Rivas and Hunt Homers Push Tacoma Past Reno in 7-4 Victory
PCL Tacoma Rainiers

Rivas and Hunt Homers Push Tacoma Past Reno in 7-4 Victory

August 8, 2025 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Tacoma Rainiers News Release


TACOMA, WA - The Tacoma Rainiers (62-49/24-12) snapped their four-game losing streak, as home runs from Leo Rivas and Blake Hunt, along with 3.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen from Sauryn Lao helped the Rainiers claim the victory over Reno Aces (50-61/13-23) by a score of 7-4.

Reno got on the board promptly in the first inning. Tacoma starter Bryce Miller, making his second Major League rehab appearance with the Rainiers, began the game by striking out Albert Almora Jr. on three consecutive fastballs. Andy Weber followed with a base hit to left field, and Seth Brown turned on a slider, sending it over the right field wall to give the Aces a 2-0 lead. Miller induced groundouts from both Ivan Melendez and A.J. Vukovich to send the game to the bottom of the first.

Tacoma responded during their turn at the plate in the first. Samad Taylor and Rhylan Thomas were set down to start the frame, but Leo Rivas cut the deficit in half with a solo home run to left field. Harry Ford was hit by a pitch, and was eventually caught stealing to end the inning with the score at 2-1.

The Rainiers took the lead in the second, which began with back-to-back walks from Leody Taveras and Spencer Packard. Blake Hunt worked a 2-0 count, at which point he got the fastball he was looking for and took it over the left field launch pad to put Tacoma on top 4-2. Reno starter Yu-Min Lin retired the next three batters in order to end the frame.

The Aces got a run back in the third inning. Weber grounded out to begin the frame, and Brown followed with his second home run of the game; an Ace has recorded a multi-home run game in each of the three games this series. With the lead cut to one at 4-3, Miller bore down and induced a groundout from Melendez and struck out Vukovich to keep the Rainiers in front.

Reno tied the game in the fourth with another homer. This time it was Kristian Robinson, who led off with his second home run of the season to knot the game at four. Miller struck out Gavin Logan and got Sergio Alcántara to ground out to shortstop before he was replaced by Sauryn Lao, who forced a groundout from Juan Corniel to end the frame.

The Rainiers re-took the lead in the bottom half of the fourth. Packard and Hunt worked back-to-back walks, and after Victor Labrada struck out, Jack López walked as well to load the bases. This knocked Lin out of the game, and Jake Rice entered the game in relief. We quickly walked Taylor on four pitches to bring in Packard and make it 5-4. Thomas followed with a sacrifice fly to center to extend the lead to 6-4; López was thrown out attempting to advance to third on the play, but Hunt scored before López was tagged out, thus giving the Rainiers the run.

Tacoma added another run in the fifth inning. Rivas reached base with a leadoff walk, and subsequently stole second base. Ford struck out, and with Taveras at the plate, Rice fired a wild pitch that allowed Rivas to advance to third. Taveras hit a ground ball to third, and Weber threw to the plate in time to beat Rivas and save the run. Taveras stole second base afterwards, and Packard laced an RBI single to push the lead to 7-4. Trevor Richards came on in relief of Rice, and he allowed Hunt to reach base via his second walk of the game; the runners were stranded, however, as Labrada struck out to end the inning.

Lao was dominant on the mound for Tacoma. He kept the score at 7-4 with 3.2 scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and recording three strikeouts. Joe Jacques helped escape the lone jam Lao got into in the eighth inning, as he came on with one out and the bases loaded to induce a popout from Vukovich and a groundout from Robinson, ending the inning without any scoring from Reno.

Jesse Hahn entered the game in the ninth inning, and he shut the door with a final score of 7-4 after a flawless 1-2-3 inning, earning his team-high sixth save of the season. Lao got his second consecutive win out of the bullpen, which gives him two wins on the season. Lin took the loss for Reno, allowing six earned runs over 3.1 innings, including two home runs.

Postgame Notes:

Leo Rivas continued to swing a hot bat from the right side of the plate on Thursday. The switch hitter took three of his four at-bats in the game against lefties, and he recorded a home run and a walk. Amongst players with 50-or-more plate appearances from the right side of the plate this season, Rivas leads the PCL in Batting Average (.394), OBP (.608) and OPS (1.396).

Tacoma extended their streak of games with a stolen base to nine on Thursday night, which extended their season-high streak. Since July 1, the Rainiers lead all of Triple-A with 70 stolen bases on 80 attempts.

Sauryn Lao's 3.2 scoreless innings pitched on Thursday represent his second-longest scoreless outing of the season. Lao posted 4.0 scoreless frames on May 25 in a start against El Paso. Thursday's outing marks the longest scoreless performance out of the bullpen in his entire professional career.

Tonight's performance (1-for-2, three-run home run, two walks) marks the first game in Blake Hunt's career where he's recorded a home run, three-or-more RBI, and two-or-more walks while posting an OBP of .750. The closest he came to achieving this feat was on July 8, 2017 with the AZL Padres, when he went 1-for-4 with a three-run home run and two walks in a victory over the AZL Cubs.

Check out the Tacoma Rainiers Statistics



Pacific Coast League Stories from August 8, 2025


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