Rainiers fall 4-3 to Aviators despite Lawrence’s quality start

Casey Lawrence gave Tacoma exactly the kind of start that usually keeps a Triple-A game within reach, and it still wasn’t enough. The Rainiers fell 4-3 to the Las Vegas Aviators at Cheney Stadium on Tuesday night, a loss that felt particularly costly because Lawrence worked six innings, allowed three earned runs on seven hits, walked none and struck out two while recording his minor-league-leading sixth quality start.

Tacoma briefly steadied itself after Las Vegas had opened a 3-0 lead, but the comeback stopped one swing short of taking control. Brian O’Keefe put the Rainiers on the board with an RBI single in the fourth inning, then Colin Davis followed with a two-run homer to tie the game 3-3. Davis’ blast was his fifth of the season and extended his hitting streak to 10 games, a run that tied for the second-longest in Triple-A and gave Tacoma a rare offensive stretch with a real sense of momentum.

That momentum did not survive the late innings. The Aviators found the first crack in the third, when Joshua Kuroda-Grauer singled, moved up on a balk and scored on Michael Stefanic’s single. In the ninth, Drew Swift drew a leadoff walk, stole second and scored when Stefanic sent a grounder through the right side to break the tie. Tacoma had the tying and winning runs on base in the bottom of the ninth, but could not get the final hit to answer back.

The loss dropped Tacoma to 23-29, while Las Vegas moved to 27-23. O’Keefe and Alejo Lopez each finished with multi-hit nights, helping Tacoma post eight hits to the Aviators’ nine, but the Rainiers were still left with the same problem that has trailed them through too many close games: a competent start, enough traffic to threaten, and just one or two missed moments that turned a winnable night into a wasted one. At 6:05 p.m., in 63-degree partly cloudy weather with a 9 mph wind in from left field, 3,134 saw Tacoma come up short in 2 hours and 33 minutes. Randy Dobnak was lined up for his 10th start of the season next, and Tacoma needed a cleaner finish after letting one slip away at home.