Salt Lake rallies past Tacoma for 3-2 win in sixth inning

Tacoma had the right pitch count, the right bullpen arm and a brief lead, but Salt Lake turned one sixth-inning sequence into a 3-2 win Friday night in South Jordan, Utah. What looked like a series-building night for the Rainiers instead became another narrow loss in a matchup that has tilted toward timely execution and small mistakes.

The Rainiers answered an early deficit when Brock Rodden launched his eighth home run of the season in the third inning to tie the game 1-1. Tacoma then grabbed its only lead in the fourth, when Patrick Wisdom doubled and later came home on a throwing error for a 2-1 advantage. It was the kind of inning Tacoma needed after Josh Lowe’s first-inning solo homer had put Salt Lake ahead 1-0.

Nick Hull did his part to hold that edge. The right-hander worked 3.0 scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out four. The four punchouts matched his season high, and it was his longest outing since May 7, 2025, when he last covered 3.0 innings with Double-A Knoxville. For a stretch, Tacoma had exactly the kind of bridge it wanted behind a lineup that had started to find some traction.

Rodden was again central to that push. His homer was his first since coming off the 7-day injured list on June 13, and he finished with his 16th multihit game of the season, the most by any Rainiers hitter this year. In his first four games back, he has hit .467, going 7-for-15 with two doubles, a triple, a home run, three RBI and two walks. Wisdom, meanwhile, stretched his extra-base hit streak to four games, the longest active streak in the Pacific Coast League and tied for the longest by a Rainiers hitter this season.

Then came the inning that changed everything. Yolmer Sánchez opened the sixth with a single, Nelson Rada followed with a bunt single, and Ben Gobbel tied it with an RBI single to right. A double steal put the Bees in motion again, and a throwing error let the go-ahead run score. Just like that, Tacoma’s 2-1 lead was gone, and Salt Lake had the edge it would not surrender.

The loss dropped Tacoma to 32-41 and left Salt Lake at 38-34 in game four of a six-game set that began June 16. The clubs had split the first three games, and Salt Lake had already taken five of six in their previous meeting at The Ballpark at America First Square. Tacoma will hand the ball to Gabe Mosser in the next game, with first pitch set for 5:35 p.m. PT, still searching for the clean inning that would have turned Friday night from a missed chance into a series shift.