With rumors swirling that Cats phenom pitcher Dan Straily would be called up to the big club at any moment, Tyson Ross got the call to replace Straily in the starting lineup for Thursday’s tilt against the Memphis Redbirds. With nearly the same type of clutch hitting as the night before, Ross’s fine performance and solid relief from James Timmons, Pedro Figueroa and Rich Thompson out of the bullpen, the Sacramento River Cats beat the visiting Redbirds 4-3 in front of 8,762 faithful in another exciting contest at Raley Field. Even though it was the late clutch hitting of the Cats that helped pull out the victory, Cats manager Darren Bush couldn’t let the performance of his starter go unno

Sacramento River Cats starting pitcher Daniel Straily continued his dominant year against the Pacific Coast League as he led the River Cats to a 6-0 victory against the Tucson Padres at Raley Field on Monday afternoon. Straily struck out another nine batters in six innings of work, giving him 171 strikeouts on the season. He allowed no runs on just three hits in his six innings of work en route to earning his fourth win for the River Cats. Unlike the Padres, Sacramento’s offense was able to figure out Tucson’s starting pitcher, Will Scott, early in the game. Jermaine Mitchell scored the first two runs of the game with a two RBI single in the second inning. Scott lasted just four innings

As the grass gets greener and the sun starts to shine more often, the question for some players in the Oakland A’s system is - which team will they be starting the season with, the Oakland A’s or their Triple-A affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats? Some players, like Jemile Weeks, suited up in the maroon and grey of the Cats for most of last year until getting the call to don the Kelly green and gold of the Athletics late in the season. For Weeks, it’s a comfortable feeling knowing that a good portion of the River Cats players he spent most of the last couple of years with had a chance to make this year’s big club. “It’s great, I love it,” Weeks said. “These are guys I played with in th

The Sacramento River Cats again avoided elimination from the postseason as they defeated the Reno Aces 8-2 at Raley Field on Saturday night. The River Cats were able to bring the series to 2-2 and force a game 5 after falling behind in the series 0-2 to the Aces earlier in the week. “After dropping two games in Reno, we are just fortunate enough to have put ourselves in a situation to play tomorrow,” said River Cats second baseman Wes Timmons. “There’s no pressure now, in reality, the pressure is on them now. Nobody wants to go up 2-0 and then lose.” The River Cats quickly pounced on Reno’s starting pitcher Gaby Hernandez. Starting center fielder Jermaine Mitchell hit a lead-off triple

With everything they’ve worked for the entire season on the line, the Sacramento River Cats found themselves down 0-2 after two games of the first round of the Pacific Coast League Playoffs. After losing the first two games in Reno, 7-4 and 4-2, the Cats force a fourth game after beating the Reno Aces 5-2 at Raley Field on Friday evening and keep the best-of-five series alive. That’s good news for the team with the best record in the regular season. Josh Donaldson, who went 1-for-3 with two RBI, knew that it was just a matter of time before the offense woke up. “It’s something that we really haven’t been tested all year because we had such a big league all year”, said Donaldson as he l

It was the last regular season game of the year. A chance for the team to thank the fans for being such great guests all year long and an equal chance for the River Cats diehards to cheer one last time during a great campaign. From the Sacramento players greeting loyal guests at every entrance to Raley Field to the pre-game fireworks booming from center field to the River Cats own regular season player awards - all of it took place before the contest in front of the fifth sellout of the year - 14,014 roaring fans. Everything fell into place on Thursday evening for the Cats to win their last home game of the regular season 7-1 against the Las Vegas 51’s. The game started out as a pitcher

  Having already clinched the Pacific Coast League Pacific South division, the Sacramento River Cats won their fifth game in a row. A crowd of 10,638 fans at Raley Field watched the hometown team defeat the Las Vegas 51s 5-1. The Cats have now won 13 of their last 16 games. The first three innings were scoreless. Las Vegas threatened in the first inning with a single and a walk, but the rally ended when Adam Loewen struck out for the third out with men on first and second. The River Cats started off weak in the first inning as Jermaine Mitchell and Adrian Cardenas grounded out and Wes Timmons struck out. Tyson Ross settled down and began taking control of the situation as he put Las

The Sacramento River Cats pounced early on the Las Vegas 51s en route to a 13-1 victory on Monday night at Raley Field. Sacramento first baseman Chris Carter started the scoring with a two-out solo homerun deep over the left field wall. Sacramento continued their attack on Las Vegas starting pitcher Kyle Drabek in the second inning. With runners on first and third, Sacramento shortstop Adam Rosales lined a single to left field to score another run and load the bases with only one out. Drabek then walked three consecutive batters to give the River Cats a 5-0 lead. Drabek finally got out of the inning after getting third baseman Josh Donaldson and left fielder Michael Taylor out. The Rive

Wes Timmons just wants to play ball. That is, with God’s blessing, of course. Timmons had a conversation with his wife before Sunday’s Mother’s Day contest at Raley Field and thinks he may have figured it out. After Saturday night’s game Timmons felt horrible. He told his wife Jennifer that he feels like he hasn’t been in the batter’s box for a year rather than the three weeks it’s been. She then told him what he already knew. “You need to check yourself and get back in the word and trust in God,” said Jennifer. So, after his pre-game one-on-one with the man upstairs, a rejuvenated Timmons promptly hit the field and went 3-4 with an RBI, helping the Sacramento River Cats beat the hot-hi

Since the River Cats pushed Josh Outman’s start back one more day, a spot came open for another player from Oakland’s outstanding minor league system to make an appearance before the 5,327 in attendance at Raley Field Tuesday evening. This time it was Graham Godfrey’s number that was called. Godfrey, a player whom Cats Manager Darren Bush has had the pleasure of managing at several of the A’s farm clubs, got the spot start. Even though Godfrey pitched well enough to win, he gave up three runs in the first inning that crippled the Cats’ chances of pulling off the win. In the end, the River Cats lost a tough one, 5-3 in the ninth inning to the Las Vegas 51s. For the third consecutive game

If you follow the River Cats even the slightest bit, you know that they’re known for putting up runs on the board in bunches, especially in their wins. The final game in the season-opening series with the Tacoma Rainiers was no different. On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Sacramento, Cat right fielder Jai (pronounced Jay) Miller found his groove. Even though Miller is in Triple A working on fixing the holes in his swing, a lot is expected of the big man - known for either ripping the cover off of the ball and sending it screaming over the wall for all to cheer, or tying himself in knots trying. Miller’s strong arms and powerful swing helped him go 2-for-3 with two walks and five RBI inc

Jose Yepez’s strode to the plate with the game tied 2-2.  Moments later, Yepez stroked a seeing-eye single that broke a 2-2 tie in the ninth inning and was the difference in Tacoma’s 4-2 win over the hometown River Cats. The Rainiers catcher cracked a sharp shot straight up the middle that just got by the outstretched hand of Sacramento pitcher Vinnie Chulk and skipped off of both shortstop Eric Sogard and second baseman Jemile Weeks' hands before it slowly rolled into the outfield to give Tacoma the win.  A smaller than average crowd was on-hand for the River Cats first Saturday game of the season. Maybe it was the cooler temperatures from the previous couple of games or maybe it was the