WEST SACRAMENTO – After Luke French walked a career-high eight batters in his last start, the Tacoma Rainiers were uncertain what they were going to get from their starting pitcher Friday night at Raley Field.
What they got was a pleasant surprise: a return to the Luke French of 2010, when he was the Rainiers’ ace and finished runner-up in the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year voting.
French allowed two runs over six innings and earned the victory as Tacoma beat Sacramento, 5-2.
It was the fourth win in the last five games for Tacoma, improving the team’s road record to 17-17.
French (3-5) allowed a leadoff triple, two walks, and a run in the first inning before settling down. He did not walk another hitter and threw 65 of his 96 pitches for strikes.
“He bounced back from a tough start last time out,” said Tacoma manager Daren Brown. “It was a good confidence-builder for him after the last one.”
Alex Liddi staked Tacoma to a 2-1 lead in the top of the third inning when he drove a Travis Banwart pitch over the left-field fence for a two-run homer. It was the 11th home run of the season for Liddi.
Liddi also had two doubles in his 3-for-5 performance and has four extra-base hits in the first two games of the series. The River Cats might be surprised by this because Liddi went 5-for-30 with 13 strikeouts against Sacramento early in the season.
“We played them eight of the first 12 games in the season,” Brown said. “Liddi’s a different guy now, and that’s what you expect from a guy who’s 22 years old. He’s a better hitter now than he was then.”
Tacoma caught a break in the fourth inning, when Matt Mangini’s broken-bat fly ball fell in for a two-run single in shallow right-center field.
“When he hit it I thought it was just a fly ball, and the wind kind of pushed it toward right-center and knocked it down a little bit,” Brown said. “It was lucky for us.”
Tacoma (28-34) got shutout relief from Cesar Jimenez and Josh Lueke.
Lueke pitched a perfect eighth inning, but Sacramento loaded the bases with one out in the ninth. Lueke retired Eric Sogard on a shallow fly to right, and he struck out Josh Donaldson to collect his sixth save of the season.
Sogard was 3-for-5 with a triple for Sacramento.
The River Cats have lost three straight games but still have the best record in the PCL at 39-23.
SHORT HOPS
Liddi has hit safely in 16 of his last 17 games, batting .365 with 27 hits and 18 RBI during the stretch. … Tacoma picked up a game on first-place Reno and is now eight games back. … the Rainiers have won four of their six games at Raley Field this season.
ON TAP
The series continues with a 7:05 game tonight on 850-AM. Tacoma sends knuckleballer Charlie Haeger (1-0, 7.20 ERA) to the mound against Sacramento’s Yadel Marti (3-1, 4.91).
Mike Curto is the radio broadcaster for the Tacoma Rainiers.
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