06/09/2007 11:52 PM - TUCSON, AZ-  It was a forgettable night for pitching coach Rich Rodriguez and his staff as the River Cats’ less than stellar performances on the mound continued Saturday night in Tucson as the Sidewinders pounded Sacramento 9-2.

In a game that saw the Diamondbacks triple-A club score in every inning but the third, the Cats’ pitchers gave up 19 hits and allowed seven Sidewinders to have multi-hit games including 4 who had three hits apiece.  The Sidewinders were balanced with their scoring as they did not plate more than two runs during any inning of the contest.

Not to be outshined by the Tucson’s offence was the strong outing of the Sidewinders’ starting pitcher Yusmeiro Petit who went seven innings, allowing four hits, striking out seven and allowing only one earned run.  Petit earned his seventh win of the year and lowered his ERA to 4.23.

Shane Komine was the starter for Sacramento and had an inauspicious beginning to his outing as he gave up two runs in the first inning.

Alex Romero started the Sidewinders rally in the bottom of the first by roping a line drive down the right-field line, which Dee Brown struggled to gather allowing Romero to get all the way to third for a triple.  Designated hitter Chad Tracy then hit his second double of his rehab stint for the Arizona Diamondbacks driving in Romero for the game’s first run.

Chris Carter then followed by chopping an infield single up the middle, putting runners at the corners with only one out.  Sidewinders catcher Jamie D’Antona then drove in Tracy from third with a sacrifice fly to right making the score 2-0 in Tucson’s favor.  Komine was able to get out of inning by striking out third basemen Brian Barden looking.

Daric Barton, who got the start at third base, got the River Cats going in the top of the second and continued his recent hot hitting by driving a double to deep center.  Petit then walked catcher J.D. Closser but struck out Lou Merloni looking after Merloni had five hits in the previous game on Friday. J.J. Furmaniak battled Petit for a walk loading the bases for center fielder Nick Blasi, but Blasi was unable to drive in any runs as he flew out to right.

The failed rally in second was the only chance the River Cats had to do major damage off of Petit all night.

Komine was hoping for a fresh start in the bottom of the second but was rudely greeted by center fielder Jeff Salazar’s 6th homer of the year to lead off the inning. After walking shortstop Augie Ojeda, Komine was able to use his quick move to pick off Ojeda at first with the help of a snap-tag by first basemen Jeremy Brown. 

Leadoff hitter Danny Richar then hit a high fly ball to center that Nick Blasi could not see in the late evening sky which ended up falling allowing Richar to reach second base for his 16th double of the season.  Komine escaped by getting the shortstop Romero to pop out to end the threat of Tucson scoring yet again.

The Cats broke through against Petit in the top of the fourth as their first run came by way of a deep home run blasted off the bat of the catcher J.D. Closser.  The bomb was Closser’s seventh of the year and gave him his 24th RBI of the campaign. 

As the game went on the Sidewinders kept scoring, adding runs in the fourth inning through the eighth, keeping the quiet River Cats scoreless until Lou Merloni hit a sacrifice fly driving in Daric Barton for the a meaningless run in the ninth.

In the three games played between these two teams so far in the series, the River Cats’ pitching staff has given up 37 runs to the Sidewinders at Tucson Electric Park.  With the loss Sacramento’s record falls to 35-26 and Tucson’s ascends to 32-28.

In organizational news: Mlb.com reports that the Oakland Athletics have traded C Adam Melhuse to the Texas Rangers and have called up River Cats’ C Kurt Suzuki.

Melhuse was hitting .231 in 26 at bats for the A’s and Suzuki was hitting .280 for the River Cats with three homers.