In the raucous wake of his team's third consecutive victory – all while facing elimination from the Pacific Coast League playoffs against Reno – River Cats manager Darren Bush talked about pressure.

"There's no such thing as pressure," he said. "Pressure is self-imposed. As long as you don't put it on yourself, there's no such thing."

Bush has gotten that through to his players.

"The pressure … it's natural pressure, I guess, just pressure that comes from playing the game," left fielder Adrian Cardenas said. "But aside from that, he's not putting any added pressure, and I think that's the biggest thing. He allows us to play to our full potential."

Perhaps that, if anything, best explains how Sacramento finds itself playing for the PCL title. Pushed to the brink by Reno in the first round, the River Cats won three in a row to advance to the league championship series for the fourth time in five years.

On Monday, they hopped a flight to Nebraska, where they will face the Omaha Storm Chasers in the first two games of the PCL championship series beginning tonight.

After a travel day Thursday, the best-of-five series continues at Raley Field at 7:05 p.m. Friday.

Unlike the high-scoring Aces, the Storm Chasers relied on strong pitching to guide them to the American Northern division title, allowing the fewest hits in the league during the regular season and recording its third-best ERA.

Omaha is scheduled to start PCL Pitcher of the Year Luis Mendoza (12-5, 2.18 ERA) tonight against Graham Godfrey (14-3, 2.68). Godfrey was roughed up for five runs in five innings in Game 1 against Reno.

The River Cats missed Mendoza's turn in the rotation during a four-game series in Omaha that the teams split in early August – their only regular-season meeting.

That the River Cats would be in position to face Mendoza tonight seemed precarious after Reno took a 2-0 lead in their series. But after breaking open a tie game in the late innings in Game 3, Sacramento scored 21 runs in the final two games to emphatically clinch the series.

Lenny DiNardo, the Game 5 winner and a veteran with major league experience, said the River Cats, despite personnel shuffling, have a chemistry like that of the 2004 Boston Red Sox, for whom he appeared in 22 games.

That Red Sox team famously rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees before winning the World Series.

"You can't really put your finger on it, but this team definitely has it," DiNardo said. "I was on the '04 Red Sox, and they had it. It's one of those things you really can't put together – it just happens.

"We got hot at the right time," DiNardo said, "and we're going to go into Omaha and hopefully keep that rolling."

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