Riverflats

Last night the Rivercats lost a game to the Sidewinders - I think it was their seventh shut out - 6-0. They have (after last night) - 20 games left and are 8 games up. If they play like they have in the last couple of games losing the lead is not out of the realm of possibility. The math here is pretty simple. The magic number is 13. (Combination of Sidewinder losses or Rivercats wins.) For the Sidewinders to pull this one out the Rivercats need to drop below .500 and they need to win 20 of 21 (they did one of those last night). Mabeus was in a new stage last night where is was a Maybesort of - he went three innings with 2 hits but by the time he got up the game was pretty much out of it. The whole team seemed flat. Same thing for Monday night. In the 12 game homestand they only managed a split. Their hitting has fallen off pretty badly. Our best hitter in the starting lineup is batting .294 (Beattie) with a combined batting average of .275. That is a stark contrast from a couple of weeks ago when they had several over .300.

Their remaining schedule works like this - 3 more against the Sidewinders, then 4 against the Stingers of Salt Lake, Then four in Fresno, four against Fresno here and then finishing out in Tacoma. Tacoma and Salt Lake are currently tied in their division. Fresno is out of it but just the sheer number of games against them is not a good sign. This could be a thrilling end to the season. This is the time when they need to regroup.