WEST SACRAMENTO - Champagne flowed (mostly over players' heads) in the Sacramento River Cats' clubhouse. That can only mean one thing: Sacramento clinched its third Pacific Coast League championship on Friday after edging the New Orleans Zephyrs 4-3 in Game 3 at Raley Field.
The River Cats cruised into the eighth inning with a 4-0 lead, but former big leaguer Fernando Tatis crushed a 1-2 slider from Brad Knox for a three-run homer. Jerry Blevins, the 6-foot-6 lefty acquired in the Jason Kendall deal with the Cubs, nailed down the final four outs for the save.
Manager Tony DeFrancesco has won three PCL titles for the River Cats, and this one might have been most impressive. The River Cats' best prospects coming into the year, Travis Buck, Daric Barton and Kurt Suzuki, are all with the big league club. Buck, in fact, never spent a day with the River Cats, making the A's coming out of spring training.
One has to wonder if a big league job is in DeFrancesco's future. It may not be with the A's, but there are always plenty of big league skippers canned after the regular season. The three Triple-A crowns should count for something, right?
For more perspective on the title, see Sunday's Enterprise.
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