8-19-16
The MLB Network was showing the Red Sox at the Tigers, and it was the Tigers team broadcast. I wanted to hear more of Kirk Gibson, so I was watching. Him and Rod Allen had an interesting discussion about whether a batter should be given a green light to swing in a 3-0 count. Depends on the hitter, and if they’ve practiced that situation or not.
I didn’t have a lot of time to watch. One thing’s for sure, the starting pitchers, Fulmer and Porcello, desperately needed new hats. Those were hardcore nasty-looking pieces of headgear. The Tigers’ fielders had some good coordination. On a popup, I saw the shortstop call off the 3rd baseman, who was in turn called off by the left fielder. And then later, the shortstop was again called off by the left fielder on a short fly ball. I appreciated how effortlessly they gave way to each other, since, when that doesn’t happen, comedy often ensues. I had to walk away to do some work for 15 minutes. When I got back, the Red Sox had doubled their score. The painful final was 10-2 Red Sox.
They didn’t listen to me at MLB.com. They were putting up the no-hitter alert for Cole Hammels in the 6th inning against the Rays. Of course that jinxed it. That’s okay though. It was a 6-2 win for the Rangers anyway.
Rain canceled the Chihuahuas game versus the Colorado Sky Sox. Given the way the pups are playing, this might have been the best thing for them. At this point I don’t know if or how they’d make up this game given the tight Triple-A schedule and that there’s only a couple of weeks left in the season. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to hear Tim calling the game off, only that they were in a delay. Unsurprisingly, the Rockies in Denver are also in a rain delay. Given that they’re playing the Cubs, a visiting team that draws really well, I’m sure they’re going to make more of an effort to get the game in.
Since I have a minute, let’s see what else is going on. The Indians won on a walk-off, or rather run-off, inside the park home run against the Blue Jays. The O’s started off their game with four home runs before making an out. Didn’t help. They lost 15-8 to the Astros. The Giants win two in a row for the first time since the All Star break.
Okay, they are playing tonight in Denver after a two-hour rain delay. I check out Game Day at work (I noticed David Dahl hit a lead-off home run) and then pick up the game on the radio when I get home. The announced attendance was 43,000, though many chased away by the delay. They’ve had over 2 million visitors so far this year. Hey, I was one of them! In with the temperature in the high 40’s, it still sounded like there were a lot of people there, and they were rooting on both teams.
The Rockies fell behind in the middle of the game, but kept the Cubs from piling on and slowly chipped away. They managed to tie it on a successful sac fly by Arenado. (Well, after a successful challenge after a bad call by the ump.) The score remained tied after 9.
In the 10th, the rain came back as a steady drizzle, no doubt to comfort of the remaining “real” fans. Being after midnight and tired, I felt like one of them. With extra innings and unfamiliar players entering the game, Jack and Jerry on the broadcast had some trouble pronouncing the names of new Cubs players. The Cubs media guide gave helpful advice on some names, “it sounds just like its spelled.” Right. (AR-enado.) Both teams had runners in scoring position in the 9th and 10th, but it wasn’t until the 11th that the Cubs managed to push across a run to take the lead.
Bottom of the 11th, there’s momentary delay with a bird on the infield. Not sure if he had a ticket, but this late they should be letting anyone in, but not on the field. Aroldis Chapman came in to close for the Cubs. Nick Hundley gets on with an opposite field hit. Ryan Rayburn knocks him in thanks to a misplay in the outfield to tie the score. Rayburn ends up scoring the winning run as an errant throw goes into the dugout and he’s awarded home. Rockies win, 7-6, on the old walk-off error! It’s like the Rockies say at home, “Whatever happens in the game, we get the last at bat.” That was worth staying up past 12:45am for.
8-20-16
Rangers vs Rays. Eric was commenting on the small crowd in Tampa of 16,000. Later, Matt was talking about Roogie’s two-strike troubles and how likely he is to strikeout. Odor proceeds to hit a home run. Matt says afterward, “I hope that since there are so few people in here that Roogie didn’t hear me. ‘I’ll show you a two-strike approach.’”
It was a good game for the Rays, but not anyone else. Even the umps had a bad game with two overturned calls in one inning. It was close, but the Rangers self-destructed in the 7th inning. Bad play, bad decisions, and bad pitching all showed up. In the 9th, Mazara hit a contested home run, caught by a Rangers fan in a jersey, accused of interference. When the call was upheld, the fan then taunted the crowd. That was about the only thing to cheer for as the Rangers lost, 8-2.
The Chihuahuas are back in town to play the Salt Lake City Bees. (Their washed out game in Colorado Springs won’t be made up.) It’s a Saturday night, there’s fireworks after the game, and Tim Lincecum is pitching for the opposing team. Little wonder it was standing room only at the stadium. There was even a helicopter flyover before the start of the game. Let’s run down Timmy’s resume: two Cy Young awards, two no-hitters, four time All-Star, three rings. Little wonder fans were watching him like a hawk in the bullpen.
Not to say it was all serious. There was a dog delay in the 2nd for a wiener dog race on field. That got a smile out of Timmy. His first batter right after that was Hector Sanchez, catcher of one of his no-hitters. Hector got a hit. Rod Barajas, Chihuahuas manager, actually got two hits off Tim when he was playing. He let everybody know about it. Timmy’s line was 6 innings and 1 run. Pretty good.
Unfortunately, the rest of the Bees suck. They couldn’t score more than an unearned run themselves. As for their relievers, well, in the 7th, the pups scored a run off a wild pitch during an intentional walk. That tells you all you need to know. 5-1 dogs win finally!
8-21-16
Rangers vs Rays. Once again, the crowd size in Tampa was an issue. Frankly, were it not for three trips a year by the Yankees and the Red Sox, I’m not sure they’d even have a viable franchise. Of course, this just makes it more aggravating when the Rangers lose to the Rays again. These two losses have really stung for me, since I was here at home, not doing anything else, and was able to listen to the games without any distractions.
So, it was an 8-4 loss. In the 4th, the Rays sent balls flying everywhere for five runs. They even sent a bat flying through the netting, which hit a cameraman with a camera on a stick. “They sell those at the State Fair?” quipped Eric. The Rangers made an effort to get back in it, but a couple of tack-on runs by the Rays ended that.
Later, the Chihuahuas played the Bees in El Paso. Brandon Johnson (ha, I caught the name for a change) did a stirring rendition of the national anthem on electric guitar to start the game. Tim Hagerty had a couple of guests in the 3rd inning. Freddie and Jonathan (I caught a couple more names, I was really on the ball until the radio signal started fading) from Chico’s Kids Club each sat in for a half inning. Freddie got a pleasant grilling from Tim for a long top of the 3rd. The bottom went in about two minutes, so Jonathan got cheated. Tim was clearly having a good time at least. This interlude did delay an explanation of the play that ended the 2nd. Batter Nick Torres (I’m on fire with the names) grabbed what he thought was a dead ball at the plate and was called out for Batter’s Interference.
It was a tight game. There was the usual premature talk of a no-hitter and even winning without getting a hit, after the Chihuahuas scored an unearned run. In the end, the dogs held on for a 2-1 win. (You can guess I was getting bad reception in the later innings.) It’s good to see that the team is able to win these close ones.
Last week, there was a story that Commissioner Manfred was thinking about implementing some more changes to the game next season. I’ll take them one at a time. First, he wants to put in pitch clocks in the majors. Seems like a good idea to me. From listening to Chihuahuas games for a couple of seasons with it, I think it’s improved the pace of play. Unfortunately, the Players’ Union may be standing in the way of this one, but if the NL were to put in the DH in exchange, maybe.
Second, he wants to eliminate defensive shifts. For all of the work that goes into setting up a shift, I don’t think the numbers actually bear out how useful they are. The Sabermetricians will bring up numbers to justify shifts, but teams are still able to score on them about the same as they were before. There’s no point in putting in a rule against them. I think the trend will be towards getting more athletic players.
Lastly, Manfred wants to limit the number of relief pitchers in an inning. Common sense says that this is a bad idea. The reason why this is such a time waster is because of the commercial break every time pitchers are changed. We can bet those commercials won’t be going away for any reason. However, right now a pitcher coming into a game is required to pitch to at least one batter. What if a pitcher was required to pitch to at least two batters, or until the inning ends, whichever comes first? To make it a bit more fair, the batter in the on deck circle when the previous batter’s at bat ends, has to come to the plate, unless the inning ends.
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