By Jordan Moore

rivercats.com

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Memphis Redbirds toppled the Sacramento River Cats 6-0 on Friday night to claim the Pacific Coast League championship and end the Cats’ run at a third title in a row.

Memphis was on the attack early as they scored in each of the first two innings to take a quick two-run lead. Allen Craig scored Jon Jay in the first inning with a base hit to center, and Mark Shorey scored in the second when Shane Robinson hit a soft fly ball to left field.

Shown: The rallies fell short for Sacramento in its series with Memphis.

The Redbirds’ defense made short work of Sacramento early on, sitting down their first four batters. The Cats started hitting in the second inning when Chris Carter and Adrian Cardenas hit back to back singles, but were left stranded after two straight ground outs.

After the first two innings, the scoring slowed down and the game sped up. This was largely due to the fact that only four batters had seen more than four pitches in the first four innings; players seemed to jump on the first good pitch they saw.

Sacramento starter Jerome Williams intentionally walked the bases loaded in the fifth, when the ever dangerous Allen Craig stepped up with two in scoring position. Williams then threw wild pitch, scoring Jay from third. David Freese then popped a sacrifice fly to center field, giving Jarrett Hoffpauir plenty of time to score Memphis’ fourth run.

Williams would make way for Scott Patterson after 5.0 innings, allowing eight hits and four earned runs. He threw 50 strikes in 77 pitches, struck out three Memphis batters and walked two (both intentional). Patterson would only see one out and face three batters before stepping down.
 
Catcher Anthony Recker had a fielding error when trying to get Shane Robinson at first base after a small pop-up bunt in the sixth. He would get his man one out later as Robinson tried to steal second, and bailed the Cats out of a precarious sixth inning that saw two pitcher changes but no runs.

Michael Benacka would get in some trouble in the seventh inning after walking the bases loaded with one out. The Redbirds would not miss on this opportunity to close out the series as they scored two more on a Brian Barden base hit.

The River Cats, who scored 36 runs over four games in the first round against Tacoma, managed only two runs over three games against Memphis. After slugging 21 extra-base hits against Tacoma, Sacramento had only four doubles against Memphis. The River Cats finished the series 2-for-20 with runners in scoring position.

The Memphis Redbirds will go on to play in the Triple-A championship Tuesday, a one-game, winner-takes-all playoff with the Durham Bulls.