Salt Lake Walks 11 as Tacoma Erupts in Eighth on Thursday

TACOMA, WASH. - Tacoma erupted for a four-run eighth, the only crooked number of the night, to hand Salt Lake a 6-2 defeat on Thursday. Salt Lake arms were plagued by walks, issuing 11 on the night, while Raudi Rodriguez’s solo shot kept the Bees’ home run streak alive.

Tacoma 6, Salt Lake 2

WP: Robinson Ortiz (1-2)

LP: Najer Victor (0-3)

Key Performers

Raudi Rodriguez: 2-3, R, HR, RBI, BB, SB

Pablo Reyes: 2-4, 2B, RBI, BB

Kyren Paris: 2-4, 2B, BB, 2 K, SB

Game Summary

Raudi Rodriguez broke Thursday’s scoreless deadlock, lasering a second inning homer just over the right field wall to give Salt Lake a 1-0 lead. The Bees threatened for more after loading the bases on a trio of walks, but left them stranded.

Salt Lake’s Brett Kerry cruised through the first two innings, posting zeros with 26 pitches. However, Tacoma’s Victor Labrada opened the third with a bang, slicing the eighth pitch of his at-bat for a solo shot.

The Bees retook the lead in their half of the fourth, using a two-out knock from Pablo Reyes. One inning later, the sixth and seventh walks by starter Carson Fulmer ended his night at 4.2 innings. Neither runner scored, as Tacoma’s bullpen spoiled the opportunity.

Kerry surrendered a single and a walk to open the fifth, before recording his third strikeout that ended his outing at 4.1 innings. Another walk filled the bases, allowing the Rainiers to even the score at 2-2 on the third free pass of the inning. Leonard Garcia got a strikeout of the cleanup man, Lazaro Montes, to keep the game tied.

Tacoma again sacked the bags full in the sixth, against former Rainier Hagen Danner. The Salt Lake reliever escaped unscathed, snuffing the threat on a line drive caught by the second baseman Yolmer Sánchez.

Still tied at 2-2, Tacoma finally broke through in the eighth. A walk, bunt single and wild pitch with nobody out put the Rainiers in business. Nick Raposo came through with a go-ahead RBI bloop single, before a sacrifice fly added insurance for a 4-2 score. With two outs, Michael Arroyo provided the dagger on a two-run blast off the ribbon board in left for a 6-2 advantage.

Reyes doubled with two outs in the ninth, but a deep flyout ended the contest and spelled defeat for Salt Lake. The infielder was one of 11 Bees left on base Thursday evening as the series shifts to the weekend.

Game Notes

• Salt Lake fell to 4-27 when scoring three runs or less, scoring its fewest runs since Aug. 12 in El Paso. The Bees went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners on base.

• Tonight’s loss marks just the fifth road game in which the Bees outhit their opponent but lost the contest. In 2026, Salt Lake is 42-8 overall when owning the hit column and 17-5 on the road.

• The Bees recorded a homer for the 11th straight game, the PCL’s longest active streak and second in Triple-A. The club’s current stretch is tied for the second best in the PCL at any point this season, trailing Round Rock’s 13-gamer between June 18 and July 2. Salt Lake is one game shy of their 2025 high, a 12-game streak between June 13-26, 2025. The Bees have hit 19 roundtrippers over their current stretch, This season, Salt Lake has hit 18 homers over their current streak coming from 11 different Bees; four different hitters have two or more longballs in this timespan (Candelario - 5; Kavadas - 3; Marlowe - 2; Rodriguez - 2).

• Starter Brett Kerry tossed 4.1 innings on Thursday, making it into the fifth inning for the eighth straight start. He gave up two runs on three hits and two walks, while striking out three. Kerry has allowed five earned runs over his last 17.1 innings on the road, good for a 2.59 ERA.

• Kyren Paris doubled for the 17th time at Triple-A this season in his first at-bat. The infielder is tied for fourth most two-baggers in the PCL since he made his Bees season debut on June 9. Paris has back-to-back nights with a double on his ledger. He added a walk, his 12th in the month of August. A sixth-inning single secured consecutive multi-hit efforts and the 13th of his Triple-A campaign.

• Drawing a walk to start his Thursday was Pablo Reyes. He has reached safely in nine straight games as he continued his torrid August. Reyes made it nine straight games with a base hit, scoring Ben Gobbel in the fourth. He is one shy of tying his longest Triple-A hit streak (two 10-gamers, last: July 12-23, 2019 with Indianapolis) and two games away from matching his career-long 11-game streak, also done twice, most recently between May 9-23, 2017 with Double-A Altoona. Reyes doubled in the ninth inning, his 28th of the campaign; it also completed his second straight multi-hit effort that increased his monthly batting average to .424 (28-for-66), fourth best in the PCL in 2026.

• Raudi Rodriguez shot his second Triple-A homer over the yellow line in right field, a solo shot that put the Bees on the board first. Both of his longballs at the level have come across his last five games played (August 21 vs. Reno) and off righties. Rodriguez has a hit and run scored in three straight games, while tallying back-to-back contests with an RBI (three total). He later collected an infield single, notching his fifth AAA multi-hit effort and first since August 21. Rodriguez walked for the second straight game, then stole second to remain perfect at 3-for-3 on the basepaths.

• Extending his on-base streak to nine games tonight was Cade Marlowe. The former Rainier reached via a walk in the second and has reached in 20 of his 24 games with Salt Lake. Marlowe singled to begin the fourth to adjust his hit streak to three games.

• Nelson Rada walked twice tonight and has reached in consecutive games. The outfielder has 17 games this season with multiple free passes; three of those performances have come in Rada’s last seven games.

• Jeimer Candelario increased his hit streak to six games on a third-inning single and has hits in nine of his last 10 games. He also moved his on-base streak to 14 games.

• Yolmer Sánchez reached first on a two-out, base-on-balls in the fifth that moved his on-base streak to three games. It is his first walk since August 7 vs. Oklahoma City.

• Leonard Garcia issued two walks, including one that brought home the game-tying run. The southpaw has 11 walks over eight appearances and 11 innings with Salt Lake this season. Garcia also got a huge strikeout of Tacoma’s cleanup hitter to end the threat. He has a punchout in seven of his eight outings as a Bee in 2026, with 13 total.

• Reliever Hagen Danner made his Cheney Stadium return, having made 54 appearances for Tacoma in 2025. Danner walked two Rainiers, but worked around the traffic to record a scoreless inning of work. Two of his three outings with Salt Lake have been shutout performances (August 19 vs. Reno and tonight).

• After nearly two months on the injured list, Brady Choban was back on the mound for Salt Lake. The righty last toed the rubber for the Bees on June 28 at Albuquerque, before getting placed on the IL. Tonight, Choban posted a scoreless seventh, despite yielding two walks. It is his first true shutout outing since June 4 vs. Albuquerque (1.0 IP, H, 0 R, 2 K).

• Najer Victor was tagged tonight in his return from injury, following nearly a three-month stint on the injured list. The righty was issued the loss as he recorded two outs, while allowing four runs (all earned) on three hits and three walks. Victor did get a strikeout in his 10th appearance of the season and first since June 3 vs. Albuquerque.

• Rob Kaminsky notched the final out of the eighth inning, marking his fourth straight scoreless appearance. The lefty has fired 3.1 innings over this span with one hit, one walk and two strikeouts. His current scoreless streak is one shy of Jared Southard’s five, and is tied with Alex Faedo for second longest active by innings.

Up Next

Salt Lake’s stay in the Pacific Northwest rolls on, as they face off against Tacoma on Friday at 8:05 p.m. MDT at Cheney Stadium.