Baseball Lifer

The River Cats let loose on a beautiful warm evening at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, and shellacked the El Paso Chihuahuas, 13-5 in an offensive explosion, as the team hit six home runs.

After the Chihuahuas left two runners on in the first, LaMonte Wade Jr. led off the bottom of the first with a double to centerfield; Heliot Ramos walked; and David Villar hit a home run out to left-center. Matthew Batten led off the top of the second with a solo home run off River Cats’ starter, Emmanuel De Jesus, but the River Cats got the run right back with one out in the bottom of the second on Jhonny Pereda’s first home run of the season to take a 4-1 lead.

Chihuahua’s starter, Aaron Leasher, walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the third, and was pulled Felix Minjarez, who struck out Will Wilson to end the inning. The River Cats did get to Minjarez in the fourth, as Peredes led off the inning with his second home run of the night. Wade reached on an error by Chihuahuas’ third-baseman, Eguy Rosario; Ramos was hit by a pitch; and then Viller his hit second three-run home run of the night, an absolute bomb to left, which was his 20th home run of the season. Villar has now tied career-highs in home runs and RBIs with 20 and 58 respectively, as pointed out by the voice of the River Cats, Johnny Doskow.

After El Paso scored a run in the top of the fifth to make it 8-2, but the River Cats exploded for four more runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it a laugher. Arquimedes pinch-hit for Will Wilson to start the inning, and hit a leadoff home run. Pereda then drew a walk, and Wade followed that up with a two-run home run to center. Ramos was then hit for the second time tonight, and was out at second on an unassisted fielder’s choice off the bat of Villar, who scored on a ground ball out by Austin Dean later in the inning.

De Jesus was pulled after five, as the Chihuahuas got to Gregory Santos for two runs in the sixth, and scored a run off of Jeremy Walker in the seventh. Villar walked and scored off Aaron Northcraft in the bottom of the seventh, which won a lucky fan a $400 getaway at Cache Creek Casino. Congratulations to……I think Jessica was her name. Anyways, congrats Jessica.

De Jesus allowed hits in all five innings tonight, but he got the win to improve to 3-1; and Leasher took the loss for El Paso to fall to 2-5. The River Cats improve to 28-40, and will most likely remain 11 and a half games back of the Las Vegas Aviators in the Pacific Coast League West.

Some notes and interesting things that happened tonight. LaMonte Wade went 2-for-5, and scored three times, but despite the fact that he saw the ball quite well, he had a hard time running the bases. Wade’s first inning double would have most likely been a triple had be been at 100%, and he also struggled running to first, when he reached on the error in the fourth. Robinson Cano struck out for the first out in the top of the third on a pitch clock violation. He clearly wasn’t happy about it, and he shouldn’t, because the pitch clock is another evil cancer trying to force its way into our great game.

The River Cats and Chihuahuas will meet in Game 3 of the series tomorrow night at 6:45, as it will be a matchup of two right-handers: Raynel Espinal for Sacramento, and Pedro Avila for El Paso.

Stephen