Salt Lake Tops Las Vegas 5-3, Stays Hot Behind Seventh-Inning Rally

Salt Lake did the hard part in a park where nothing feels secure for long: it stayed composed, waited out the early pressure and then put Las Vegas away with a ruthless seventh inning. The Bees beat the Aviators 5-3 on April 24 at Las Vegas Ballpark, improving to 11-13 and handing Las Vegas its first three-game deficit in the series since 2024.

Mitch Farris set the tone with five steady innings, allowing four hits and one earned run while walking two and striking out five. He had to work through a bases-loaded jam early, but that was the point of the night for Salt Lake. The Bees did not need dominance from the starter so much as survival, and Farris gave them exactly that while the game stayed locked in a tight pitchers’ duel.

The offense finally cracked it in the third. Omar Martinez, already up to four home runs, turned on a fastball and drove it deep to right-center to tie the game 1-1. From there, Salt Lake waited for the right swing of momentum instead of forcing one. That patience mattered, because the game was still on a knife edge when the seventh inning arrived.

Then the Bees strung together the kind of road rally that wins series in Triple-A. José Siri’s aggressive slide at the plate helped Salt Lake grab its first lead, Nelson Rada followed with a run-scoring groundout, and Donovan Walton singled home Denzer Guzman after Guzman had reached second. Nick Madrigal added a sacrifice fly to bring in Niko Kavadas, stretching the lead to 5-1 and turning a close game into one Las Vegas had too much ground left to cover.

Las Vegas made the final innings uncomfortable. Henry Bolte crushed a 415-foot solo homer with two outs in the eighth, then the Aviators loaded the bases and forced Salt Lake to go to José Fermin. The right-hander answered with a strikeout of Michael Stefanic to end the threat, then finished the game for his third save of the season. Fermin, a 24-year-old from Payita, Dominican Republic who made his MLB debut on April 26, 2025, worked like a reliever who knew exactly how little margin remained.

Salt Lake added an important insurance run in the ninth when Denzer Guzman singled to score Rada, and the final line settled at 5-3. Both clubs finished with eight hits, but the Bees were sharper when the game tightened. They have now won three straight, homered in four consecutive games and taken the first three in Las Vegas for the first time since July 19-21, 2024. For a club that was swept here to open the 2026 season, this was more than a road win. It was proof that Salt Lake is handling pressure better than the home crowd expected.