River Cats, Penguins, and Tigers — Oh my!

Marti and I arrived at Raley Stadium in downtown Sacramento just in time for the 11:30 start of the River Cats game against the Tacoma Rainiers. For East Coast baseball fans, the River Cats are the Triple-A farm club for the Oakland As, competing in the Pacific Coast League. Currently, they lead in the Pacific Southern Division. The River Cats scored in the fourth, fifth, and seventh innings, to win the game 3-0, with 9 hits and no errors. Here is the game wrap-up, from MLB.com:

June 20, 2007 – Rehabbing Oakland A’s starter Rich Harden pitched a scoreless seventh inning as Sacramento blanked visiting Tacoma, 3-0, on Wednesday afternoon.

Harden, who has been on the disabled list since April 16 due to a shoulder impingement, threw 16 pitches — 12 for strikes — in his first rehab appearance with the River Cats (41-32). The 25-year-old right-hander allowed Gookie Dawkins’ leadoff double before retiring the next three batters he faced.

Harden was the third of four Sacramento hurlers. Starter Mario Ramos (1-0) earned the win in his 2007 Triple-A debut, spreading six hits and four walks over five shutout innings. Brad Ziegler hurled a 1-2-3 sixth, while Jeffrey Gray struck out three in two scoreless frames to notch his sixth save.

Nick Blasi’s RBI single in the fourth inning gave the River Cats all the offense they would need. Daric Brown singled with one out in the fifth and eventually scored on JD Closser’s groundout, while Jason Perry lofted a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Tacoma (29-44) was shut out in the ballgame despite collecting eight hits and four walks as the club left 11 runners on base and went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position. Gawkins went 3-for-5 and doubled twice.

Jorge Campillo (5-5) took the loss, surrendering two runs on eight hits over six innings. Jaime Cerda was touched for a run in the seventh before Kameron Mickolio hurled a scoreless eighth. — Benjamin Hill

These photos are taken without benefit of a telephoto lens, so it’s a bit hard to distinguish the players. At least you can see the Sacramento skyline in the background!

Following the game, Marti and I decided to stop in at the Sacramento Zoo, which is also centrally located a few miles from the downtown area. Most popular with visitors at the moment is a special exhibit of four Magellanic penguins on loan from the San Francisco Zoo, but we were not allowed to photograph them (the flash bothers them). Also a star attraction are three Sumatran tiger cubs, born on November 24, 2006. They look like over-sized kittens and are just as playful. Unfortunately, the species is listed as critically endangered. This is not a good photo, but perhaps tigers, as predators, are more successful at stalking their prey if they’re camouflaged by the dappled vegetation.