Late Homer Lifts Cats to Victory Over Aviators

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The power of Heliot Ramos showed up at just the right time for the Sacramento River Cats on Saturday, crushing a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth that sent Sacramento to a 5-4 victory over the Las Vegas Aviators.

Both the River Cats (17-9) and the Aviators (11-14) scored with their first set of swings, which included Brett Harris crushing a home run to left field on the first pitch of the game. Sacramento soon answered, as a Ramos single and stolen base put him in the perfect spot to score on a double down the left-field line to knot the score.

Las Vegas quickly regained the advantage, kicking off the second with another homer run, this time of the inside-the-park variety from Armando Alvarez. He crushed a 1-2 pitch out to deep center, bouncing off the wall as Luis Matos gave chase which allowed him to scamper all the way around the bases for the first inside-the-park home run allowed by the River Cats since Wynton Bernard of the Albuquerque Isotopes on July 25, 2023.

Scoring continued later in the frame thanks to three straight hits, the last of which RBI knock coming from Brett Harris for his second RBI. Tyler Soderstrom also joined the party with two outs, driving home a run on a liner into right field.

Sacramento joined the home run party in the fourth inning, pulling closer after Brett Wisely crushed a solo dinger to right field on an 0-1 pitch to lead off the frame. A walk then led to the next run which brought the River Cats within one, as Yusniel Diaz earned a free pass and later scored on an RBI two-bagger from Luis Matos.

An inning later and Sacramento made it a new ballgame, pulling level in the contest when Wisely doubled home Marco Luciano for his second RBI of the night.

The score remained tied until the eighth, which was due in part to Sacramento pitching. Right-hander Spencer Bivens worked three innings of scoreless relief, flipping the ball to Nick Avila (2-0) to begin the eighth frame. Avila, the 2023 Triple-A wins leader at 14-0, continued his incredible run at Triple-A by going another 1.2 scoreless innings en route to his second win of the year. For his career, he remains undefeated in Triple-A as he is a combined 16-0.

That allowed the River Cats to pull out in front for the final time, doing so with Ramos’ seventh homer of the campaign. That ties him for fifth in the Pacific Coast League, a mark that is also tied for ninth in Triple-A.

Called upon to earn the final out of the game was Juan Sanchez (S, 3), who induced a pop up from Tyler Soderstrom to bring an end to the contest. It was the 11th time that the River Cats this season that a game has been decided by one run, as the River Cats had won each of the first six instances prior to dropping their last four until tonight. It also earned the River Cats at minimum a series split, as they are still yet to lose a series thus far in 2024 (three series wins, two series ties).

River Cats pitchers struck out another 10 batters tonight, their seventh consecutive game with double-digit strikeouts which is their longest streak since they did so in 10 games from May 13-24, 2022.

Three River Cats had multiple hits, led by the 3-for-4 effort from Ramos. Joining him with a pair of hits each was the duo of Luciano and Wisely, with the former going 2-for-3 while the latter was 2-for-4. Also picking up a hit was Casey Schmitt, who extended his hitting streak to 15 games which is the longest such streak since Clint Coulter hit safely in each of the first 15 games of last season from April 1-18, 2023.

These two teams will finish the series tomorrow when they line up for game six at Sutter Health Park with first pitch at 1:05 p.m.