Mitch Bratt shines in Triple-A gem, Reno Aces blanked 3-0 by Aviators

Mitch Bratt gave Reno exactly the kind of outing that gets front offices leaning forward. The rookie left-hander worked five hitless innings against Las Vegas at Greater Nevada Field, walked three and still kept the Aviators off balance long enough to make a 3-0 loss feel like a footnote to his performance.

That was the story from the start. Bratt needed just three starts to reach his most complete Triple-A showing to date, and this one sharpened the case he is building in Reno. He had already arrived with one of the best strikeout-to-walk profiles in the minors, and MiLB said his 6.29 strikeout-to-walk ratio ranked second among all minor league starting pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched. Against the Aviators, he backed up that number with command, poise and enough strike-throwing to face only three batters over the minimum through five.

It was a far cry from the kind of outing that gets buried in a box score. Bratt’s April 1 Triple-A debut lasted four scoreless innings with three strikeouts, and this was better still. MiLB’s video highlight of the night captured the cleanest version of it: five hitless innings and three strikeouts for Reno’s D-backs No. 14 prospect. For a club built around prospects, that matters. For a pitcher trying to move from intriguing to unavoidable, it matters even more.

Reno, though, gave Bratt nothing to work with. The Aces entered at 9-6 and Las Vegas at 7-6, but the game never developed into the slugfest these two teams have shown they can produce. Reno did not record its first hit until Ryan Waldschmidt singled with two outs in the fifth, and that was as close as the Aces came to breaking through. The club finished with one hit total, a stunning drop-off for a lineup that had been much more dangerous in recent games, including a 10-9 win over the Aviators at Greater Nevada Field last May.

Brandyn Garcia took the loss in relief after allowing two runs over 1.2 innings, while Las Vegas finished off the shutout and turned Bratt’s gem into a harsh reminder of how thin the margin can be. The scoreboard read 3-0, but the more important number belonged to Bratt: five hitless innings that looked a lot like a pitcher ready for the next rung.