James Venes

9/18/09: Memphis Redbirds at Sacramento River Cats

From Raley Field in Sacramento. The Redbirds won, 6-0. In Game 3 of their Pacific Coast League championship series Memphis cruised to a sweep behind a strong outing by Evan MacLane (8 1/3 IP, 9 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K), who didn’t allow a run in starts against Albuquerque and Sacramento. The Redbirds scored single runs in the 1st and 2nd before adding a pair in the 5th and 7th. Brian Barden drove in two runs while Allen Craig, David Freese and Shane Robinson each had one. Jon Jay and Jarrett Hoffpauir set the table at the top of the order, both going 3-for-5 while scoring twice. Mark Shorey also chipped in with a pair of hits. Sacramento, denied in their attempt for a third straight PCL title, was led by Brett Wallace, Chris Carter and Adrian Cardenas who all had two hits each but Jerome Williams allowed 4 runs in 5 innings.

There isn’t much else to say but “Congratulations, Memphis.” With a 77-67 regular season record they didn’t seem like too much of a threat to beat Albuquerque in the first round but they won all three games. It earned them a matchup against Sacramento, coming off of scoring 36 runs in four games against Tacoma. That would turn around quickly with just two in three games as Memphis breezed through the PCL playoffs with a 6-0 record, once more proving that the games aren’t won or lost on paper. So much of it has to do with getting hot at the right time and in their six games Memphis allowed just ten runs, six of them coming in Game 2 in Albuquerque. No doubt, they earned their title.

For me, there is a certain excitement to covering a clinching game because of the emotion involved on both the winning and losing sides.  It’s not a World Series victory but it’s still a championship for the players, teams and fans no matter what the competition is, from Little League through high school, college and all levels of the Minors.

Unless I work any Arizona Fall League games, this also wraps up my “season.” It began in March as a fan with the final rounds of the World Baseball Classic at Dodger Stadium, included three Minor League All-Star Games, and was capped off with shooting a league title game.  All told, I did 20 games this year and that’s not too bad considering much of my time from April to June was taken up with buying, moving and settling into my first house.  Each game I cover, I like to try to capture something I haven’t before whether it’s a certain play or something from a specific angle, because that helps keep things fresh. The link up top contains 80 shots. As always, thanks for looking.