Texas Rangers vs. Seattle Mariners. What a treat this is. The MLB.tv free game is the one I wanted to see. Not only am watching the video, I figured out I can switch the audio feed, and I’m able to listen to Eric Nadel and Matt Hicks call the game. I felt bad about that last post, since I’d clearly not sufficiently detailed a lot of the action. This isn’t a play-by-play blog and, owing to some bad reception, it’s hard to tell to what’s going on. Well for this post and with clear audio and visual, let’s do a little better today. Thankfully, it’s a quiet night at work.
I’m already happy with being able to watch. The broadcast starts off showing an attractive blonde woman with a scorebook behind the Rangers’ dugout. Where are these women, who obviously love the game, when I’m at the ballpark? (Mostly, the good-looking women are groupies. And where do you get those professional scorebooks?)
Our starting pitching matchup has an Oriental flavor with Yu Darvish vs Hisashi Iwakuma, a pair of World Baseball Classic teammates for the Japanese team. Carlos Beltran breaks the seal in the bottom of the 1st with a no doubter into the upper home run porch. 1-0 Rangers. There’s a short conversation about Roughned Odor, wondering what he’s really like in the clubhouse. The report is generally that he’s a good guy with his teammates and well-liked. There was a “ding” sound effect as Eric used the word, “Excoriate.” The guys on the broadcast are into using cool, obscure words.
Okay, pay attention here, this is where it gets interesting. Nomar Mazara triples to drive in Elvis Andrus, who was on base. Ian Desmond then doubled in Maz. With Adrian Beltre on deck, doing his usual video-bombing in the centerfield camera frame, Beltran doubles in Desmond, and this is all before the first out. Jonathan Lucroy then begats another run, driving in Beltran. Jared Sandler chimes in with an update and uses the word, “Bumfuzzled.” Ding!
There’s a giant red Ranger hat sitting with a couple of fans behind home plate. It’s confusing the hell out of me. Is it a cut-out? An image on a blanket? The most awesome sports novelty item ever? A giant hat! I never figured out what it was before it disappeared. With Iwakuma getting knocked around, Pat Venditte starts warming up in the Mariner bullpen. This guy is the fabled “switch-pitcher,” that we heard about a couple of years ago. They had to make a new rule to deal with unbelievable phenomena. The broadcast guys are fascinated. They’re wondering how he warms up both arms.
Meanwhile, we’re still in the 3rd, Carlos Gomez is at bat. After a home run in his Rangers debut and some sterling defense, he’s hasn’t hit since. Watching his swing, I can see why. Gomez is flailing so hard, he’s almost falling down with every swing. He works a long at bat against Iwakuma. Eric: “(Venditte’s) got time to warm up a third arm.” Gomez makes an out. Our score is 5-0 Rangers.
Adam Lind doubles in a run in the 4th to bring the score to 5-1 Rangers. Then Venditte enters the game. Indeed, he pitches righty to Elvis and lefty to Maz. It’s amazing. The TV view shows a young mom and her adorable daughter taking a selfie in the stands. TV directors, always do cute kids and happy family shots during a game. Fan cam should be mandatory on baseball broadcasts.
In the 5th, Darvish’s curve is working as he strikes out the side. (Crap! I forgot to get his total strikeouts. It was about eight. Edit: It was nine.) In the bottom, Venditte is back out. Eric has broken out some baseball encyclopedia research on ambidextrous pitchers. This guy is only the second one in the “modern” era. There were three others before that in the “old-timey” era, including some guy nicknamed, “Icebox.” Before Venditte came into a game in Boston, the organist played Joni Mitchell’s “I’ve looked at life from both sides now.” Talk about opposition research.
The afore mentioned new rule states that the pitcher must declare what arm they’re going to use before the batter chooses a box. Beltre comes to bat and flips his helmet around like he’s going to bat from the other side. That gets a laugh out of everybody. He then hits a double and makes it to third on a passed ball. Yesterday, there were 11 total hits. All of them singles. It was the first time that had happened at the ballpark in Arlington. Today, the ball’s getting slapped around harder. Ruggie sacrifices him in. The crowd goes into an “Ole” chant. I hadn’t heard that before in a baseball game. I don’t know if it’s a tradition or new. 6-1 Rangers.
Yu is out after 7 2/3 innings and leaves with two on. Matt uses the word, “Felicitous.” Ding! Jake Diekman comes in and gives up a double, scoring two, and a walk. The guys lamented the loss of Jeremy Jeffress here, who’s still on restriction. Keone Kela comes in and strikes out Nelson Cruz (who is either getting boo’ed or “Cruuuzz’ed” when he comes to bat, it’s hard to tell). 6-3 Rangers.
In the 7th, we get the defensive play of the game as former Ranger, Leonys Martin, fully goes over the wall to rob Desmond of a home run. The new Seattle pitcher is Arquimedes Caminero. He throws 100+ mph and doesn’t allow any further dramatics. Kela shuts down the 8th, and Sam Dyson finishes it off in the 9th. Our final is 6-3. Yea! There were a few hiccups in the video and audio feeds during the game, but I overall enjoyed the show.
Back at home, I tune into the Chihuahuas game. I’m in time for the post-game. The dogs have lost 6-3 to the Las Vegas 51’s. I flip over to the Rockies and it’s the bottom of the 8th versus the Dodgers. I missed the fireworks as the Rockies easily won 8-1. I get to hear a rookie named Stephen Cardullo get his first major league hit. The broadcast was really happy for him as he apparently was an extreme longshot to make it to the bigs. They also mentioned Albuquerque won tonight. They’re 4 ½ back with seven to go.
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