Justin Knoedler Powers Sacramento River Cats to 6-3 Win Over Portland Beavers - AAA, PCL

MLN - THE RAW FEED - www.mlntherawfeed.com - PORTLAND, Ore. – Justin Knoedler hit his first home run of the season and drove in four runs, and the Sacramento River Cats earned a series victory by beating the Portland Beavers 6-3 Thursday night at PGE Park.

Brad Knox, making his first start of the year, picked up the win with six effective innings of work in his third career appearance against Portland. The right-hander limited the Beavers to two runs (1 earned) and seven hits while striking out five and walking a pair.

After dropping the first game of the four-game set, the River Cats (4-3) outscored the Beavers 21-7 over the last final three contests to win the series.

The Beavers (3-4), who have lost three straight, travel to Salt Lake on Friday to begin an eight-game road trip, their first road games of the season. First pitch at Franklin Covey Field is set for 5:35 p.m. (Pacific) on Friday.


Advertisement = Chip Ambres tallied the Beavers’ first four-hit game of the season, including a double, an RBI and two runs scored. Edgar Gonzalez and Luis Rodriguez each had two hits to extend their season-opening hitting streaks to five games.

Knoedler’s two-run double in the sixth gave the River Cats some breathing room after Portland cut its deficit to 3-2 in the fifth.

As was the case in the previous two games, Sacramento staked itself to an early lead. Nick Blasi singled and scored on a sac fly in the first, and Knoedler, who had a walk and two runs scored, hit a two-run homer off starter Shawn Estes in the second inning.

After giving up three runs over the first two innings, Estes settled in to retire 10 straight starting with the final out of the second. But that wasn’t enough to save him from his first defeat of the season. Estes (1-1), who did not allow a run in his season debut April 4, gave up five runs and eight hits over six innings for the loss.

Jody Gerut singled, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error in the bottom of the second, scoring easily from third when Ambres dropped a single into center. That trimmed Sacramento’s lead to 3-1.

In the bottom of the fifth, Knox gave up a leadoff double to Ambres, an RBI single to Rodriguez and eventually loaded the bases for Chase Headley, whose sharp grounder came right back to the mound, making for a routine 1-2-3, inning-ending double play.

The teams exchanged single runs in the ninth inning to round out the scoring.

Beavers Game File
THURSDAY’S GAME: Sacramento 6, Beavers 3.
WINNING PITCHER: Knox (1-0)
LOSING PITCHER: Estes (1-1)
SAVE: None
HOME RUNS: Knoedler (1)
FRIDAY’S GAME: Portland (Cesar Ramos: 0-1, 13.50) at Salt Lake (Kasey Olenberger: 1-0, 2.57), 5:35 p.m. (Pacific); live broadcast on KKAD AM-1550 and www.portlandbeavers.com.

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