Waldschmidt opens with leadoff homer, but El Paso routs Reno 14-1

Ryan Waldschmidt gave Reno the kind of road start that can settle a dugout in a hurry, then El Paso spent the next eight innings stripping it away. Waldschmidt jumped on the first pitch from Padres right-hander Matt Waldron and launched a leadoff home run, giving the Aces a 1-0 lead before most of the crowd had settled in. It was Reno’s third leadoff homer of the season, and for Waldschmidt it was his fifth home run in an Aces uniform and his first career Triple-A leadoff shot.

That opening punch turned out to be the high point of the night. El Paso answered with two runs in the fourth and then kept adding until the game became a rout, scoring 12 more times over its final three trips to the plate on the way to a 14-1 win in game four of the series. Reno, which had beaten the Chihuahuas 8-1 the night before at Southwest University Park before 4,954 fans, managed only five more hits after the first pitch. The early lead never had a chance to matter once the Chihuahuas started stacking innings and forcing the Aces to play from behind in a game that quickly got away.

Waldschmidt was one of the few Reno hitters who kept producing. He finished 2-for-3 with a walk and added a double in the eighth, offering the lone sustained threat in a lineup that otherwise went quiet after the opening blast. Kristian Robinson had already supplied another Reno leadoff homer earlier this season against Oklahoma City, a reminder that the Aces have found a few instant-start moments at the top of the order. On this night, though, the first swing was not the beginning of a statement. It was the last clean break Reno got.

The pitching breakdown followed the same pattern of promise, then collapse. Right-hander Bryce Jarvis opened the game for Reno, worked three innings and allowed two runs on four hits with two strikeouts, but the bullpen could not keep the score in range. Jarvis, a former first-round pick by Arizona in 2020, entered the game with a 2-1 record and a 6.46 ERA in 2026 MiLB play, and his outing fit the uneasy role Reno has asked him to fill as it pieces together innings. Waldron, meanwhile, was making a rehab assignment start for El Paso, but the bigger story was what happened after Waldschmidt ambushed him: Reno never delivered a counterpunch, and El Paso turned a brief jolt into a one-sided finish.