Cats Capitalize in Seventh, Snag 6-2 Win over Bees

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – While the Salt Lake Bees wiped away an early lead by the Sacramento River Cats, the Cats scored three in the seventh and one in the eight as they swiped game two of the series with Salt Lake by a 5-3 final.

For the sixth straight game the River Cats (20-21) scored in their half of the first inning, with the run resulting from a leadoff triple by Grant McCray. Three pitches into the bottom of the first and he stood just 90 feet from home plate, and three pitches later McCray crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly from Tyler Fitzgerald, who was making the second appearance of his rehab assignment.

The six straight games with a run scored during their first half of the first inning is the second-longest Sacramento streak since 2005, as they are now just one game short of matching the seven-game streak in which they scored at least one run during the first inning from July 18-24, 2013.

Two innings later and Brett Auerbach doubled the Sacramento lead with a solo homer, leaving the yard on a 2-1 offering from Bees (15-25) starter Jake Eder (0-2). It was the fourth blast of the campaign for Auerbach, sending his blast out of the park at 105.5 mph.

However, River Cats starter Trevor McDonald ran into trouble during the fifth inning, with a pair of singles (including a perfectly laid bunt single by Yolmer Sánchez) and a sacrifice bunt moving two into scoring position. While McDonald looked as if he might escape by recording a pair of outs including a strikeout, a ball hit to deep right field bounced off the glove of Daniel Johnson just in front of the wall and allowed a pair of runs to score.

That scored held for just two frames, with the River Cats regaining the lead in the home half of the seventh. Two quick outs began the set of at-bats for Sacramento, but they strung together four straight two-out hits that were started with the second River Cats solo homer of the game. This one came from Osleivis Basabe, representing his second go-ahead home run of the season.

After that it was three straight knocks, with singles from Auerbach and McCray setting the stage for a two-RBI double down the left-field line from Tyler Fitzgerald. For Fitzgerald, he is a combined 2-for-6 with one run scored and three RBI in the two games on his rehab assignment.

One final insurance tally was scored in the home half of the eighth, as a Devin Mann walk made it up to scoring position and ultimately scored the game’s final run on a groundout from Hunter Bishop.

Collecting the win was Ryan Watson (1-0), who hurled a scoreless inning with one walk while recording all three of his outs via strikeout. Each of Joel Peguero and Joey Lucchesi followed, both recording scoreless outings with one hit allowed while Lucchesi struck out two.

McCray finished 3-for-4 in the game, his team-leading 12th multi-hit game of the season. Logging two hits apiece were the trio of Johnson, Basabe and Auerbach, the latter two of which both hit their fourth homers of the season.

Sacramento leads the series 2-0 and can clinch a series split when the two teams line up for game three of the set on Thursday at 6:45 p.m. (PT) from Sutter Health Park.