Pereda's Walk-Off Single Caps Tacoma's Five-Run Comeback Win

Jhonny Pereda, the 29-year-old Venezuelan catcher on Seattle's 40-man roster, delivered two defining swings in Tacoma's 6-5 victory over the El Paso Chihuahuas on April 5: a 396-foot home run in the fifth inning that tied the score at 5-5, and a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth that scored Rhylan Thomas for the Rainiers' first walk-off win of the 2026 Triple-A season.

It was the second at-bat of consequence that ended the night, but the fifth inning built the stage for everything that followed. El Paso had constructed a 4-1 lead, with Marcos Castañón's fifth-inning homer extending the Chihuahuas' cushion before Tacoma answered with a five-run uprising. Patrick Wisdom ignited the burst, crushing a three-run shot, his seventh of the year, that reeled the deficit back to one. Pereda followed immediately with his first homer of the season, a 396-foot drive to left center that knotted the game at 5-5. The consecutive home runs were the first back-to-back longballs Tacoma had hit in 2026, and Wisdom's blast alone represented the single biggest swing in a game that had looked firmly in El Paso's control.

The Rainiers' bullpen then authored four-plus innings of silence. The relief corps threw 4.1 shutout innings after the fifth, allowing just four hits and two walks while striking out six. Yosver Zulueta earned the win, and Gunner Mayer delivered a scoreless appearance in a group effort that kept the tie intact and handed the lineup a chance to finish what it had started.

In the bottom of the ninth, Thomas, Seattle's No. 23 prospect per MLB Pipeline, reached base to put the winning run on. Two outs later, Pereda lined a single into the outfield and Thomas came home, completing the comeback that had begun with Tacoma trailing by three.

The night illustrated precisely why Pereda's spot on Seattle's 40-man roster carries weight beyond organizational bookkeeping. He is one of 10 Rainiers currently on the 40-man, and with 50 major league games already on his resume, he is the most battle-tested catching option available to the Mariners if Cal Raleigh misses time. A catcher who can receive 4.1 innings of shutout relief and then step into a walk-off moment with two outs is not a coincidence. It is the compounded product of a long professional career playing in exactly these situations.

El Paso's early offense from Nate Mondou and Castañón gave the Chihuahuas every reason to expect a series finale victory. Tacoma had a different answer, written in a single inning of power and four innings of silence, with Pereda signing his name at both ends of it.