Another one bites the dust.

But on the bright side, we did get our first post-season victory last night, so the affiliates are now a collective 1-7 in the playoffs!

Sacramento beat Las Vegas Aviators (Athletics), 8-6

Series tied 1-1

Despite allowing four HRs to the Aviators, Sacramento was able to claw out on 8-6 victory (c wut I did there — cuz #ClawsUp is their rally cry, heh heh... nevermind) to even their series at 1 apiece.

Coming into the game Joe McCarthy had just one hit in his last 30 PA with 16 Ks in that period. But he screwed the bat in straight last night, picking up three hits including a two-run double that capped a big 5 run rally in the 3rd inning.

OF Joe McCarthy awoke from a 1 for 30 slump by rapping out 3 hits in last night’s 8-6 win for ⁦@RiverCats⁩ pic.twitter.com/c4yofANuJC — Roger Munter (@rog61) September 6, 2019

That rally also included a two-run HR from Cristian Adames. The infielder hit 10 HRs in the regular season, including six with the RiverCats.

GET OUT BALL pic.twitter.com/IvjCMaYH92 — Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) September 6, 2019

With Chase Johnson giving Sacramento a solid start that looked to be a great foundation for an easy win. But Skye Bolt took Chase deep for a two-run HR in Johnson’s final inning. And reliever Pat Venditte gave up two more long balls in the 6th to tie the game up at 5-5.

But Sacramento came right back in bottom of the 6th, getting RBI hits from Indy League vet Zach Houchins and Abiatal Avelino — for Avelino it was his second RBI hit of the game, though this one came with an unnecessary TOOTBLAN.

Abiatal Avelino provided ⁦@RiverCats⁩ with two RBI hits last night including this, the eventual game winner pic.twitter.com/FqnnbfP02I — Roger Munter (@rog61) September 6, 2019

That proved to be just enough for the RiverCats to hold on to victory. Dan Winkler gave them a crucial 1.2 of work and Williams Jerez was able to nail down the save despite allowing the Aviators 4th HR of the night in the 9th.

So that sends the series to Las Vegas for the duration. Was this the last that Raley Field has seen of the Cats this year? Stay tuned!

San Jose lost to Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks), 5-3

Visalia leads the series 2-0

On paper this series would seem to be a mismatch. The Rawhide dominated the 2019 Cal League, posting a league best 83-53 record and finishing an astounding 18.5 games in front of the second closest team in their division.

And so far, it’s played out about that way as Visalia grabbed a formidable 2-0 lead on the road and now heads home to finish things off. San Jose is faced with the unpleasant task of needing to sweep three in Visalia — a town where they have won just one series in the past six seasons — in order to advance to the Cal League finals.

That said, the Giants certainly had their opportunities to take Game 2. San Jose left 8 players on base over the final four innings. That included a bases loaded, one-out situation in the 8th inning that they couldn’t convert to runs. Dalton Combs hit a shallow fly to LF and Francisco Peña (who had come in after Hamlet Marte was hit in the helmet/faceguard with a pitch) grounded out to 2b to end the threat.

San Jose had one more chance in the 9th, when Diego Rincones reached on Visalia’s second error in the final two innings, to bring the go ahead run to the plate. But the Giants’ two best power sources failed to bring the hoped for walk off drama. David Villar and Courtney Hawkins struck out successively to bring the game to an unhappy end, and there’s every chance that that will be the final view the home fans get of the Giants in the 2019 season.

The season hangs on the brink.

Salem-Keizer lost to Hillsboro Hops (Diamondbacks), 6-3

Hillsboro wins the series, 2-0

The Volcanoes’ season, on the other hand, has plunged over the brink and come to its final resting point. A resting point that ended up with a bunch of Hops hopping around on their home turf.

#Dbacks catching prospect Ryan January provided the difference for @HillsboroHops on Thursday and the club to its first Northwest League Finals berth in four years.



️: https://t.co/becEIlMPZs pic.twitter.com/M71hzKX0jx — Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) September 6, 2019

The Volcanoes team success in 2019 was based on their offense and with so much of that offense gone for various reasons (Labour, Genoves, Wyatt, Roby, Fitzgerald, Whiteman all in Augusta, and very sadly Hunter Bishop and Marco Luciano on the IL) Salem-Keizer just couldn’t compete against the league’s best pitching staff.

Ryne Nelson, Drey Jameson and Nick Snyder ranked 4th, 5th and 6th in the NCAA last year in strikeouts per nine innings. All three are currently on the @HillsboroHops — Josh Norris (@jnorris427) September 6, 2019

With a college heavy mix of strikeout artists leading the way, the Volcanoes young hitters had trouble gaining much traction. It was an especially rough playoffs for Alex Canario, who went 0 for 6 with 5 strikeouts. The only time he did reach base in the series (a 1st inning walk yesterday) he ended up derailing a potential rally with a crucial base-running blunder. Yeesh! Still a lot of rawness to work on in Alex’ game.

Ryne Nelson was dealing tonight. Hitting 97. Three innings, one hit, four Ks, picked up the win. This picture was a swing and a miss. Ball just avoided bats somehow. Magic! pic.twitter.com/74FjBKFniH — Jared Ravich (@JaredRavich) September 6, 2019

Caleb Kilian and Conner Nurse weren’t able to keep up the pace, each allowing three runs in three innings, putting Salem-Keizer in catchup mode from the very beginning.

With two outs and nobody on in the 9th, however, the Volcanoes bottom of the order was able to make one last stand when Tyler Flores and Jeff Houghtby worked walks, sandwiched around Harrison Freed’s single.

Bases loaded, bottom nine, two outs, leadoff man Jairo Pomares up against a new pitcher. Championship berth on the line. pic.twitter.com/hGn9eNSX84 — Josh Norris (@jnorris427) September 6, 2019

Pomares popped out to 3b (cue images of Pablo Sandoval in 2014) and the Volcanoes season of promise was over. But it was a season that helped introduce a lot of new talent into a revitalizing Giants’ system. And we can expect to hear a lot more good things from this class of Volcanoes going forward.

Congratulations to Nestor Rojas and his staff on ushering a new generation of talent to such a successful year (if ultimately disappointing conclusion).

Thank you Nestor Rojas, Mark Hallberg and the @SKVolcanoes staff for a great 2019 season. Appreciate all you do. pic.twitter.com/pX9NYYILYw — Jared Ravich (@JaredRavich) September 6, 2019

Tonight’s Scheduled Starters:

Sacramento (Brandon Lawson) @ Las Vegas (Jesus Luzardo)

San Jose (Jose Marte) @ Visalia (Shumpei Yoshikawa)

Augusta (Kai-Wei Teng) @ Lexington (Zach Haake)

San Jose and Augusta both try to stave off elimination on the road tonight. At least Augusta is somewhat rested, having had a travel day, and will be sending two extremely hot pitchers to the mound in Lexington with Teng and Seth Corry. San Jose will need to pull a miracle out of their caps to return home victorious but miracle’s happen one game at a time (I’ve been practicing my clichés, just like Bull Durham taught me). Meanwhile, Sacramento attempts to take a series lead going up against possibly the best pitching prospect in the minors. Quite a challenge.

Stave off elimination, boys! Don’t start making those off-season employment plans just yet!