River Cats rally in 9th to win

Sacramento uses small ball to beat Isotopes

Sacramento relied on baseball’s most fundamental plays to rally past the Albuquerque Isotopes.

The River Cats used three sacrifice bunts and a sacrifice fly to score two runs in the top of the ninth to defeat Albuquerque, 7-5 Friday night at Isotopes Park before an announced crowd of 5,536.

After Juan Ciriaco led off the River Cats’ ninth with a double, the visitors used small ball to score the go-ahead run.

“They have to play to their strengths with the guys that were up at the plate,” said Isotopes manager Glenallen Hill “If (those players) have any chance playing at a higher level, they are going to have to do that. Any time you execute, I have to tip my hat to you. This game is about execution and making plays. And they made plays.”

The River Cats (20-33) tied the game at 5-5 on Chris Shaw’s eighth-inning RBI single.

After Ciriaco’s lead-off hit in the ninth, John Polonius, Juniel Querecuto and Wynton Bernard bunted in succession.

Ciriaco slid home safely on Querecuto’s sacrifice, Bernard’s bunt moved Polonius to third, and Jae-Gyun Hwang’s sacrifice fly scored Polonius.

Considering their pitching staff was already thin after the previous night’s 13-inning game, the Isotopes were dealt a curve before the first pitch when scheduled starter Jeff Hoffman was a late scratch.

Hill said he was told by upper management to pull Hoffman as Friday night’s starter.

In Hoffman’s stead, Isotopes pitchers Johendi Jiminian, C.C. Lee, and Thad Weber split nine innings evenly, and although the Isotopes came up on the short side, Hill said those performances were much-needed.

“That was a win, that was a victory for us,” Hill said of his bullpen. “A lot of people don’t understand that part of managing the season is managing the bullpen. We were able to give some guys some rest that had pitched extended innings yesterday. ... That’s going to help us out three days from now.

“We are revived. We had some guys step up.”

Sacramento opened the scoring in the first as Ryder Jones tripled in Hwang. That lead, though, was short-lived.

Raimel Tapia led off the ‘Topes’ half of the first with a home run, which ignited a four-run uprising for the Isotopes.

Ryan McMahon drew a walk, and he moved to third on back-to-back infield groundouts. McMahon scored on Jordan Patterson’s infield single, Cristhian Adames’ two-out double to right-center plated Patterson, and Anthony Bemboom’s single up the middle capped the scoring.