A home run in the seventh helped the Sacramento River Cats force a pair of crazy extra innings in their contest with the Tacoma Rainiers, but ultimately the longest game of the year for Sacramento ended in favor of Tacoma as their three runs in the top of the 11th clinched a 6-3 win on Friday.
Free passes spelled doom for the River Cats (41-52), as a pair of walks along with the free runner at second base to begin the 11th loaded the bases. Producing the go-ahead RBI for the Rainiers (47-47) was Riley Unroe, who was recently promoted to Tacoma earlier in the day, driving in the winning run on a single into left field.
Despite Sacramento starting the home half of the inning with the free runner, they were retired in order by Ryder Ryan with the last two going down swinging. That notched a save for Ryan, his first of the year, ending the game after three hours and 57 minutes of play.
That frame came after a wild set of at-bats for both teams during the 10th. It started with the River Cats once again issuing a pair of walks that loaded the bases with one out, but Sacramento hurler Joey Marciano (4-5) danced away from danger after he was able to induce an inning-ending double play.
Taking their swings, the River Cats had a pair of runners on thanks to the free runner in Marco Luciano at second and an intentional walk to last night’s hero for Sacramento, Isan Diaz. Stepping to the plate was Jakson Reetz, who drove a ball deep into left field that was lost in the air by Sam Haggerty and fell to his left for an error.
After initially holding to make sure the ball was not caught, Luciano turned on the jets as he rounded third and tried to score, but a perfect relay by Haggerty and Mason McCoy cut down Luciano at the plate by mere fingertips.
Sacramento had forced extra innings thanks to the home half of the seventh, scoring three times to knot the contest. The frame started with each of the first three River Cats reaching base as Jack Larsen earned a walk just in front of a single from Armando Alvarez.
Coming to the plate in a pinch-hit opportunity was Ricardo Genoves, and Sacramento captured more pinch-hit magic as he laced an RBI single into left center. That marked the seventh RBI in pinch-hit situations this year for the River Cats, three of which came from Diaz’s game-winning blast last night.