Reno kept finding traffic and never found home plate. Six walks, four hits and three late chances produced nothing Thursday night at Sutter Health Park, where the Aces struck out 11 times and were shut out 3-0 by the Sacramento River Cats.
The difference was one swing. Bo Davidson drove Mitch Bratt’s pitch deep toward right-center in the third inning, sending it nearly to the scoreboard for a three-run homer. Fernando Gonzalez and Victor Bericoto scored ahead of him, and Sacramento never needed another run.
Reno’s pitching made sure of that. Bratt allowed three earned runs over five innings, striking out six and walking one, while Blake Walston, Spencer Giesting and Isaiah Campbell each followed with a scoreless inning. Giesting struck out two and Campbell one as the bullpen held Sacramento where Davidson had put it.
The Aces’ offense could not answer.
Their trouble began well before Davidson’s homer. Reno loaded the bases with two outs in the third on walks to Christian Cerda, Adrian Del Castillo and Tommy Troy, forcing Sacramento to replace starter Will Bednar with Wilkin Ramos. Demetrio Crisantes struck out to end the inning, leaving the game scoreless for only a few more minutes.
Sacramento immediately assembled the only rally that counted. After Thomas Gavello’s flyout, Gonzalez grounded a single into left and Bericoto lined another into right. Davidson followed by launching his 10th Triple-A homer, accounting for all three River Cats runs and saddling Bratt with the loss.
Bratt fell to 1-3 despite keeping the River Cats off the board everywhere else. He worked around a walk and a single in the fourth, then stranded Bericoto’s third hit in the fifth. Bericoto finished 3-for-4, but Sacramento’s other seven innings at the plate went scoreless.
Reno, meanwhile, did not collect its first hit until the sixth. Troy shattered his bat and beat out a grounder to shortstop, giving the Aces a runner with one out. Crisantes replaced him on a force play, and Aramis Garcia lined a single into right to put two aboard. Cristian Alvarado escaped by striking out Trent Youngblood.
The Aces came closer in the seventh. Anderdson Rojas reached on a two-out error, and Santiago Espinal lined a ball into left that skipped toward the warning track. Rojas raced to third as Espinal pulled into second with his seventh double, Reno’s only extra-base hit.
With two runners in scoring position and the tying run at the plate, Del Castillo lined out to center. Another opening had closed without a run.
Troy tried again in the eighth, grounding a leadoff single into left for his second hit. Crisantes flied out before Garcia sent a grounder to third baseman Parks Harber, who started an around-the-horn double play. The hit went nowhere, and so did Reno’s last promising rally.
Troy went 2-for-3 with a walk and supplied half of the Aces’ hits. Garcia had the other single, and Espinal had the double. Youngblood went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
Eric Cerantola struck out three around a walk in the ninth for his sixth save. Ramos, who entered with runners on first and second in the third and worked 2 1/3 scoreless innings, earned the win.
Reno had more walks than hits and committed no errors. Its pitchers allowed only one scoring swing. On a night when the Aces repeatedly brought runners into view, that was still enough to beat them.