Salt Lake Bees: River Cats bounce Bees from playoffs — again

It was a different season but the same ending for the Salt Lake Bees on Saturday night.

For the second year in a row, Salt Lake lost three straight playoff games against the Sacramento River Cats after getting off to a strong start in the best-of-5 Pacific Coast league semifinal series. Sacramento finished off the series with an 8-3 win on Saturday night at Franklin Covey Field.

"Obviously, they proved that they are the better team at this point of the season," said Bees manager Bobby Mitchell, whose team won the playoff opener before losing three in a row. "They swung the bats well."

Yes, it's true the River Cats swing the bats well. Sacramento hitters pounded 16 home runs in the four game series, including three during Saturday night's victory. The River Cats scored eight or more runs in all four games.

"They were mashing the ball," said Bees third baseman Adam Pavkovich. "The result came from them being hot and us being not hot."

Salt Lake won its division title for the third-straight season, and this time around they never trailed in the regular-season standings. The Bees opened the year with 10 consecutive wins and were 21-1 at one point.

But several players who played key roles during that incredible start — including infielders Sean Rodriguez, Kendry Morales, Brandon Wood — are currently up with the parent Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Bees can only wonder how the series might have been different if they were fielding the same team that opened the season last April.

"If we would have had our whole team that we had at the beginning of the year, I think it would have been a different story," said Bees second baseman Freddy Sandoval. "It's a business. We understand it. We had to battle with what we had and that's what we did."

Bees starting pitcher Nick Adenhart had good control on Saturday night, not walking a single River Cat. Unfortunately, the River Cats hit three home runs off of him to take a 7-2 lead by the sixth inning.

Travis Buck, Donnie Murphy and Chris Denorfia each hit homers for the visiting team, which will now try to defend its PCL title from last season against either Oklahoma or Iowa.

"That's pretty much the hottest team I've ever seen," said Bees first baseman Matt Brown of Sacramento. "My hat's off to them. They earned it. They won it fair and square. They basically just beat us to a pulp."