RENO- After what some are saying was the best game at Aces Ballpark on Saturday night which saw some 'fireworks' with the Aces starting catcher Robby Hammock get ejected for arguing balls and strikes while in the squat behind the plate, a sellout crowd was also treated to an offensive shootout, and eventually an 8-7 Aces victory. Sunday afternoon's game was a calm one in comparison.
The Rainiers got a quick start in the game with help from Aces starter Zack Kroenke (8-2, 6.04 ERA) who couldn't seem to get his pitches under command, and Tacoma was able to score one run on a RBI single by Johan Limonta that scored Greg Halman from second. Reno was able to come back in the bottom half of the 1st with a run of their own on a RBI single by a former Rainier Ryan Langerhans that scored Evan Frey from third off Tacoma starter Nate Robinson (5-5, 6.53 ERA).
Tacoma would come right back in the third inning and score another run off of the wildness of Kroenke who gave up two doubles and a RBI single by Michael Saunders that scored Alex Liddi from third before the first out was recorded when Tacoma base runner Mike Wilson was thrown out by Aces third baseman Mark Hallberg trying to score from third. Kroenke was able to get out of the inning with just the one run coming across by getting Carlos Triunfel to pop-out to second, followed by striking out Jose Yepez to leave two men stranded on second and third for Tacoma.
With the game knotted up at 2-2 in the fourth inning, the Aces were able to take the lead 3-2 on a RBI single by Mark Hallberg that scored Juan Miranda from second who got on himself by hitting a two-out double.
Reno extended their lead to 4-2 in the sixth inning on a solo homerun by Cole Gillespie his 10th of the year.
Kroenke was finally able to find a groove putting zeros on the board in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th innings which saw a 9 in-a-row retired streak by Kroenke. Zach ended up going 7 innings giving up 2 runs on 6 hits with 5 strikeouts, and 4 walks.
Meanwhile, the starter for Tacoma Nate Robinson was unable to get out of the seventh inning. After getting the first two batters of the inning out (Hallberg and Frey), Angel Berroa got a two-out single followed by a walk to Tony Abreu and that was it for Robinson who went 6 2/3 innings giving up 4 runs on 9 hits with just 2 strikeouts, and 2 walks. Robinson was relieved by Steve Delabar.
Delabar walked the first batter he faced (Gillespie) which loaded the bases for Reno with two out in the seventh but the hope of scoring more runs were quickly dashed as Langerhans grounded out to third to end the inning and the bases were left loaded for the Aces.
Right hander Kam Mickolio came on to relieve Kroenke in the eighth for Reno. Kroenke's start, which looked like a short one to begin with, turned out to be a solid one for the Aces.
The rest of game went without flash or flare as neither team scored from the seventh inning on. Right hander Sam Demel came in to close things out for Reno in the ninth by having a 1-2-3 inning. Aces winning 4-2 over Tacoma
Kroenke improved to 9-2 with the victory for Reno, while Robinson fell to 5-6 with the loss for Tacoma. The win extended Reno's division lead to seven and a half games over second-place Tacoma, with the Aces magic number going down to single-digits at 9 for their hopeful first ever playoff appearance in franchise history.