The Sacramento River Cats played a memorable game Thursday night at Raley Field with two home runs and no runs from the New Orleans Zephyrs until the fifth inning. Despite losing the first game of the series against the Zephyrs on May 23, it was the third win for the River Cats this week. Michael Taylor (LF) scored his first home run of the season during the second inning and Josh Donaldson (C) hit one in the bottom of the seventh. With 6,111 people in attendance, the crowd had high energy and enthusiasm, with children yelling “Dinger! Dinger!” and KISS fans singing “I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night.” There were several mistakes made by the Zephyrs that kept the River Cats in the lead t

The Sacramento River Cats (28-16) defeated Oklahoma City (20-23) 11-2 on Sunday afternoon at Raley Field to earn a series split after dropping the first two games to the RedHawks. After RedHawks starting LHP Ryan Rowland-Smith (2-3, 5.23) issued consecutive walks to Jemile Weeks and Aaron Sogard in the bottom of the first, the River Cats offense set the tone when Michael Taylor tied the game at 1-1 with an RBI single to center field that scored Weeks. After advancing to third base on Taylor’s single, Aaron Sogard scored on the next at bat when Josh Donaldson hit a sacrifice ground-out to put Sacramento up 2-1. Rowland-Smith then walked DH Anthony Recker and Taylor swiped his third steal o

The speculation does not faze Michael Taylor of the Sacramento River Cats. The 24-year-old outfielder ranks as the second-best prospect in the Oakland Athletics’ farm system, only behind fellow River Cats teammate, Chris Carter. And with major league rosters set to expand September 1st, it’s widely expected that Taylor along with Carter will say goodbye to Sacramento sooner rather than later. “It’s not something for me to worry about.” Taylor said when asked of his big league potential in a recent interview with the Davis Sports Deli Podcast. “It’s best to sort of focus on what you can control and then try to do whatever you can to help the ball club win,” he continued. “I know that it’

Neither Rickey Henderson's presence nor a sellout crowd of 14,014 was enough to inspire the Sacramento River Cats to win Saturday. Having won the first two games of a three-game series against the Fresno Grizzlies, who are leading in the Pacific Coast League South Division, the River Cats lost game three 5-1. The River Cats remain six games behind the Grizzlies in the standings. Before the game, River Cats second baseman Eric Sogard said that winning and making up all three games in one series would be huge, but that the team is satisfied it has won the series already taking two out of three. "We've been playing good, we have a solid squad right now," said Sogard. "We're not where we wan

The Sacramento River Cats’ play has paralleled with the heat in the last week, with the team winning five straight games. The Tacoma Rainiers came into town Saturday and were on pace to leave Sacramento winless, but fortunately for them, the River Cats found themselves down early and were unable to show off any of the late magic that was displayed the night before. The Tacoma Rainiers were 40-38 coming into the mid-day game against the River Cats, who have found themselves 41-38 and seven games out of first place in the PCL South Division. On the mound the Rainiers had the early advantage, as their starter Luke French was currently 8-2 with a 2.27 ERA. French leads his team in wins a

 When you think of the River Cats, dogs may be the last thing on your mind. But for their fourth annual "Bark in the Ballpark" event on Sunday afternoon, it was the first thing on the minds of many dog owners. By paying for an extra dog ticket, they were able to bring their favorite pooches into the lawn area for the game. “It’s just an event we wanted to offer to our fans and dog lovers,” media relations director Rebecca Brutlag said.   Before the game, owners were able to parade their dogs on the field as part of the costume contest. While the aerobics instructor dog got a lot of attention on the lawn, the bumble bee pup won the goodie bag, complete with tickets to a future River Cats

 The first two innings of Wednesday morning's River Cats 9-7 roller coaster loss to the Tacoma Raniers were very uneventful.  The only man to reach base was Matt Watson, and he did so on a walk.    Everyone else from either team who stepped to the plate was set down with alacrity. There was no sign of the slugfest to come.               Four pop outs, two fly outs, a couple ground outs, three K's and a line out.  The innings flew by.  By 11:50, a mere 15 minutes into the game, it was 22.22 percent over.  If they'd kept up that pace, they may have set some kind of record.               The first two outs of the top of the third came nearly as quickly.  I was beginning to speculate as to t

 It was a dark and stormy night. Well, not really.  It had been a dark and stormy afternoon, however, and about 4 p.m., I thought the River Cats series finale against the Colorado Sky Sox was in jeopardy of being rained out.   Fortunately, the storm broke around 5 p.m., and by game time there were only a few clouds in the sky.  I arrived about 6:30 and was pleasantly surprised to find a press pass waiting for me at Will Call.  I'd thought that ship might have sailed after the "flip flop incident," but apparently not. I felt like a good cop, though somewhat of a loose cannon, who'd lost his badge and gun because of his erratic behavior.  Like Mel Gibson in "Lethal Weapon". On Monday, I g