Saturday morning baseball between the Rangers and Yankees. Aaron Judge hit a monster home run for the Yankees in the sixth. Rangers’ starter, Austin Bibens-Dirkx, watched the replay of it on the video board. It was the only run he gave up in seven innings of work. The Ranger offense had a good bounce back today as the team won 8-1. They scored on hits, home runs, and even without a hit. It was even a quick game.
The Fox game in the evening was the Red Sox versus the Angels. Ugh. Two teams I could hardly think the less of. Interestingly, AJ Pierzynski was in the booth, calling the game. He must have finally retired. Having watched him do commentary in the post-season and liking it, I was hoping he’d make this transition. Listening to his color commentary was actually made the game watchable for me. Since he’s played against many of players in the game, it’s all relevant chatter. After a player got hit on the toe, AJ contributed his own story about such an injury. His toe was so swelled up, he had to play without a toe on his shoe, while he recovered.
The game wasn’t without its entertainment. In the seventh, with a runner on third, a balk was called on the Red Sox pitcher. The batter had called for time right before that, causing the flinch. Red Sox manager, John Farrell, came out to argue. Unfortunately, you could pretty clearly hear him over the crowd mic, before they shut it off. After the umpires gathered and decided that was the right call, Farrell got into a face-to-face with the crew chief in a good old fashion agreement that, of course, ended in an ejection. It was great.
With the score 6-1 Angels in the ninth, most of the Boston crowd was still there. There were even some Angels fans there, and a Dodgers fan. “I think he’s lost,” said AJ. A bloop double hit the line, a third strike bounced into the crowd, and the bases were loaded to give the end of the game some drama. The Angels finally had to bring in their closer to end it. 6-3 Angels.
Flipping around, I again found something interesting on a Juarez station. It was the US versus Mexico in a football game. No, American football, and it wasn’t a bunch of guys either. I kept wondering why so many of the players had long hair coming out of the back of their helmets. I seriously couldn’t actually tell their gender by how they walked. This was the heretofore unknown international women’s football league. To add to the confusion, the game was in Canada.
I couldn’t watch, but I kept tuning back to it to check the score. It was nil-nil, errr, 0-0 after the first quarter. There were four commentators for the game, including a woman who was a former player. She was pleasant enough looking, but had on eye black, sideways, under one eye for some reason. It was 16-0 US at halftime, 23-0 after three quarters, and 29-0 final. Don’t ask me how the scoring worked. Both teams lined up and shook hands afterward. That’s all I have to say about this.
In Albuquerque, the Chihuahuas were playing the Isotopes. The ‘topes opened it up with two home runs in the third, including one that went out over the hill to straightaway center. Rockies’ starter, Jon Gray, was making a rehab start for the Isotopes. I was kind of rooting for him, since the big league team needs him.
Unfortunately, I didn’t really start paying attention to this game until late. I didn’t even keep track of the score. In the sixth, I caught that an Isotopes player fell down rounding third coming in to score, and had to go back. He didn’t end up scoring. Surely that one run wouldn’t make a difference later, like the next inning when the Chihuahuas scored three runs to tie the score at five all.
A squeeze play by the Isotopes gave them a one-run lead going into the ninth. There was a big crowd there, about 10,000. The game was running long and the fans were waiting for a post-game fireworks show. Sure enough, the Chihuahuas tied it. In the bottom, the bases were loaded with two outs. Inexplicably, the pinch hitter was called back and the Isotopes’ relief pitcher was allowed to hit for himself, which he didn’t do on three, empty-air swings. Tim Hagerty was almost speechless at this turn of events. Isotopes’ manager, Glenallen Hill, just about lost his voice screaming about the move. I have no idea what happened. On to extras.
We were over four hours in, when in the eleventh, Diego Goris hit a leadoff home run for the pups to the cheers of the crowd. The Isotopes tied it in the bottom. I suddenly realized that I’d missed the Rockies game that started an hour after this one, but I was not leaving this game now.
It’s the fourteenth inning. We’re now five hours in. Tim is getting giddy. This game is setting all sorts of records you didn’t want to witness in person. The Isotopes at this point have run out of pitchers to put on the mound. A pitcher was moved into the outfield and Dominic Brown came in from the outfield. If this is who I’m thinking off, he’s an impressive physical specimen. Tim announced that that his fastball was hit 88 mph. Regrettably, without any movement or complimentary pitches, he was putting it on a tee for professional batters. He gave up three runs without getting an out. Another outfielder came in and surrendered a three-run homer, but did get three outs. 13-7 Chihuahuas.
“If you’re still with us, you keep very odd hours,” said Tim, almost like he knew me. The PA made an announcement that this game had set a PCL record with 40 players used in the game. It’s over, right? With two outs, the Isotopes hit a three-run homer. Gasp! The final out came with two runners on, but the game did end. 13-10 Chihuahuas. The remaining fans gave the players an ovation. The fireworks went off immediately. This wasn’t quite as bad as that infamous Braves’ fireworks game, but pretty darn close. It clocked in at five and half hours and finished after 12:30 am.
No comments:
Post a Comment