Freeman’s late blast, Shoemaker’s gem lift River Cats past Isotopes

West Sacramento, Calif. — Tied at two in the bottom of the eighth, catcher Ronnie Freeman lined a towering 422-foot, go-ahead solo home run to provide just enough offense to power the Sacramento River Cats (54-70, 2-5) past the Albuquerque Isotopes (57-70, 5-2) on Thursday.

Freeman’s home run was his third in his last six games, and was the deciding hit to earn his starting pitcher, righty Matt Shoemaker (4-3), the well-earned win.

For the second time this month, Shoemaker struck out 11, while allowing two runs on three hits and two walks in a season-high 8.0 innings, which is the furthest into a game a Sacramento pitcher has gone this season.

Now with the lead, Sacramento went to righty reliever Yunior Marte, who finished off the victory with his third save of 2021.

One inning prior to the Freeman game-winner, the River Cats received some heroics from one of their youngest hitters. Down 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh with two on and two outs, 22-year-old center fielder Heliot Ramos came through, plating third baseman Wyatt Mathisen with a single to left field.

Sacramento first baseman John Nogowski broke the scoreless tie in the fourth with a solo home run, his first at Sutter Health Park and second overall with Sacramento.

After 4.0 shutout innings, the Isotopes finally got to Shoemaker in the fifth with two runs, one on an RBI single by pinch hitter Nick Longhi, and another on a rare sacrifice-fly double play off the bat of left fielder Ryan Vilade. After right fielder Will Toffey hauled in the fly ball, he threw it to cut-off man shortstop Mauricio Dubón, who fired it back to second base where Jason Vosler tagged out Longhi trying to advance from first base.

Right-hander Ronnie Williams (0-0, 5.91) looks to make it two in a row with a win on Friday. He’ll be opposed by San Francisco native, righty Frank Duncan (5-3, 4.24) at 7:05 p.m. (PT). Listen to Johnny Doskow call the game live online at rivercats.com or on the MiLB First Pitch app.

Additional Notes

• Vosler had his 16-game hitting streak snapped with an 0-for-4 day. He was two games away from tying teammate outfielder Joe McCarthy (May 24-June 17) and former infielder Kelby Tomlinson for the longest streak in the Giants’ era of the River Cats.