Monster Day by Jarrett Parker Leads Sacramento River Cats to Victory
Sunday was a picture perfect day for baseball at Raley Field in West Sacramento. In the second game of the 4 game series with the Tacoma Rainiers, the Sacramento River Cats looked to end their 6 game losing streak. Behind a very strong outing from LHP Ty Blach and a 4-hit day from RF Jarrett Parker, the River Cats won their third day game of the season, 6-2.
Ty Blach, the River Cats starting pitcher, showed why the Giants consider him one of their higher prospects in the organization. Blach threw six strong innings, striking out 3 without walking a single batter. With very good command from the mound he was able to get the Rainiers to hit 7 pop fly outs.
Blach had the Rainiers line-up off balance for the six innings he threw. Hitting the corners with a sharp fastball and then pulling the string on an outstanding change up frustrated the opposing team. This was most evident in the top of the third inning when Blach struck out Ketel Marte, badly fooling him with that change up for the third out of the inning.
In the top of fourth inning Stephen Romero connected on the first pitch thrown by Blach for a line drive home run that cleared the left field wall down in the corner. This was the only run Blach would surrender. The River Cats would only give up one more run in the game.
In the seventh inning RHP Cody Hall would give up his first homerun of the season to Patrick Kivlehan. Kivlehan, leading off the inning, crushed the ball out to right. It seemed the ball was going to land in the bullpen (directly behind right field corner) but with the wind playing its part, the ball was pushed toward the right field line. It then bounced off the foul pole about one-third of the way up giving Kivlehan his fifth homerun of the year.
Jarrett Parker, the right fielder for the River Cats, did most of the heavy lifting on offense. Parker went 4 for 4 with 2 homeruns (one inside the park) and two singles with 4 runs batted in. In the bottom of the fifth inning when Parker came to the plate he already had a single and a homerun. He then connected on a line drive out to center.
The ball was not hit very high but was hit very hard. The Rainier center fielder, Julio Morban, ran back and jumped attempting to make a play for the ball at the wall, but he came up a few inches short. The ball then bounced off the wall back into the outfield at which point Parker, who was rounding third, was given the wave home from Manager Bob Mariano. Sliding into home Parker had the first inside the park homerun in Raley Field history and his sixth homer of the season.
Following the game Parker talked about his inside the park shot. “I thought I hit the ball out of the park [second homerun], when I saw it bounce off as I was rounding second I thought I might have a chance to make it home.”
The RiverCats finished with 6 runs on 10 hits, giving them their ninth win of the season, while Tacoma loses their 11th contest.
The River Cats and Rainiers return back to the field tomorrow night at 7:05 pm. The starting pitchers will be LHP Mike Kickham for the Rainiers and RHP Jake Dunning for the Sacramento River Cats.
By Joe Vicory