Rangers versus White Sox this afternoon. Ranger pitcher, Cole Hamels, had some early problems in the first as he gave up a two-run homer and hit a batter. Derek Holland was pitching for the Sox, his first time facing his former club. Matt Hicks reported that Derek and Adrian Beltre had an amicable meeting before the game. In the second, the Rangers loaded the bases with no outs, but only got a run on a groundout. Score tied at one. After the inning, Derek talked to the ump. Eric Nadel speculated that he was apologizing for having a bad reaction to a ball call. Hamels wasn’t particularly happy with the strike zone calls either.
In the fourth, Matt was amazed as Roughned Odor managed to see a bunch of pitches and reached on an error. Yesterday, he’d only saw ten pitches in five at bats. By the end of this game, he’d end up seeing over 30. Ruggie is working on plate discipline. In the fifth, a sacrifice attempt was later ruled foul and resulted in a “do over.” Delino Deshields took advantage of that by doubling in a run instead. Elvis Andrus then hit a two-run homer. Eric gave a surprised home run call, as he thought that the fielder had gotten it up against the wall.
In the sixth, Mike Napoli added to the lead with a two-run homer after Holland came out of the game. 6-2 Rangers. And again, Eric was surprised by the home run. Him and Matt went nuts in the seventh, as slow-working Sox reliever, Chris Beck, came out. [Listening to the game Sunday, I have yet to hear a quick-working White Sox pitcher.]
Cole Hamels came out in the bottom of the inning. He did a great job after the first. I think he had 19 straight outs. Alex Claudio gave up two runs in relief, but in the eighth, Ruggie homered and then Normar Mazara tripled in three runs for a 10-4 Ranger win. Once again, Eric was surprised by the home run. What was going on in this game? These players were being cheated out of their Eric Nadel home run calls.
Before the game and during, it was reported that Matt Bush had indeed lost the closer job. Manager Jeff Bannister announced that he was going with a closer-by-committee approach. A bat shattered during the game. Eric mentioned that the MLB had forced bat-makers to do something with the grain of the bat to reduce shattering. This was a quiet, but good, development for game safety. I wonder this change somehow also has something to do with the insane home run totals this year.
This was bad timing later in the evening. The NASCAR Coke 400 and the Astros/Yankees game both came on at the same time. I admit, I kind of wanted to see a race, since I hadn’t seen one in a while, but the baseball matchup was too good to pass up. Much of the pre-race was just an ode to Dale Earnhardt Junior anyway. I actually saw a tribute magazine to him on the newsstand this week, since he’s more-or-less retiring after the season. It was titled, “The Greatest Ever.” I’ll just let that sit there without further comment.
OH COME ON! ARE JIMMIE JOHNSON’S SEVEN CHAMPIONSHIPS NO BIG DEAL???! REALLY???!
Ahem.
In any case, the Astros and the Yankees were wearing special Independence Day uniforms. Frankly, I’m over these special uniform deals, since most of them are weird. This time was especially strange, since the guys were wearing two different colored socks, which show up depending on how high the players put up their pants. Maybe the MLB could work out something a bit more restrained and classy for future holiday games.
This evening was a sellout at MMP in Houston, little wonder given the teams involved. There was lots of sunlight coming into the stadium early on, even with the roof closed. Aaron Judge, who I’m sure many of the Yankee fans showed up to see, was on the bench for the game. Matt Vasgersian and John Smoltz still spent a large amount of the broadcast time talking about him. Judge is apparently being coy about entering the home run derby, even though he’s leading baseball in homers. Smoltz definitely wants to see him play. (And Smoltz does way too much backseat pitching. Easy there, you’re not managing.) There was no discussion of the biggest issue in the game: Carlos Correa’s terrible mustache.
Pitchers dominated early, somewhat making me regret my viewing choice. Yuli Gurriel got it started in the fifth with a two-run homer. He made a twirling, off-balance swing, and the ball just went inside the pole by the Crawford Boxes. Rookie call up for the Yankees, Clint Frazier, got his first Major League hit in the sixth. His family was in attendance, and they had a camera on them during the hit. They were overjoyed. Then wheels came off for the Astros to the tune of five runs, including a Didi Gregorious grand slam. 5-2 Yankees. If Frazier’s family was happy before, they were crying now, as he followed up with a solo home run in the seventh. 6-3 Yankees.
Flipping on the radio at 7:00 pm, I found out that tonight’s Chihuahuas’ game was . . . delayed by rain? Not that Las Cruces and El Paso necessarily have the same weather, though that is often the case, there wasn’t a hint of rain here. From checking out the local news later, I found out that the stadium had been hit by a small storm. It only rained for ten minutes, but it caught the grounds crew completely by surprise, and they didn’t get it covered in time. Even with the 100 degree heat, the field was sopped and wrecked. After three hours, they finally called it and scheduled a double header for Sunday. The fans that came still got to see that night’s fireworks show anyway. That was nice of the team to go ahead and do that for them.
Back in Houston, the Yankees’ fireballing set up man, Dellin Betances, came in the eighth. Jose Altuve worked a walk. He then proceeded to steal second and third during Correa’s at bat, and was driven in on a grounder. (Correa’s mustache still looks terrible.) Next up, Evan Gattis blasted a shot to left field, nearly landing the ball on the railroad tracks on the outfield wall. (That’s really high up there, folks.)
The next batter walked, took second on a bad pickoff throw, and stole third. Betances, in spite of throwing 100 mph, apparently has a very slow delivery. Austin Romine, behind the plate, isn’t good at throwing out runners either. Tonight, this is a bad combination. There’s another walk. With two outs, Aroldis Chapman is brought in for a four-out save. With another 100 mph reliever in, nobody was expecting Gurriel to turn on one of Chapman’s pitches. With the left field line unguarded, Yuli hammered a double into the corner. Two runs scored to give the Astros the lead. And then he stole third. 7-6 Astros.
For the ninth, the Yankee fans got to see Aaron Judge as the leadoff pinch hitter, unfortunately they only saw him foul out. The Astros had their 100 mph reliever in, Ken Giles. With two outs, Brett Gardner singled to left center. Watching this ball, it did look like a gapper, except Houston’s speedy outfield easily ran it down and threw it back in. Brett apparently only saw a sure double and only belatedly looked up to find out he was going to be out at second. He was tagged out trying to get back to first. Appropriately, Yuli Gurriel made all three put outs in the inning (two foul outs and the tag). 7-6 Astros was our final and a pretty cool game.
Junior won the race! I got to see end of the “Firecracker 400” as Junior would incorrectly call it in Victory Lane. Also, it wasn’t Dale Earnhardt Junior; it was Ricky Stenhouse Junior. That was his second win of the year. At this rate, he might become better known for being a racecar driver than Danica Patrick’s boyfriend.
I joined the Rockies and the D-Backs in the sixth with the score 3-0 Arizona. I’ve had little luck in reception, game scheduling, and my work schedule to be able to listen to any of the Rockies’ games on KOA. Nolan Arenado singled in the seventh and chatted with his WBC teammate, Paul Goldschmidt, at first. Trevor Story came up next and homered. This is good sign for the kid, though historically he has had Zack Greinke’s number. 3-2 D-Backs. Unfortunately, that was it for Rockies’ highlights, and they lost 6-2. I could hear fireworks going off during the post-game. Was the roof opened before the game was over? Just curious.
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