River Cats earn first road series win, beat Express 5-1
Sacramento turned Round Rock into a breakthrough week, winning five of six and posting its first road series victory of 2026. Spencer Bivens, Aeverson Arteaga and Jonah Bride helped make it stand out.
The River Cats did more than take a series in Round Rock. They flipped a season-long script, winning five of six from the Express and collecting their first road series win of 2026, a benchmark that carried more weight because Sacramento had not won any series since the rain-shortened, four-game sweep of Las Vegas at home in early April.
The clearest sign that the week mattered came in the opener, when Sacramento carried a no-hit bid through 6.2 innings before Jonah Bride finally broke it up with a soft ground-ball single to Osleivis Basabe. Spencer Bivens had already set the tone with 4.0 scoreless innings, allowing no hits, walking two and striking out five for his season high. Even with the near no-hitter, the River Cats had to survive a pitching staff night that included a season-high 11 walks, a reminder that the breakthrough was built on resilience as much as dominance.
That opener set up a series in which Sacramento kept answering. The River Cats won 9-2 at Dell Diamond on May 12 in front of 6,363 fans, then blew out Round Rock 12-1 on May 14 behind Aeverson Arteaga’s first Triple-A home run. The big inning mattered there too: Sacramento put up six runs in the seventh, turning a lopsided game into the kind of statement that travels well in Triple-A, where roster pieces change constantly and production has to show up quickly.
The finale carried the same edge. Round Rock grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first on Nick Pratto’s two-run homer, but Sacramento answered and eventually closed the door with six runs on six hits in the ninth to win 7-5. That late surge reflected the difference between a team that is merely competitive and one that can take a series on the road: the River Cats kept producing after the first punch landed.
For Sacramento, the number that jumps off the page is five of six. In a league built on movement, rehab assignments and lineup shuffling, that kind of week says the River Cats were not just getting by away from Sutter Health Park. They were controlling a road series from start to finish, and that is what makes this trip to Texas feel like a real turning point.
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