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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Sacramento River Cats have been here before – down 2-0 in a playoff series, coming back to Raley Field.
The River Cats will host the Memphis Redbirds at Raley Field for games 3 (Friday, 7:05 p.m.), 4 (Saturday, 7:05 p.m., if necessary) and 5 (Sunday, 1:05 p.m., if necessary) of the Pacific Coast League Championship Series this weekend. Memphis won the first two games of the series in Memphis, Tenn., meaning Sacramento must win all three games at Raley Field to win their third consecutive PCL championship.
“Our backs are against the wall, but we’re going to keep fighting as we have all season,” Sacramento manager Tony DeFrancesco said after the Game 2 loss. “We have the best fans in baseball, and we can always count on them to bring the noise at Raley Field. We know the history. We know it’s been done. We want to win a third consecutive championship in front of a packed house this weekend.”
Shown: Sacramento slugger has hit four homers in this postseason. That's a lot of water in the face.
In the only other time Sacramento trailed a series 2-0 (first-round series against Salt Lake in 2007), the River Cats returned to Raley Field to win three games in a row and take the series in five games. Sacramento went on to win the PCL Championship Series over New Orleans in a three-game sweep that season.
Sacramento also returns to the comfort of Raley Field, where the team went 45-27 this season, the best home record in the PCL. Sacramento has won its last four home games, including two in the playoffs. Sacramento dominated the Tacoma Rainiers in the two first-round playoff home games, outscoring the Rainiers 26-10 in those contests.
The River Cats will start two veteran pitchers in games 3 and 4 against Memphis, with Jerome Williams taking the mound Friday and Shawn Chacon on Saturday. Williams, who allowed one run over 7.0 innings to beat Tacoma in Game 3 in the first round, won 10 games for the San Francisco Giants in 2004. Chacon, who earned the win in Sacramento’s series-clinching Game 4 against Tacoma, was an All-Star for the Colorado Rockies in 2003 when he won 11 games.
Sacramento advanced to the Championship Series by toppling Tacoma in the playoffs’ first round, three-games-to-one. Memphis advanced by sweeping the Albuquerque Isotopes in three games. During the regular season, Sacramento posted the best record in Triple-A baseball, 86-57, to win the PCL Pacific South Division. It’s the third-best regular season record in team history. Memphis went 77-67 to win the PCL American North Division.
The River Cats have won a remarkable four (4) PCL Championships (2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008) and two Triple-A Championships (2007 and 2008) in the franchise’s first nine (9) seasons. If the River Cats were to win this Championship Series and be crowned Pacific Coast League Champions for the third straight year, they would then play the International League Champion in the Triple-A Championship Game in Oklahoma City broadcast worldwide on ESPN2 (Sept. 22).
© 2009 Sacramento River Cats
