SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — Every Wednesday home game this season, the Salt Lake Bees change their name. They become the Utah Dirty Sodas, an alternate identity built around the soda-shop culture of the Wasatch Front. Wednesday added Bark in the Park on top of it — dogs on the concourse, 4,674 in the seats at The Ballpark at America First Square, El Paso in town for game two of the series.
For five innings, the costume was the most interesting thing happening for the home team.
Then the Bees scored nine unanswered runs.
Trailing 4-1 after El Paso put up a five-run fifth, Salt Lake answered with a six-run sixth that sent 11 men to the plate, tacked on two more in the eighth, and walked off The Ballpark at America First Square with a 12-4 win — one built, fittingly for this organization, on the bats of two of the youngest players in the building and the steadying presence of the veterans around them.
Best of the rest of the coverage:
- Salt Lake Bees official game recap — Salt Lake Bees Communications, MiLB.com
The youngest of those bats belongs to Nelson Rada, the Angels’ No. 2 prospect, a 19-year-old center fielder from Valencia, Venezuela. Rada’s line — 1-for-3 with a walk, a hit-by-pitch, two runs scored — won’t lead any highlight package. What he did between the lines will. He stole two more bases, scored twice in the sixth-inning rally, and laid down a soft bunt single in the middle of it. Speaking through an interpreter after the game, Rada kept the framing simple: he wants to keep working, keep learning, and get better in every aspect of the game, with the big leagues as the goal at the end of it.
He has been chasing that goal across the map. Rada came up through the Dominican Summer League and spent last winter with the Navegantes de Magallanes in the Venezuelan league — an experience he credited, through the interpreter, with helping him grow as a player and arrive in Salt Lake ready. He was also watching this spring when Venezuela won the World Baseball Classic. Rada said he has a cousin on that team, and that as a Venezuelan, the title made him proud.
The other young bat carried the night statistically. Denzer Guzman, the Angels’ No. 7 prospect and a shortstop from San Pedro de Macorís in the Dominican Republic, went 2-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI, his second multi-hit game of the series after homering on Tuesday. Through an interpreter, Guzman said he feels on time at the plate right now — that he is seeing the ball well. He has spent the last two winters with Toros del Este in La Romana, playing in front of his family, and said the pressure of that environment is the kind that sharpens focus rather than scattering it.
For both of them, the veterans matter. Guzman said playing alongside Jose Siri, Jeimer Candelario and Trey Mancini — players he grew up watching on television — has given him people to lean on when things get rough. Rada said the same of manager Doug Davis and the veteran core: they help, they give advice, and when the game gets long, they steady him.
The night’s starting pitcher had a different kind of story to tell. Sam Aldegheri, a left-hander from Verona, Italy, didn’t pitch Wednesday — he’d gone six innings in Tuesday’s series opener — but he carries the international thread this organization is built to tell. Aldegheri pitched for the Italian national team at the World Baseball Classic, a run that took Italy to the semifinals in Miami.
“It was amazing,” Aldegheri said. “We had a couple of days together, and after three days, I feel like we were together for a month. For me, growing up in Italy, watching the last editions on TV — to be there, play there, and make history was amazing.”
He’s working on a new cutter in Salt Lake, he said, and trying to take something specific from the veterans around him: “Just talking with them, you can see for them it’s just a game. They don’t think too much, they just play. They always try to stay calm during the game, whatever the situation. That’s what I’m trying to take from them.”
Christian Moore, the Angels’ first-round pick in 2024, came back from a two-week injured list stint earlier in the series and went 1-for-5 with a walk and a run Wednesday. A Tennessee product, Moore lit up talking about the young group forming around him in Salt Lake.
“I got to play with Denzer and Rada a lot,” Moore said. “Those guys always seem to amaze me. Denzer’s really tapped into his power this year, and it’s really good to see. Same with Rada — he’s growing, learning the game more and more, and he’s always playing with this kind of smoothness, this little suave to him. I hope he never loses that. I’m super excited for this young core. We’re building a brotherhood down here.”
That brotherhood spent five innings getting shut out and one inning burying El Paso. The Dirty Sodas will be the Bees again by Thursday. The young core that turned the night around is going somewhere else entirely.
Game Details
Salt Lake 12, El Paso 4 — Wednesday, May 13, 2026, at The Ballpark at America First Square. Attendance: 4,674. Time: 3:12. Weather: 79 degrees, cloudy.
WP: Samy Natera Jr. (5-0). LP: Logan Gillaspie (2-2, BS 2).
Key Performers
Donovan Walton: 2-4, 4 RBI, 2 R, 3B, BB
Denzer Guzman: 2-5, RBI, 2 R, 2 2B
Jose Siri: 2-3, 3 RBI, 2B (PH)
Trey Mancini: 2-3, RBI, 2 R, 2 2B, 2 BB
Yolmer Sánchez: 3-5, 2 RBI, HR, R
Nelson Rada: 1-3, 2 R, BB, HBP, 2 SB
Samy Natera Jr.: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 K, W
Game Summary
The Bees broke through first. In the bottom of the third, Yolmer Sánchez homered to left field — his third of the year — to put Salt Lake up 1-0. (Watch)
El Paso answered with a five-run fifth against the Salt Lake bullpen. Jase Bowen’s sacrifice fly scored Nick Schnell to tie it 1-1. (Watch) Will Wagner then singled home Anthony Vilar to give the Chihuahuas a 2-1 lead (Watch), and Pablo Reyes followed with an RBI single, scoring Wagner and pushing it to 3-1. (Watch) Reyes and Nick Solak then pulled off a double steal — Reyes taking second, Solak swiping home — to make it 4-1 El Paso.
Salt Lake got one back in the bottom of the fifth. Guzman doubled, and pinch-hitter Jose Siri singled him home to cut the deficit to 4-2.
Then came the sixth. Sánchez singled home Donovan Walton — who had reached on an error — to make it 4-3. (Watch) Guzman doubled home Christian Moore to tie the game 4-4 (Watch), and Siri doubled to center, scoring Zach Humphreys and Guzman, to put Salt Lake ahead 6-4. (Watch) Mancini doubled home Siri to make it 7-4. (Watch) After Rada bunted his way on and stole second, Walton singled home Mancini and Rada to push the lead to 9-4.
In the bottom of the eighth, Walton struck again — tripling home Mancini and Rada for an 11-4 lead — and then scored on a wild pitch to close the scoring at 12-4. (Watch)
Samy Natera Jr. earned the win with two scoreless, four-strikeout innings of relief, and Brady Choban closed it out with two scoreless frames of his own.
Background: Tuesday’s Series Opener
Salt Lake took the series opener 11-4 on Tuesday night, scoring 11 times across the first three innings. Sam Aldegheri started and went six innings, allowing five hits, three earned runs, one walk and two strikeouts on 93 pitches (62 strikes) — his first career quality start at the Triple-A level. Denzer Guzman crushed two three-run home runs in the second and third innings, and Jose Siri added a solo shot.
Organizational Context
The Los Angeles Angels entered 2026 ranked No. 28 in MLB Pipeline’s farm system rankings. Despite the low organizational ranking, the Salt Lake roster features two of the system’s top prospects: Nelson Rada (No. 2) and Denzer Guzman (No. 7).
El Paso’s parent club, the San Diego Padres, has two players from its Top 30 prospect list currently with the Chihuahuas: right-handed pitcher Garrett Hawkins (No. 12) and outfielder Jase Bowen (No. 23).
Broadcast Information
All Triple-A games can be streamed on Bally Sports MiLB and MLB.TV.
Up Next
Salt Lake will play their third game of their six game home series against El Paso on Thursday, May 15 at The Ballpark At America First Square in South Jordan, Utah at 8:35 p.m. EDT.
