First road trip of the year sees Aviators hit road for 12 games

The first of two 12-game road trips this season is how the Las Vegas Aviators will begin its first games away from Las Vegas Ballpark this year.

Las Vegas is coming off a seven-win nine-game homestand to open its championship defense campaign. Most recently, it took four of six games away from Oklahoma City of the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.

With a 7-2 overall record, the Aviators lead the Pacific Coast League West while being trailed by a two-way tie in the second spot in the standings. The Sacramento River Cats and Reno Aces hold those spots with a 5-4 record.

Interestingly enough, this 12-game road trip takes Las Vegas through Sacramento and Reno for six games apiece beginning with the former Tuesday, April 7. First pitch of the first game is set for 6:45 p.m.

Tuesday, L, 5-3

The Aviators had a second three-game win streak of the early season denied after dropping a Tuesday series opener for a second straight week. Runs were left on the board too many times in a 5-3 loss to the River Cats.

In the game’s first inning, Las Vegas put two runners on with nobody out but back-to-back flyouts and a groundout ending the scoring chance. Another opportunity presented itself with two runners on and zero outs before a lineout, popout and groundout closed the away half of the eighth inning.

Center fielder Henry Bolte struck out with catcher Bryan Lavastida on second base to end the game as the team left its eighth runner on base. Moreover, the club went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

Right fielder Colby Thomas was responsible for the only Las Vegas runs of the game on a three-run home run with two outs recorded in the fifth inning. He now has three home runs in the last two games.

In addition, shortstop Drew Swift extended his hit streak to 10 games after going 2-for-5 in the loss.

Right-hander Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang made his second Triple-A start after getting roughed up in the team’s series last week against Oklahoma City. He had a fast start to this one but a leadoff homer, which counted as the second River Cats hit of the night, opened the scoring for the night.

Sacramento has scored first in all 10 of its games this year.

Zhuang allowed a second longball in the inning, this time for two runs as the Aviators fell behind, 3-0. An inning later, he left with one out tallied and two runners on the basepads. One of those runs would score off relief pitcher Nick Hernandez as he finished with four runs allowed on five hits with four strikeouts and three walks in 3 ⅓ innings and the loss.

Through two games this season, Zhuang (0-1) has an earned run average of 9.39.

Wednesday, L, 8-7 F/11 innings

Las Vegas is no longer in sole possession of first place in the PCL West following a second straight loss to Sacramento this week. It lost this one in extra innings after having four different leads squandered.

Beginning the bottom of the 11th inning with back-to-back strikeouts was a good sign but a wild pitch that moved the ghost runner over to third base in a one-run game tightened things. That runner would score on an error prompting manager Fran Riordan to lift left-hander Matt Krook for right-handed reliever Wander Suero.

The latter would serve up the game-ending RBI double as the Aviators fell, 8-7, from Sutter Health Park. Krook (0-1, 2.08 ERA) was saddled with the loss in addition to the blown save.

Las Vegas hung around in nearly every other instance in the game. It opened the 10th inning by taking a, 6-5, lead on an RBI sacrifice fly by Michael Stefanic that scored teammate Junior Perez. To open the scoring for the visitors, Perez drove in a run on an RBI sacrifice fly of his own.

Center fielder Henry Bolte gave his team another lead in the top of the 11th on an RBI triple. All of that was made possible stemming from a two-out single by right fielder Colby Thomas in the ninth inning. He’d score from first on an RBI double by catcher Brian Serven to tie the game at five apiece.

Thomas tied the game, 2-2, early on an RBI single that knocked Sacramento starting pitcher Trevor McDonald out of the game. He went 2-for-4 with two singles, an RBI and two runs scored.

Las Vegas was given its first lead on an RBI single from shortstop Drew Swift in the fourth inning. His hit streak has now hit double-figures while going 1-for-6 with a single, an RBI and three strikeouts.

Sacramento jumped all over pitcher Kade Morris in his third start of the season. In the first inning, the home team scored a one-out walk on a two-run homer to start the scoring on the day. Morris didn’t have his first 1-2-3 inning until the fourth frame.

After appearing to settle down, Morris was taken deep again this time by the leadoff guy in the fifth inning on the second pitch thrown. That swing tied the game at three apiece before another run would score as part of three straight singles after tallying the first out of the inning.

Morris went five innings with four runs allowed on nine hits to go along with four strikeouts and two walks.

Thursday, L, 9-0

From approaching a second three-game win streak in the first month of the season to experiencing its first three-game losing streak of the year, Las Vegas has its first adversity of the season. It results in the team not sitting in first place for the first time this season after suffering its first shutout loss of the new campaign.

Prior to this week, the Aviators averaged better than eight runs per game but have been held to just over three a game against the River Cats. In this one, they just couldn’t capitalize on the chances they created for themselves.

The first inning opened with a leadoff double but a groundout and strikeout put the runner in jeopardy. Back-to-back walks would load the bases but another strikeout would end the scoring threat.

A similar situation presented itself in the second inning with two runners on and one out on the board. A lineout and groundout would get Sacramento out of danger. In total, Las Vegas left nine men on base while going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

This week the club has gone 4-for-33 with runners in scoring position while leaving 28 runners on base.

Additionally, second baseman Drew Swift had his 10-game hit streak snapped after an 0-for-4 night.

The sinking by the River Cats began early, starting with a solo homer in the bottom of the first inning to open up things. They neared another home run in the bottom of the third which drove in another run to make it 2-0 in favor of the home team.

Already up 3-0, it would get that long-awaited second home run in the fourth inning to push the lead to five.

All of those runs came off Aviators starter Joey Estes (0-2, 9.58 ERA) who gave up those five runs on six hits in four innings of work with four walks issued to no strikeouts.

Relief pitcher Geoff Hartlieb made his Las Vegas debut and put two runners on before recording his first out of the season. Both runners would score as he yielded those two runs on four hits with one strikeout in his lone inning of work which was the seventh.

An inning later, fellow relief pitcher Brady Basso coughed up four straight two-out singles with two runs being plated during his outing. Both Hartlieb and Basso now have ERAs of 18.00 and 11.12 respectively.

Friday, L, 11-0

No wins this week means the season-long losing streak is up to four games for the Aviators as they continue to search for their first road win this year. They were shutout again as it suffered a second straight lopsided loss to the River Cats.

After being shutout 9-0 in the last game to Sacramento, Las Vegas slipped even further in this 11-0 loss Friday night. It got close to the same amount of chances as Thursday night but would once again struggle with runners in scoring position, finishing with an 0-for-8 mark while leaving seven runners on base.

This week, the Aviators have gone 4-for-41 with runners in scoring position while leaving 35 men on base.

On the other hand, the River Cats put 23 men on the basepads in total as part of the win while going 10-for-18 with runners in scoring position as a team. Moreover, the team walked seven times with five of those walks coming across to score.

Pitcher Luis Morales made his 2026 Las Vegas debut after being sent down from the Athletics earlier this week. In two starts in the big leagues this season, he sported an ERA of over 12 runs a game to go along with an 0-2 record.

Morales walked back-to-back guys to open the third inning before offering up a three-run homer to put his team behind the eight-ball. With runners on second and third with one out, a two-run single would push the home team’s lead to 5-0.

Sacramento has scored first in all games this week and additionally, it’s scored first in all 13 of its games this season.

Morales was chased in the first on the way to getting the loss after giving up five runs on five hits in 2.2 innings with two strikeouts and three walks.