River Cats lose exciting battle of top-20 prospects on Kelly’s walk-off home run

Tacoma, Wash. — The Sacramento River Cats (14-19) dropped a back-and-forth game to the Tacoma Rainiers (17-15), losing on Ty Kelly’s walk-off home run.

Kelly, a UC Davis product, took Silvino Bracho (0-1) deep to win the game with his second home run on the season.

The River Cats were down to their final strike in the top of the ninth, but a clutch home run extended the game. Down 3-2 with two outs and an 0-2 count against left-hander Aaron Fletcher (1-0), shortstop Arismendy Alcántara blasted a game-tying home run to right field.

Tacoma outfielder Jarred Kelenic, the No. 4 prospect on MLB Pipeline, showed how much he can impact a game on Saturday. He led off the bottom of the first with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a hit, and scored on a Luis Torrens sacrifice fly for the game’s first run. Kelenic doubled the Rainiers’ lead to 2-0 when he hit his third Triple-A home run against Sacramento right-hander Aaron Sanchez in the third inning.

Not to be outdone, Sacramento catcher Joey Bart (No. 18 prospect on MLB Pipeline), lined a game-tying two-run home run which ricocheted off the top of the left field wall. In his last six games, Bart is 10-for-28 with three home runs and 10 RBIs.

Former Kansas City prospect, right-hander Gerson Garabito, makes his Triple-A debut on Sunday. He’ll take on a Tacoma TBD. First pitch is set for 1:35 p.m. (PT). Listen to all of the action live online at rivercats.com, and on the *MiLB First Pitch app. *

Additional Notes

• Left fielder Joe McCarthy’s second-inning single extended his hitting streak to 15 games. The River Cats’ record hitting streak as an affiliate of San Francisco is 18, and was set in 2018 by infielder Kelby Tomlinson.
• Sanchez threw 27 of his 51 pitches for strikes in his second rehab outing. In two-plus innings of work, he allowed two runs on three hits and two walks while striking out one.
• Prior to the ninth, right-hander John Russell (two innings), left-hander Sam Selman (two innings), and right-hander Yunior Marte (one inning) combined for five hitless and scoreless frames with Selman striking out five. Things remained tied until the bottom of the eighth when Torrens welcomed reliever Trevor Gott with a solo home run.