Las Vegas looking to lock up first half during home series against Round Rock

Las Vegas is in first place with a week left in the first half of the Minor League Baseball season.

Looking to lock up a spot in the playoffs, the Aviators have won eight of the last 10 games including winning four games last week on the road in Omaha against the Storm Chasers.

That counted as the team’s eighth series win of the season. As a result, Las Vegas is now 40-27 on the year. The 13 game position over .500 is the team’s highest mark this year.

Up next, the Aviators will return home for a six-game series with the Round Rock Express of the Texas Rangers organization at Las Vegas Ballpark. Last season, they went 3-6 against the club from Texas.

Las Vegas will look to build on its five home wins in its last seven tries while sitting a half game up on Sacramento (39-27).

Tuesday, L, 14-11

It won’t be a three-game win streak for the Aviators following a three-run series opening loss. With the River Cats winning in Oklahoma City, the two teams have flip-flopped the top two spots in the Pacific Coast League standings.

Bad pitching erased good offense in a slugfest of a series opener.

Starting pitcher Jacob Lopez made his first Triple-A start of the season after being sent down following a horrid home start against the New York Yankees. In that contest, he gave up seven runs on five hits in two innings.

During his time with the Athletics this year, he went 4-3 with a 6.75 earned run average in 12 appearances, 10 of them starts.

Round Rock hopped on Lopez quickly with a leadoff triple and RBI single to start the game. Not long after the visitors added another run on a second RBI single followed by a third. That forced a mound visit from pitching coach Paul Abbott before the Express swung for its loudest runs of the inning in the form of a three-run home run.

Round Rock batted around in the first inning which would be half of Lopez’s outing. He’d go two innings, giving up six runs on seven hits with three strikeouts.

Initially, it didn’t get much better from a pitching standpoint. Normally a starter, right-hander Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang entered the game and would instantly serve up a leadoff homer. An inning later, he opened the fourth with a walk and an RBI double. To that point, the visitors had racked up 10 hits to the Aviators’ zero. Another run would score before the conclusion of the frame.

Before Zhuang exited the game, the Express hit another home run off him. This time around, it went for two runs as the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate reached 11 runs.

First baseman Joey Meneses did some heavy-lifting as part of his 3-for-5 night including an RBI single in the sixth inning. He actually hit his first triple since 2023 in the fourth inning to drive in the team’s first run of the game on its first hit of the game.

Meneses’ RBI lead in the PCL is continuing to grow after pushing his total to 67 this season.

That fourth inning kept going with an RBI single from third baseman Brett Harris and a three-run dinger from catcher Brian Serven. In total, Las Vegas scored five runs in that fourth inning.

Serven would pop up again in that sixth inning when the Aviators put four more runs on the board. He drove in two runs on a double. Another run would score on an RBI walk by second baseman Darell Hernaiz.

There was a golden opportunity to add more runs to the total in the eighth inning after the bases were loaded with two outs on the board. The aforementioned Meneses would fly out to end the threat.

Round Rock pushed ahead further with another leadoff homer as a counterpunch to open the ninth inning. Additional runs scored on a fielder’s choice and an RBI sacrifice fly.

Those runs were vital after right fielder Jared Dickey and shortstop Drew Swift plated runs on an RBI double and an RBI single.