On to the PCL

The Cats victory against the Tacoma Raniers had a lot of elements of this season rolled up into nine innings. With this win they clinched the Pacific Division and advance to play the Memphis Redbirds for the PCL Championship. They led off with six in the first and one in the second and then took a four inning Catnap. But then in the seventh added six more. They did those thirteen runs on twelve hits. Remember that during the regular season the Rivercats ended twenty nine games over .500 while the Raniers ended just four games over.

The Cats pitching left a lot to be desired. Shawn Chacon went five innings, gave up eight hits. He was followed by Patterson, Meloan and Benaka, none of whom was on top of their game. In the ninth Henry Rodriguez, who has had some impressive outings this year, came in for what amounted to a third of an inning and could not get anything across the plate. Rodriguez had but seven strikes in twenty one pitches. Sam Demel came in and was able to close it out. In all the Rivercats gave up 11 walks. In contrast the Raniers gave up but six. One of the things that kept us in the game was the bullpen for the Cats which secured eight strikeouts to the Raniers three.

The Cats opponent for the Championship beat the Albuquerque Isotopes who had the second best record in the league with sixteen games over .500. The matchup between the Redbirds and the Cats could prove interesting. Both were sort of middle of the pack in batting. But Memphis is near the bottom in team pitching. That is why the performance of our pitchers last night could be of some concern. We are about the same in numbers of strikeouts (1083 to 1036) and gave up about the same number of hits (1280 to 1264). They were a bit more prone to give up homers during the season (125 to our 116).

But what should give Cats fans sustenance is one other factor - heart. This team has it.

The series starts in Memphis on Tuesday and Wednesday, proceeding to Sacramento for a Friday game. If needed it would conclude on Saturday or Sunday. I am not sure, if the Cats win, when the traditional Brickyard shootout (between the International and the PCL) would take place.