Four Home Runs Lead River Cats Over Portland

Chase Headley and Edgar Gonzalez had two hits apiece to the lead the Beavers (3-2).

Salem-News.com SPORTS

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Sacramento River Cats got home runs from Nick Blasi, Casey Rogowski, Carlos Gonzalez and Danny Putnam, and effective outings from five different pitchers to beat the Portland Beavers 7-1 Tuesday night at PGE Park.

Putnam reached base in each of his four plate appearances, going 3-for-3 with his first home run of the season, a double, a walk, two RBIs and two runs scored to lead the River Cats (2-3), who had just one home run as a team coming into the game.

The Sacramento victory evened the series at a game apiece. The four-game set continues Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m.

River Cats starter Dallas Braden limited the Beavers to two hits over 3 2/3 scoreless innings before handing it over to the bullpen due to a predetermined pitch count. The win was credited to Troy Cate, who suffered the loss in the River Cats’ series finale at Tacoma on Sunday. Cate allowed one hit in two innings of scoreless relief Tuesday to even his record at 1-1.

Solo blasts by Rogowski in the second, Gonzalez in the fourth and Putnam in the fifth gave the River Cats a 3-0 lead. All three homers were off Arturo Lopez (0-1), who took the loss after giving up the three runs on five hits in his six innings.

Up 3-1 going into the seventh, the River Cats opened up their lead with an RBI double from Putnam and Blasi’s two-run homer off reliever Mauro Zarate. Todd Linden drew a one-out walk and eventually scored from third on Kevin Cameron’s wild pitch in the eighth to make it 7-1.

Chase Headley and Edgar Gonzalez had two hits apiece to the lead the Beavers (3-2).

Portland put runners on first and second in the bottom of the fifth, trimming the deficit to 3-1 at the time with a two-out, RBI single to right by Headley.

NOTES: The River Cats used 10 different pitchers in the first two games of the series … the Beavers have two games remaining in their opening homestand, which concludes Thursday night, a Miller Lite Thursday … second baseman Matt Antonelli got his first night off for the Beavers … temperatures dipped into the low 40s during the game … all five of Portland’s decisions have gone to starting pitchers.

Source: Portland Beavers

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