Taveras' Four Hits and Three RBI Lead Tacoma to 6-1 Victory 

TACOMA, WA (June 15, 2025) — The Tacoma Rainiers (33-36) completed the series victory over the Sacramento River Cats (33-36) with a 6-1 victory on Sunday at Cheney Stadium, earning the season-series victory. Leody Taveras and Blake Hunt combined for seven of the Rainiers' 12 hits and drove in five of the six runs in the victory.

Luke Raley led off the game with a double to the right field corner, the first extra-base hit of his rehab assignment. Samad Taylor followed with a single to left field, moving Raley to third base. Taylor swiped second base with Rhylan Thomas at the plate to put two runners in scoring position. After a Thomas fly out, Tyler Locklear walked to load the bases. Leody Taveras put Tacoma on the board with a two-run single to center field, taking a 2-0 lead. Locklear was thrown out at third base on the play for the second out of the inning. After Austin Shenton walked, Leo Rivas flied out to right field to retire the side.

Tacoma starter Blas Castaño kept Sacramento off the board through the first three innings. He allowed only two runners to reach second base until the fourth inning when the River Cats broke through. Castaño struck out Devin Mann for the first out of the inning. Brett Wisely legged out an infield single to the shortstop Rivas and Drew Ellis singled to right field, allowing Wisely to go from first to third base on the play. Hunter Bishop roped a single to left field to score Wisely and get Sacramento on the board, trimming Tacoma’s lead to 2-1. Castaño got Zach Morgan to pop out in foul territory and Meckler flied out to center field to finish the inning.

Austin Kitchen, Adonis Medina and Joe Jacques combined to throw 4.0 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out five. They managed to strand runners in scoring position in each of the fifth, seventh and eighth innings.

The score would stay at 2-1 until the top of the eighth inning when the Rainiers added a pair of insurance runs. Tyler Locklear flied out to lead off the inning. Taveras poked his third hit of the game on a single to left field. Austin Shenton flied out to left field for the second out of the inning. Rivas drew a walk, pushing Taveras up to second base. Blake Hunt stepped to the plate and hit a double off the left field wall, driving in Taveras and Rivas, taking the lead to 4-1. The double was Hunt’s third hit of the game, marking his first three-hit game of the season. López grounded out for the third out of the inning.

The Rainiers plated another pair of runs in the top of the ninth inning. Colin Davis, who replaced Luke Raley in the eighth inning, led off with a walk. Taylor bounced into a fielder’s choice, replacing Davis at first base. Taylor advanced to second on an error from the catcher Morgan and scored on a Thomas double down the right field line. After Locklear flied out for the second out of the inning, Taveras knocked his fourth hit of the game to right-center field a single that center fielder Grant McCray booted to right field, scoring Thomas and allowing Taveras to advance to third base. Shenton Followed with a walk, but runners were stranded on the corners as Leo Rivas struck out to end the frame.

Josh Fleming took over on the mound for the bottom of the ninth inning, retiring three of his four batters as he worked around a two-out single to close out the victory.

POSTGAME NOTES:

• Leody Taveras logged a four-hit game on Sunday, going 4-for-5 with three RBI…he’s only the second Rainier this season to log four hits and three RBI in the same game this season, joining Harry Ford, who did so on May 13 at Albuquerque
• Blake Hunt recorded his sixth multi-hit game of the season and first three-hit effort of the year…it’s his first three-hit game since June 6, 2024, while playing for Norfolk at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
• Blas Castaño allowed one run on seven singles in his start on Sunday…the seven hits allowed without an extra-base hit are the most by a Rainiers starter hit since Darren McCaughan gave up seven singles over 5.2 innings on April 5, 2022…the last to allow eight hits without allowing an extra base-hit was Austin Hutchison, who did so on August 13, 2018
• Sunday’s victory marks just the third time this season the Rainiers and their opponent had the same number of hits (12)…the Rainiers are now 2-1 in such games this year