River Cats fall to Padres

Originally published on SacramentoPress.com on April 30, 2012

The Sacramento River Cats' offense struggled on Friday night as the River Cats fell to the Tucson Padres 5-1 at Raley Field.

The River Cats' only offense came in the first inning with the first River Cat that stepped up to the plate. Leadoff batter Jermaine Mitchell, took a 0-1 pitch and launched it over the right field wall for his first homerun of the season, and 50th of his career. This brought the score to a 1-1 tie as Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal had hit a home run of his own with two out in the top of the first.

River Cats pitcher Travis Banwart gave up another run in the third inning when Padres third baseman Everth Cabrera stole third base with two outs and was brought home by left fielder James Darnell to put the Padres up 2-1 after three innings.

Sacramento failed to get any hits with runners in scoring position, going 0-for-7.

After giving up the home run to Mitchell, Padres pitcher Josh Greer was outstanding, giving up no more runs and just six hits overall during his six innings pitched. The Padres bullpen then came in and further shut down the River Cats’ offense, combining to allow no more baserunners in the final three innings of the game.

Only up by two runs heading into the final inning, the Padres were able to add on two insurance runs with little effort.

After another single, Cabrera stole both second and third base to give him four stolen bases for the game and on third with two outs. River Cats catcher Derek Norris only caught eight runners stealing in 17 attempts coming into Friday night’s game.

Following his two stolen bases, Cabrera scored on a throwing error by River Cats third baseman Stephen Parker, which also advanced Grandal to third base after drawing a walk to get on first base.

River Cats pitcher Merkin Valdez then threw back-to-back wild pitches with the first wild pitch scoring Grandal and bringing the River Cats deficit to 5-1.

Padres pitcher Brad Brach came in to close the game out. He recorded three straight fly outs for a clean ninth inning and finished the game with a 5-1 victory for the Padres.

Sacramento first baseman Brandon Moss continued his team’s season-high hit streak with a single in the first inning. Moss’ hit steak now rests at 11 games. His personal best was a 13- game streak recorded in 2005 while playing for Double-A Portland.