Colorado Rockies vs San Francisco Giants 5-29-16 Part 2

Continued from Part One

One thing that immensely helped my scorekeeping was the main video board displaying the lineups.  I was able to quickly write down all the players, something which usually keeps me occupied for three innings at an Aggie game.  A Wells Fargo sponsor ad also came up on the video board during the game.  They’re just following Ron around now, taunting him.  Hey, they’re doing two for one tickets.  What a great deal!  “Together we’ll go far.”

The game started off well for the Rockies as the lone Giant baserunner was caught stealing.  At the start of the bottom of the 1^st, former Rockies great and current first base coach, Eric Young, charged out of the dugout and slapped hands with the people in the front row before going to the box.  Good to see EY happy and doing well.  I wanted a high-five too, unfortunately I kept forgetting I was wearing a Giant hat and shirt during the game.  This mixed cheering issue came up a few times during the game.  I like both teams.

Charlie Blackmon started off for the Rockies.  His walk up music is the ballpark classic, Use Your Love, by the Outfield.  I don’t know if this song is a baseball classic because it’s a summer song or because of the band name.  I can’t believe I went through a full season of Aggie baseball without hearing it.  Did somebody in the school administration actually hear the lyrics and ban it?  In any case, his music cuts off just before the end of the first verse, which prompts the crowd to finish it with a loud, “Tonight!”  I had heard this audience participation before on the radio this season.  It was a treat to be a part of it.  In any case, the Rockies didn’t score in the 1^st either.  

Buster Posey started off the 2^nd with a roar of cheers from the visitor’s section.  The scoring started with him and #8 Hunter Pence hitting back-to-back doubles and Pence later scoring on an error.  In the Rockies half of the inning, the game came to a halt for a replay challenge on a possible double play.  The PA started playing the Beatles’ Let it Be during the delay, but the field call was overturned as Giants #2 Denard Span made a catch in center, and it was ruled he threw out #8 Gerrado Parra trying to tag up and move to third.  In the 5^th, there was another challenge.  This one was from the Rockies as Giants #7 Gregor Blanco was ruled to be picked off of second.  I noticed the Rockies players on the field were all watching the video board replays, just like the fans were.  Trevor Story would go ahead and hit a home run right after all of this anyway.  Giants up 2-1 after two innings.        

In the 3^rd, Buster took a walk to first.  There he was, my man-crush not more than 40’ away from me.  “Buster!” I screamed.  Ron quickly restrained me from charging the field.  All I wanted was a hug and maybe a quick autograph.  Meanwhile, Hunter and #9 Brandon Belt would double in three runs, making the score 5-1 Giants.    

The key moment of the game came in the bottom of the 3^rd.  The Rockies had the bases loaded with one out and Nolan Arrenado coming to bat.  Cueto would walk him, forcing in a run.  I wouldn’t be surprised if that wasn’t semi-intentional.  Gerrado Parra came to the plate in this tense situation.  What happened next was unexpected.  Cueto and Parra started a stare down contest.  Parra steps out.  Cueto flaps his arms.  The two start jawing at each other.  While it was serious between these two, everyone watching found it at least somewhat funny (probably the other players too).  Eventually the ump had to go out and talk to Cueto before order was restored.  I could see Parra trying to get into Cueto’s head on purpose, since it can be done.  Unfortunately for the Rockies, Cueto kept his cool and induced an inning-ending double play.  5-2 Giants.    

Denard Span would start off the 4^th with a homer run, making the score 6-2 Giants, which would be the only scoring for the middle three innings.  In the 6^th, Giant second baseman #37 Kelby Tomlinson (I was disappointed not to see #12 Joe Panik in the game) made the dumbest play of the game, and he’d probably agree.  After striking out, he slapped his bat into his hand, missed, and hit the ump with it.  Kelby immediately apologized as the ump was a little shaken up.  And the Giants didn’t get a borderline call for the rest of the game (just kidding).  There are dumber things to do with a bat.  Earlier, the video board was showing some MLB bloopers, including Puig of the Dodgers flipping his bat on a wild swing, helicopter-ing it over the catcher’s head and causing everyone to scatter.  Hunter Pence was on the field watching.  He shook his head at the sight.    

From here, the rest of the game went fairly quietly.  A parade of pitchers would finish the game for both teams.  In the 7^th, #35 Brandon Crawford doubled in Belt after he had hit a double.  Pence doubled in another run in the 8^th.  Cargo for the Rockies hit a home run in the bottom of the 8^th, bringing the score to 8-3 Giants.  With the opposing team winning big late and under threatening skies, I couldn’t help but notice that most of the crowd was still there.  It may have been that they all had kids and were hanging around so they could run the bases after the game. 

In the top of the 9^th, the visitor’s side of the stadium started chanting, “Let’s go Giants!”  There was some scoring weirdness with a catcher’s interference error on the Rockies, which I eventually corrected on my scorecard.  #9 DJ LeMahieu (one of my favs on the Rockies) made the best defensive play of the game right afterward, catching a hot shot at second to start a double play.  In the bottom of the 9^th, Story got a loud ovation by the crowd.  They’ve definitely latched onto the rookie.  Later, Brandon Belt, as the Giants’ first baseman, came up with a foul ball.  He held it for a moment to consider what to do with it, before tossing it to a Rockies coach in their dugout.  The coach in turn, tossed it to a little girl in the crowd with a mitt.  Our final score was 8-3 Giants over the Rockies.

Hunter Pence is the obvious player of the game with three doubles and three RBI’s.  Much of the rest of the Giants had a good offensive day.  They actually tied a team record with 8 doubles.  Cueto going 6 innings and only giving up 2 runs at Coors Field is probably also noteworthy.  For the Rockies, I’m not seeing a whole lot of standouts today.  I was exceptionally happy to get to see Trevor Story hit a home run in the game.  I had missed his first home run off Zack Greinke.  Ron was watching the NCAA basketball tournament and I flipped it over to a Diamondbacks game during halftime.  Just as Story came up for his first major league at bat, I flipped it back to the basketball for Ron.  A couple of minutes later I saw that he’d hit a home run.  I flipped it back, but even missed the replay.  And then I missed his second home run later in the game.  How could I have guessed at the time I’d end up seeing one in person.

  

I can’t tell you what the time of the game was, since I wasn’t paying attention to the time.  I could look it up, but really this game moved along pretty quickly and there were plenty of distractions between innings.  I was never bored, so it was entertainment time well spent.  I asked the fellow in front of me about getting autographs after the game.  He said the Rockies might come out after a win, but not after a loss.  The visiting team probably isn’t coming out, especially on a get-away day like today.  Being a Sunday game, kids were allowed to run the bases.  Most of them were members of the Rockies kid’s club, but I saw some little Giant fans.  The kids were told to congregate behind left field after the 8^th inning.  After the game ended, the floodgates opened.  The line went from the left field gate, around the outfield, and ended up a first base. 

For 20 minutes, there was an endless stream of kids coming out of that gate.  I don’t know where all these kids came from.  It didn’t seem like the whole stadium could have contained them.  A few of the Rockies players came out with their kids, but that was a pretty quick affair.  Kids would start off from first (sometimes having to be corralled by stadium personnel), run to second, get a high-five from Dinger (who really earned his pay today), and then around to home.  The most shocking thing about this event wasn’t the number of kids though.  I actually saw one of the parents wearing an El Paso Chihuahuas t-shirt.  I had to nudge Ron to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.

It was a great trip for the game and the hospitality of Ron’s relatives.  (I finally got to see Deadpool right after we arrived at their lovely home.  It was awesome.)  I was also extremely grateful that all of the severe weather in the area somehow missed us the whole time we were there and in transit.  We even got back to Las Cruces after there had been a storm.  What wasn’t so great was the bellyaches I got from the hospitality (I need to pace my eating better).  22 hours of car travel also wasn’t so great.  As much as I’d like to see another game at beautiful Coors Field, I don’t know if I could talk myself into it.  We’ll see.  In the meantime, I’ll just cherish the memories.