Rada and Martinez Spark Six-Run Fourth as Bees Claim Friday Night Victory

ROUND ROCK, TX. - Salt Lake put up half a dozen runs in the fourth to propel them to a 7-5 victory on Round Rock Donuts Night, celebrating 100 years of the same-named bakery in Central Texas.

Salt Lake 7, Round Rock 5

WP: Kaleb Ort (2-1)

LP: Nolan Kingham (0-1)

SV: Najer Victor (1)

Key Performers

Nelson Rada: 2-3, 2 R, HR, 2 RBI

Omar Martinez: 1-4, R, HR, 2 RBI, 2 K

Josh Lowe: 2-4, R, BB, 2 K

Kaleb Ort: W, 1.2 IP, H, 0 R, 2 K

Game Summary

Both teams littered the scoreboard with early donut holes, apropos for Saturday’s Round Rock Donuts Night. Express starter Nolan Kingham shut down the Bees early as he made his first affiliated baseball appearance since September 12, 2023.

For Salt Lake, Caden Dana was posting his zeros thanks to some help from Yolmer Sánchez. The former MLB Gold Glove infielder showed off his skills, making a barehanded play in each of the first two innings but Round Rock ended the zeros with a two-run third, using three hits and a sacrifice fly.

Salt Lake responded with a six spot in the fourth inning, emphatically taking the lead away from the Express. Trey Mancini doubled home a run, before Sánchez’s sacrifice fly brought the tying run across. The visitors took the lead on Nelson Rada’s single through the left side. Omar Martinez punctuated the scoring with a towering two-run blast to right that knocked Kingham out of the game and put the Bees ahead 5-2.

Salt Lake batted around in the big inning, allowing Denzer Guzman to bat a second time. The 22-year old drew a bases-loaded walk, collecting his 50th RBI of the season and giving the Bees a 6-2 lead. When the dust settled, Salt Lake sent 12 total batters to the plate, scored six times on six hits and left three on.

Dana used the ample run support to strike out the side in the bottom half, completing four innings of work in the Lone Star State.

The Express cut into the lead off reliever Jared Southard on the team’s second sacrifice fly of the night and made it 6-3 after five innings.

Following a scoreless sixth, Round Rock continued their climb back into the game. With two runners on, John Taylor, in his Triple-A debut, shot a ground ball inside the right field line, earning a triple and closing the gap to just one at 6-5. Kaleb Ort entered and got two strikeouts, freezing Trevor Hauver to end the inning.

The Bees responded in the eighth as Rada just snuck a home run over the yellow line in left for his second longball of the year. His opposite field solo shot moved the margin to 7-5.

Ort got some help from his defense, inducing an inning-ending double play to complete the eighth. It put the finishing touches on his 1.2 scoreless frames.

Salt Lake called upon Najer Victor to close out the ballgame. Despite loading the bases full of Express hitters, the young right hander got a groundout to the right side that ended the contest and put the Bees back in the win column.

Game Notes

• The Bees evened the series at two games each with tonight’s win. Salt Lake remained unbeaten in two-run games this season, moving to 4-0 on the road and 6-0 total in 2026. Also, Salt Lake improves to 7-3 on Fridays, with a 3-2 record on the road; it is the fifth straight win for the Bees on Friday and went undefeated on the day of the week in the month of May.

• Salt Lake’s 6-9 hitters accounted for five of the nine Bees hits, going 5-for-15 (.333) with two homers, four RBI and four runs scored. In the 2026 season, Salt Lake’s 6-9 hitters are batting a combined .277 (4th in PCL) providing 21 of the teams 53 home runs along with 48 doubles (2nd in PCL).

• Salt Lake scored six times in the fourth, marking the ninth occurrence with 6+ runs in a single frame this season. Seven of those big innings have come in the month of May.

• Josh Lowe has a hit in three straight games and four of the five contests he has appeared in with Salt Lake. Albeit a small sample size, the outfielder is batting 9-for-21 (.421) as a Bee since being optioned from the Angels. Lowe stole a base tonight and moved to a perfect 3-for-3 on the basepaths with Salt Lake. He also scored tonight, marking his fifth straight game with at least one run.

• An RBI ground-rule double in the fourth was Trey Mancini’s 10th two-bagger in May and collected at least one RBI in seven of his last eight games. He is the fourth PCL hitter to reach double-digit doubles in the month, joining teammate Denzer Guzman (12), Tacoma’s Brennen Davis and Reno’s LuJames Groover (10). Tonight’s two-base knock gave Mancini 16 doubles on the season, tied with Guzman for the team lead and second in the PCL. Mancini reached safely in his 13th straight game and scored for the eighth consecutive contest. Both are the current team high, while the latter streak is the longest active stretch in the PCL.

• Omar Martinez homered, sending a two-run blast 397 feet onto the right field berm. It is his fifth longball of the season, and all five have occurred in road games. Eight of his 10 total RBI also have come away from home, where he is slugging .600 compared to .170 at home.

• Arol Vera notched his third hit as a Bee tonight and his second straight game with a base knock. Between Double-A and Triple-A, he is batting 2-for-3 in the fourth inning this season.

• Zach Humphreys stole his third base tonight, all coming in the month of May. Behind the plate, the catcher went 4-for-4 on ABS challenges tonight, single-handedly matching the most successful challenges in a game by the Bees this season. Humphreys also notched a hit tonight, his third straight game with a base knock, matching his season high from May 6-8.

• Jared Southard has allowed one run across his last 8.2 innings pitched. The righty, pitching just east of where he went to college at Texas, has at least one strikeout in each of his last six outings.

• Najer Victor worked around trouble in the ninth, tallying a scoreless inning of work. He recorded his first career Triple-A save, doing so in his eighth appearance at the level. Victor currently holds a five-inning scoreless streak across his last three outings.

• Denzer Guzman collected his PCL-leading 50th RBI today on a bases-loaded walk in the big fourth inning. He joins Jo Adell in 2021 as the only two 22-year olds in Bees franchise history (since 2005) to notch 50 RBI in their first 54 games of a season.

• With 1.2 scoreless innings, Kaleb Ort picked up his second win of the year. Both have come away from home and in the month of May (May 8 at Oklahoma City). The right hander has not allowed a run across his most recent 4.1 innings of work, spanning four appearances. May has been Ort’s best month of the season, going 2-0 with one save and a 3.86 ERA. The former Astro enjoys pitching against the Rangers Triple-A affiliate, holding a career 0.00 ERA and four strikeouts against Round Rock (2.2 total IP).

• Caden Dana went 4.0 innings in his seventh start of the season, punching out five Express batters, the most in an appearance since April 30 against Sacramento. Over his last three starts, Dana is posting a 2.89 ERA across 9.1 innings pitched with seven walks and 10 strikeouts to go along with a .161 opponent batting average.

• Nelson Rada hit his second homer of the night, providing the final bit of insurance for the Bees. It is the second time in Rada’s professional career he has hit two homers with one team in the same season, matching his total from 2023 with Single-A Inland Empire. Tonight’s homer snuck over the wall in left, marking his first non-inside the park homer run since August 7, 2025 vs. Las Vegas.

Up Next

The Bees look to build off Friday’s win as they square off against the Express Saturday at Dell Diamond with first pitch set for 5:05 p.m MDT from deep in the heart of Texas.