Tucson Padres baseball
Padres back down River Cats in 9th
The Sacramento River Cats put the tying run on base in the ninth inning but the Tucson Padres hung on for a 7-6 win Tuesday at Raley Field. The Padres have won eight of their last 12 games and remain five games back in the Southern Division with 13 to play.
The Padres scored in the first inning for the second straight night with help from Jonathan Galvez's two-run single and Brandon Allen's sacrifice fly to take a 3-0 lead. The River Cats came up with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first from Michael Taylor's sacrifice fly and Anthony Aliotti's two-run single to tie the game. Hiroyuki Nakajima sent an RBI single through the left side of the infield in the third to put Sacramento ahead 4-3. Tucson responded with two runs on three hits, including a pair of RBI singles from Daniel Robertson and Dean Anna to regain the lead in the fourth.
Tucson added two runs in the fifth highlighted by Allen's solo home run over the right field bullpen. The home run was Allen's third of the series and 14th of the year. Sacramento's Jake Goebbert trimmed the score to 7-5 with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the sixth. Shane Peterson started the bottom of the ninth with his 12th home run of the season, but Miles Mikolas was able to record the final three outs to close out the win for the Padres.
Reliever Arturo Lopez earned the win in his debut for Tucson, while Mikolas picked up his 24th save of the year. Bruce Billings lost his sixth game after allowing seven runs on ten hits in 4.1 innings. Tucson starter Keyvius Sampson went four innings, yielding four hits, three earned runs and six walks while striking out one. Reymond Fuentes extended his hitting streak to ten games Tuesday with a bunt single in the ninth.
Tim Hagerty is the play-by-play announcer for the Tucson Padres.
