2018 River Cats versus Chihuahuas

Belt begins rehab as River Cats comeback falls short

The Sacramento River Cats (47-71) scored late to make things interesting, but the El Paso Chihuahuas (66-51) emerged victorious by the final score of 2-1. Brandon Belt began rehab, playing five innings at first base and logging two plate appearances.

The River Cats were held scoreless until the eighth inning when Miguel Gomez knocked a two-out RBI single to pull the River Cats within one.

River Cats starter Jordan Johnson set a season-high after pitching into the seventh inning on Saturday night. Johnson allowed just two runs on five hits before being taken out with one out in the seventh.

Sacramento would eventually fall 2-1, making it the third consecutive game decided by one run in this series.

Saturday night, Sharon, Jack, Jason and I went to the Sacramento River Cats versus the El Paso Chihuahuas minor league baseball game. The Chihuahuas won the game by the score of 2 to 1.

As a social event for her work, Sharon's company took a large group to the game. We went with her office to a River Cats game two years ago. This time they reserved the Home Run Terrace. It included free food and drinks.

There were several familiar names on the River Cats roster. Starters included Brandon Belt at first base and Kelby Tomlinson at short stop. Gregor Blanco pitch hit and Hunter Strickland pitched in relief.

Although Kelby Tomlinson has a twelve hitting streak and is batting .425 in that stretch, he was called out on strikes to end the sixth and eighth inning with runners in scoring position. Brandon Belt flied out in both of his plate appearances.

I frankly didn't watch much of the game. I spend time in the first couple of innings talking to Gary Olson and his wife Linda. Gary and I have known each other since about sixth grade. About the middle of the game, I shifted over and sat with Jack and Jason. The Home Run Terrace was frankly an odd place to watch the game. The angle is not great and you don't have a view of centerfield or much of right field.

Allen Craig [first base for El Paso] homered on to the roof next to the terrace. The ball rolled down on to the grass in front of where we were sitting.

We left in the bottom of the ninth. With most people staying for the fireworks after the game, we zipped out of the parking lot.

2016 River Cats versus Chihuahuas

Sactown slugfest ends in River Cats rout
The best offense in the Pacific Coast League took the field Saturday night and then looked on as the Sacramento River Cats (45-56) ran up the score early en route to a 12-0 win over the El Paso Chihuahuas (57-42). Sacramento struck for nine runs in the first two innings and coasted to the win behind an excellent combination effort from the bullpen.

Sharon, Jack, Kiki and I went to the Sacramento River Cats versus El Paso Chihuahuas Pacific Coast League baseball game. As a social event for her work, Sharon's company took more than 100 people to the game. We had dinner in the Smokehouse BBQ area before wandering to the seats.

I was excited to see Hunter Pence in right field. The two-time World Champ and two-time All-Star was working his way back from hamstring surgery. Pence went 1-for-4 with a double in six innings.

Andrew Susac caught the game. He was 2 for 4 with a home run, two runs scored, two RBIs, one base on balls and a strike-out. After the game, Jack was talking mostly about was Susac's three passed balls...

Kelby Tomlinson played third. He was 3-for-5 with two runs scored.

We stayed for the fireworks after the game. Unlike the experience in Lille, it was fairly easy to get out of the parking lot after the game!

2015 River Cats versus Zephyrs

After meeting Tomasin and Snipes at the Plainfield Station on my way home from St. Helena, I headed home to change and then caught up with them at the River Cats game. We had some great seats [Section 113, Row 13, Seat 6, 7 and 8]. The game was sold-out.

Mac Williamson went 4 for 4 with a home run, a double and four RBIs as the River Cats crushed the New Orleans Zephyrs 14-3 to extend their franchise-record winning streak to 12 games.

Jarrett Parker added a home run, a triple and three RBIs in Sacramento’s 15-hit attack.

New Orleans tied the score 3-3 with one run in the sixth inning, but the River Cats erupted for four runs in the sixth, five in the seventh and two in the eighth.

We finished the night at the Back Door Lounge in Old Sacramento.

2011 Rivers Cats versus Isotopes

After our monthly IS leadership meeting, the CIO took the team to the River Cats game. We were in Suite 6.

I bought Sharon and Jack tickets for the game. After an adventure getting to the sold-out game, Sharon and Jack came up and joined us in the suite. They had passed Sharon's brother Tim with Kathy and Eileen in the parking lot. With a lot of the ISLT members leaving after the fifth or sixth inning, the Tim's ended up coming up and joining us in the suite after the seventh innning!

Chris Carter opened the scoring with a two-run home run in the first inning as the River Cats defeated Albuquerque 7-0 before an announced sellout crowd of 14,014 at Raley Field. In his last five games, Carter is 7 for 18 with two home runs and five RBIs.

2009 River Cats versus Rainiers

We went to the River Cats game with a group of families from the Outlaws, Jack's tournament baseball team. This was Game 3 of the PCL Pacific Conference Championship Series. The winner of this series will advance to play the Memphis RedBirds, who finished off a three-game sweep of the Albuquerque Isotopes on Friday night in the American Conference Championship Series.

The River Cats rode a 15-hit outburst to a 13-2 victory over the Tacoma Rainiers to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five first-round playoff series. Former San Francisco Giant right-hander Jerome Williams struck out eight, allowed seven hits and only one run over 7.0 innings.

a no-hitter! [2009 River Cats versus Bees]

Sharon, Jack and I went to see the Sacramento River Cats play the Salt Lake City Bees. I got some great tickets right behind home plate (section c, row 1, seats 5, 6 & 7). The weather was great and the game was interesting.

The Salt Lake Bees starter Sean O'Sullivan threw only the second no-hitter in Raley Field history to defeat the River Cats 2-0. O'Sullivan retired the first 18 River Cat batters he faced. He threw 122 pitches, struck out seven batters and walked one.

The only other no-hitter used multiple pitchers. On June 9, 2006, the Portland Beavers used three pitchers for a combined perfect game against Sacramento.

Las Vegas ruins a good outing by Cats' Ziegler

Jack played in his ninth baseball game of the season in the morning.

Sharon and I spent the afternoon working in the backyard.

Saturday evening, we took Jack to the River Cats game. It was Elk Grove little league night and there was a sellout crowd of 14,611. The place was a zoo. The event included a parade of all the teams around the field before the game. Jack's team had decided to get outfield grass seats and sit together. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the outfield grass was already packed. After a couple of false starts, we ended up finding some of Jack's team and sitting with them. We lasted until about the seventh inning. It is a good thing that we did not try to stick out the game, the River Cats ending up losing in 12 innings.

Mark McLemore played nine innings for the River Cats; he started at shortstop for the Oakland A's last season. He is on a rehabilitation assignment with the River Cats after having knee surgery in March.

River Cats Game

As a team building exercise, we took Donna Gainsley's Business Systems team to a River Cats Baseball game; 55 of the 58 members of the team attended. The event included a barbecue in the right field outfield before the game.

The game had a very early 11:35 a.m. first pitch. The Salt Utah Stingers beat the Sacramento River Cats by a score of 11 to 2. Salt Lake was ahead 3 to 2 in the top of the seventh inning when they got a home run and a grand slam to blow the game open.

While Sharon went to a mandatory training session for eucharistic ministers, Jack and I watched the Kings post an ugly win (there were 114 missed shots in the game!) over the Mavericks in game two of the first round of the NBA playoffs.