RENO — Reno Aces outfielder Pete O’Brien is making mincemeat of Pacific Coast League pitching these days.
O’Brien stretched his hitting streak to eight games by going 3-for-5 with a homer and two singles in the Reno Aces’ 6-5 loss to the Salt Lake Bees Monday night before a crowd of 3,757 at Greater Nevada Field.
In that span, O’Brien is hitting .472 with four homers and 20 RBI. Simply put, he’s making life miserable for opposing pitchers, yet he’s being ignored by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Despite impressive numbers, O’Brien has been up to the majors once this season and got just one at-bat, and then it was back to Reno. If O’Brien is frustrated, he hides it well.
“It’s tough,” he said. “Arizona doesn’t have everyday at-bats for me and they want me to play everyday. I’m trying to have good at-bats; get good pitches to swing at. When you are up there, they don’t say much to you. I know my time will come. I’m taking advantage of the at-bats I get here. I’m a firm believer in that everything happens for a reason.”
Reno manager Phil Nevin knows how frustrating it is for young players like O’Brien.
“There are a lot of players who perform well at this level that don’t get a chance to go up,” Nevin said. “Peter is going to play in the majors. He came back (from the D-Backs) with a good attitude, and he’s working on things.
“He has every right to be unhappy. I’m proud of the way he’s going about his business. His feet are real quiet up there at the plate, and he’s not swinging at as many bad pitches.”
After falling behind 4-0 in the top of the first, the Aces rallied when O’Brien homered on an 0-2 pitch off Kyle Kendrick in the bottom of the first. O’Brien’s , shift-beating single in the third helped Reno tie the game at 5 when Kyle Jensen hit a three-run homer to right.
Kendrick settled in and didn’t allow another run in his next five innings. He got some great defensive play from third baseman Kaleb Cowart, who took three hits away from the Aces.
Kendrick gave way to Lucas Luetge in the ninth. Jack Reinheimer singled and moved all the way around to third on O’Brien’s infield out and a wild pitch, but was stranded on Socrates Brito’s flyball to left.
SPECIAL DAY TIMES 2
It’s a big day (11:30 a.m. start) at Greater Nevada Field for two reasons.
The first is the appearance of ex-Giant Tim Lincecum, who is scheduled to make his second start for the Salt Lake Bees. Lincecum threw five innings five days ago, and he’s scheduled to start on June 12 against Cleveland, according to Salt Lake sources.
The second event is Education Day. Nearly 3,000 school-aged kids from around Washoe County are expected to attend the game.
There were about 1,000 general admission tickets left for today’s game.
MAN IN CHARGE
Behind the plate for Monday’s game was Carson City’s Nate White, who is in his second season as a PCL umpire.
White caught a little flak after ringing up Salt Lake’s Ryan Jackson on strikes in the 8th.
OTHER STREAKS
Besides O’Brien, the other eight starters extended hitting streaks. Brito is now at nine, Reinheimer is at seven, Tuffy Gosewich is now at six, Jensen is now at four games, Zach Borenstein and Todd Glaesman are at three, and Mike Freeman and Carlos Rivero are at two.