On what promises to be a beautiful night for baseball in Oklahoma City, the Sacramento River Cats take on the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees in the third annual Bricktown Showdown, a one-game playoff between the winners of the Pacific Coast and International Leagues to anoint a champion of AAA baseball.  Sacramento is going for its second consecutive Bricktown Showdown title; the River Cats defeated the Richmond Braves 7-1 in last year's game.  Crapshoot or not, you can bet that the A's brass would love to cap off a strong year for the organization by beating a branch of the Evil Empire in tonight's game.  The game starts at 5:05 Pacific time and will be televised on ESPN2.  The webcast is available for free at MiLB.com.

The River Cats are the designated home team, by virtue of the PCL's 6-5 victory over the IL in the AAA All-Star Game played on July 16.

Scranton has been the butt of a joke in a commercial that has aired on A's radio all season (in the ad for the "Lexus Lanes at Airport Security Card", the announcer asks, "As for why you're going to Scranton..."), but the city is busting its buttons with pride over having a native son participating in this year's presidential race:

Sacramento may not have a candidate for veep this year, but speaking of busting buttons, we'll select this Sacramento native to represent the River City tonight:

Tonight's starting pitchers:

Ian Kennedy:  A 23-year-old righthander who struggled in 9 starts with the Yankees this year but pitched well for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in July and August.  In 13 games (12 starts) he has thrown 69 innings, posting a 2.35 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP, giving up 52 hits including just 4 home runs, walking 17 and striking out 72.

Brad Knox:  A 26-year-old righthander who has been hit pretty hard, especially in his last couple of starts.  He pitched in 27 games for Sacramento, making 18 starts, with a 5.33 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP.  He last worked in the first playoff game against Salt Lake, surrendering 11 hits and 7 runs in 2-1/3 innings.  The River Cats have only played once since Friday, so everyone except Sunday's starting pitcher, Brett Anderson, should be available for bullpen duty tonight.

Lineups:

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees:
LF Justin Christian   
2B Chris Basak        
1B Juan Miranda       
RF Shelley Duncan    
DH Ben Broussard   
CF Matt Carson        
3B Eric Duncan        
 C Chris Stewart
SS Ramiro Pena

Sacramento River Cats
RF Chris Denorfia
LF Danny Putnam   
CF Carlos Gonzalez   
DH Wes Bankston       
2B Brooks Conrad   
1B Casey Rogowski   
3B Donnie Murphy   
SS Gregorio Petit   
 C Justin Knoedler