River Cats drop third straight contest

Originally published on SacramentoPress.com on June 30, 2012

The Sacramento River Cats lost their third straight game as they fell to the Salt Lake Bees 10-3 on Thursday night at Raley Field.

The Bees were able to attack River Cats starting pitcher Brad Peacock early, quieting the 6,428 fans in attendance.

After getting the first batter of the game out, Peacock gave up a single and walked Bees left fielder Ryan Langerhans to put runners on first and second with just one out. Peacock was unable to get out of the situation, giving up another single that scored Kole Calhoun to put the Bees on the board first, for the second night in a row.

River Cats Kila Ka’aihue, who usually plays first base but was playing left field for Thursday’s game, was tested early as to whether his arm could get the ball to home plate consistently. Ka’aihue’s first throw was inaccurate and ended up on the line, allowing Calhoun to score easily. Ka’aihue was tested on the very next batter when Bees first baseman Efren Navarro singled to left and Ka’aihue threw home once again but not in time, allowing Langerhans to score and the other runners to advance to second and third base.

Bees catcher Robinzon Díaz finished the scoring for the inning with a single of his own to left field that scored two more runs, allowing the Bees to lead the game 4-0 after just one inning.

Salt Lake continued to add to their lead in the fourth and fifth innings, with one run and four more runs, respectively.

Three of the runs scored in the fifth inning came off a three-run home run, the fourth of the season for right fielder Doug Deeds, which scored Díaz and Paul McAnulty.

The River Cats were able to sustain a small rally in the bottom of the fifth inning and put their first two runs on the board.

With the bases loaded and one out, first baseman Daric Barton hit a sacrifice fly to deep right field that scored Eric Sogard to give the River Cats their first run of the night. The sacrifice fly also advanced Adam Rosales to third base.

Rosales scored the River Cats’ run when Bees pitcher Francisco Rodriguez threw a wild pitch, allowing Rosales to come home and bring the deficit to 9-2.

But the River Cats were unable to produce enough offense to come back, only scoring one more run in the sixth inning when Sogard hit a sacrifice groundout that scored Ka’aihue.

But Bees right fielder Calhoun got that run back for the Bees by hitting a home run against the River Cats for the second night in a row, bringing the game to the final score of 10-3.