug. 2, 2024.

Yu-Min Lin was the star turning his best start of the young season with five scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and a walk with six strikeouts. Offensively, Christian Cerda provided more than enough run support driving in three of the four Reno runs.

The next two games went in favor of the River Cats by scores of 9-5 and 6-3 to give Sacramento a 2-1 series lead halfway through the week.

Looking to even the set, the Aces handed the ball off to the Triple-A rookie, Mitch Bratt. The southpaw continued his dominant start to the season firing five innings of one-run ball, surrendering just three hits and one walk while striking out a season-high seven. The outing lowered his season ERA to an unbelievable 2.48 through seven starts.

Neither offense could get going that Friday night as Bratt (7) and Sacramento’s Carson Whisenhunt (8) combined for 15 strikeouts. It was just the 14th time in the all-time series, and first since July 3, 2024, that the Aces and River Cats starting pitchers combined for 15-plus strikeouts. Overall, it was also just the 16th time the two teams combined for 24-plus strikeouts in a game.

In the end, the Aces would come out on top, 2-1, Friday night courtesy of a LuJames Groover RBI double in the top of the ninth.

Game five of the series ended in a semi-similar fashion to the night before as pitching headlined the action most of the night as Reno took down the River Cats, 4-2, for a series lead with one game to play.

Former Ace, Buddy Kennedy, launched a two-run home run in the bottom of the third to give Sacramento an early lead but was immediately erased on a two-run missile from Carlos Santana, his first home run of the year.

The 2-2 score held until the top of the ninth where the BLC-Nine put together one of the more unconventional rallies imaginable plating two runs on a single, three walks, and a dropped third strike. Drey Jameson would enter in the bottom of the ninth, face the minimum and secure the 4-2 victory for Reno.

Sacramento would rally for a six-run sixth inning in Sunday’s finale which proved to be the difference in the 9-7 River Cats victory and forcing a series split.

Looking at the individual performances of the week, it has to start with LuJames Groover. Starting all six games, the 10th-ranked D-backs prospect reached in each contest to extend his reached-base streak to 32 consecutive games. It currently ranks as the third longest streak across every level of baseball and is tied for seventh-longest in Aces history.

Two other very notable streaks are currently active among the Aces lineup. Tommy Troy reached base in all six games of the week extending his reached-base streak to 22 consecutive games, and Jacob Amaya collected a hit in each of his four appearances extending his hit streak to 11 straight representing the second-longest active streak in the Pacific Coast League.

A new face joined the Reno roster in Tyler Locklear. Making a very strong first impression, the first baseman homered in his first at-bat as an Ace and then went 3-for-4 with an RBI double in his second game. Through his first three games (14 plate appearances), he is slashing .333/.429/.667 (1.096 OPS).

On the mound, he was mentioned before but Mitch Bratt was the headliner of the Reno rotation. Among PCL pitchers to make four starts in 2026 (Bratt’s made seven), the southpaw leads the league in WHIP (0.97) and OPS against (.544) while ranking second in ERA (2.48), opponent average (.178) and hits per nine (5.59).

The bullpen had a fantastic week in the border battle at Sutter Health Park. Seven of the 12 relievers had two scoreless outings including Taylor Rashi, who lowered his season ERA to 0.59 through 15.1 innings this season. Drey Jameson and Kade Strowd each recorded their second saves of the season with Jameson notching his sixth consecutive scoreless outing.