The End of the Season

Last night's final game in the PCL Championships summed up a lot about the Rivercats season.   Here are the ways:

1) Errors - Two errors were very costly.  The Cats were very error prone this season.  I have not seen a total but I bet we were near the top.
2) Hitting - Last night we got 10 hits but we also left 10 men on base.   We were below the middle of the pack on hitting. (with a .283 average)  The first five in the league were in quirky ballparks but then came Round Rock and Omaha.   That extra .006 showed in each of the games with Omaha.   We were second in home runs but an awful lot of those were single HRs.
3) Pitching - We had either the best or one of the best pitching staffs in the league but in the playoffs our best guys were not able to hold on.  Omaha (for the season) actually generated only a slightly higher ERA and fewer hits.  We were about average in runs scored against us (in the 690 range).  We were at the top with strikeouts.  But in five game series like the championships all that season stuff makes little difference.  We were the least generous on WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched - at 1.39).
4) Home and Away - Our season record on home and away games was remarkable.  We were 10 games over at home but 22 over .500 on the road.  Yet in the playoffs we lost all five games on the road.
5) Attendance was slightly down this season at just over 600,000 but compared to the early years, it was way down.  Still we were second, behind Round Rock.
We ended up Pacific Conference Champs (and for the tenth time in eleven years the Southern Division Champs). 2009 is the only other year where we won the Conference but lost the PCL.