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Power-hungry 'Cats hand Beavers 12-8 defeat

July 11, 2004 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Portland Beavers News Release


WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Matt Watson hit one of Sacramento's four home runs and had four RBIs, and Dan Johnson added four hits as the Sacramento River Cats ended a four-game losing streak with a 12-8 victory over the Portland Beavers at Raley Field Saturday night.

Graham Koonce, Mike Rivera and Nick Swisher also homered for the River Cats, who collected 18 hits, including a season-high nine extra-base hits.

John Rheinecker (9-4) worked 7.2 innings to win his eighth straight decision. Rheinecker, who last lost on May 11, yielded three earned runs on 11 hits.

Portland starter Dennis Tankersley (4-3) had a similar run, winning each of his previous four decisions and last losing a game for the Beavers on April 18. But he wasn't so fortunate Saturday, allowing a season-high six runs (5 earned), 11 hits and three home runs in 5.0 innings.

The River Cats (55-35) exploded for four runs each in the fifth and sixth innings to break open a tie game.

The Beavers, who won the first two games of the series, fought to tie the game in the top of the fifth.

And then the floodgates opened.

The Beavers defense gave away three outs in the fifth inning, allowing Sacramento to score four runs and take a 6-2 lead. The confusion started with one out when Koonce's pop up fell between Castro and Alex Fernandez in shallow right field after a miscommunication between the two. Two batter later, Watson made Portland pay with a three-run home run to right field. Later in the frame, Ramon Vazquez, the Beavers shortstop, committed a two-out error to allow Freddie Bynum to reach base. The misfortune continued when Robinson lost a ball in the lights in center field on a ball hit by Rivera, opening the door for Bynum to come across with an unearned run to make it 6-2.

Swisher's two-run blast off reliever Matt Hampton, his 16th of the season, opened the gates again in the sixth. Johnson tripled to the left field corner, scoring on an RBI single by Watson, who scored on a double to left-center by Mike Edwards to give the River Cats a 10-2 lead.

Steve Stanley tripled to lead off the bottom of the seventh and the River Cats scored two more in the frame.

The Beavers (44-46) showed some fight in the late innings, though. Fernandez welcomed Wayne Gomes to the game in the top of the eighth with a three-run homer, his second of the series and his fifth blast of the season. Vazquez clubbed a three-run home run to a similar spot on the berm in right field to get the Beavers to within four runs at 12-8 in the top of the ninth.

For the third straight game to start the series, the Beavers grabbed an early lead, going up 1-0 in the second inning when Yamid Haad, who singled to lead off the inning, scored on a wild pitch.

Haad was 3-for-5 in the game and is batting .640 (9-for-14) for the series. Tagg Bozied had three hits, including a double.

The River Cats had a powerful response, though, as Koonce, who was 3-for-4 with a walk, sent a liner over the fence in right-center field to knot things in the third and Rivera cleared the bullpen in right field in the fourth inning for his second homer of the season and a 2-1 lead.

In the fifth, Jake Gautreau doubled off the wall in left-center, moved to third on an infield single by Castro, and scored when Robinson grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to tie things at 2-2.

During their four-game losing skid, the River Cats batted .194 as a team, scoring just 13 runs and tallying nine extra-base hits, a decided contrast to Saturday's game.

All but one starter had at least one hit for Sacramento.

The series concludes Sunday night at 5:05 p.m.

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Pacific Coast League Stories from July 11, 2004


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