Aviators crush Express 26-13 in Triple-A season-high 39-run game

The scoreboard at Las Vegas Ballpark looked less like a ballgame and more like a bad math problem by the end of Thursday night. The Aviators and Round Rock Express combined for a Triple-A season-high 39 runs, and Las Vegas made sure the night stopped being competitive almost as soon as it started, rolling to a 26-13 win behind a second inning that buried the visitors.

Las Vegas scored twice in the first, then detonated for eight more in the second. Brett Harris and Tommy Harris each delivered grand slams in the inning, turning a modest early lead into a 10-0 avalanche before Round Rock had a chance to settle in. When an offense stacks that kind of traffic in Triple-A, games can spin out fast. This one never came back.

Round Rock briefly pushed back in the third. Keyber Rodriguez was hit by a pitch, Jose Herrera singled and Carter Garate walked to load the bases, setting up Jarred Kelenic’s RBI groundout. But Las Vegas answered immediately with four in the bottom half, including Cade Marlowe’s bases-clearing double and a sacrifice fly that stretched the gap even further. The Aviators kept forcing the Express to play from behind, and that is exactly where the night turned brutal.

The Express showed some life in the fourth. Trevor Hauver launched a three-run homer, and Carter Garate added his first Triple-A home run, but the damage was already too deep. Las Vegas kept adding on in the fifth, where Gilberto Celestino tripled as part of another push that helped the Aviators blow the margin out to 21 runs before they finished with 26. It was the kind of game that turns every inning into survival mode.

Joe Adametz absorbed the worst of it in his Round Rock debut, allowing 15 runs, 12 earned, in four innings. It was only his second career Triple-A appearance after being promoted from High-A Hub City that day, and the line was staggering even by the standards of a hitter-friendly league. The 15 runs made him just the third Triple-A pitcher since 2005 to allow that many in a single game, and his 12 hits allowed were the most by a Round Rock pitcher since José Urquidy surrendered 14 on Aug. 7, 2019, at El Paso.

The loss gave Las Vegas a 2-1 edge in the six-game set and pushed the Aviators to 42-28, good for sole possession of first place in the Pacific Coast League West, a half-game ahead of Sacramento. For the Aviators, who entered the series as the defending 2025 PCL champions, it was a loud reminder of how dangerous this lineup can be when it starts stacking base runners early. For Round Rock, it was the kind of night that can erase even three home runs in a hurry.