7-15-17
Chihuahuas versus Aces. Tim Hagerty came on the radio sounding pretty good, but after the first break he was back to sounding bad. Once again, KROD carried the Aces’ team broadcast for the game. This time it was a one-man booth. The younger-sounding announcer wasn’t there for this game. Admittedly, I kind of enjoyed yesterday’s call with the two of them. I know there’s a charm to just having one announcer. It’s considered more intimate with the broadcaster speaking directly to the listener, whereas in a two-man booth, the audience is eavesdropping on their conversation. Still, it’s good to hear some banter when the game starts to drag a bit.
The Chihuahuas got out to a four-run lead. Jeremy Hazelbaker got the Aces their first run in the third, as he stole second, continued on to an unguarded third, and was hit by a throw that went into the stands. In the sixth, a two-run home run for the Aces brought the score to 4-3. In the seventh, the Chihuahuas took three walks to load the bases, but then struck out three times in a row to end the inning without scoring. The Aces tied it in the eighth, but Ryan Shimpf re-tied it in the ninth with a homer off the Aces’ All-Star closer. In the tenth, Franchy Cordero went “Natural” and hit a homer over a light stand, which would give the pups a 6-5 win in a nearly four-hour game. The Chihuahuas are now four back of division leader Salt Lake.
The Rangers versus Royals game started earlier, but the local station didn’t carry it from what I heard. It was over by the time a night-time station came in. The Rangers won 1-0 off a ninth inning run and a strong effort by Cole Hamels. The Rockies’ game was over by the time KOA came in. Annoyingly, the reception was great for a change. They got clobbered by the Mets.
7-16-17
Forgive the digression, but I watched the Formula E NYC race this morning. It was mostly for the curiosity factor. I’ve seen one of these races before. It doesn’t so much showcase electric car technology as it does highlight the limitations of it. They only race for an hour and have to change cars halfway through. The cars burn off 5% of their battery per lap. I was mostly wondering where they were going to run the race in New York City. The answer was the Brooklyn Cruise Dock, which is a bunch of docks and warehouses. At least the Manhattan backdrop with Lady Liberty looked good.
This “E-Prix” (is it really necessary to put “E” in front of everything?) featured a claustrophobic run between warehouses and a pair of tight, hairpin turns. The first hairpin was at the end of the front stretch. Try to imagine a slow-moving clump of cars at the start trying to negotiate a 90 degree turn all at the same time. Surprisingly, everyone made it out.
To be honest, I wasn’t paying much attention after the start. The cars sound vaguely like a Jetsons’ flying car, revved up. At slow speeds they’re silent, so the marshals in pit lane blow whistles when the cars are moving through. It looked like several fans in the grandstands were wearing Ferrari hats. The fans also get to vote via social media on which driver gets a speed boost in the race. Do I even need to comment on that? The cars finished with about 1 to 2% of their batteries left, so at least they can accurately chart their power usage. My favorite thing at the race was probably Dario Franchetti’s color commentary. He should be doing another series.
Rangers versus Royals. Eric Nadel was back from vacation and this was my first time hearing him in a week. Yu Darvish had a rough first inning as he let in the first Royals’ run with a wild pitch, and then got charged with an error with a throw trying to pick a runner off second that went into centerfield. Interesting stat, Darvish is 44-4 when given at least three runs of support. When Matt Hicks came on, he apologized for wearing a Royal blue polo shirt to the ballpark. He said he wasn’t thinking when he put it on. Drew Robinson, getting a start today, hit a homer to tie it in the third. Mike Moustakas drove in Eric Hosmer in the bottom to give the Royals back the lead, 2-1.
In the seventh, Mike Napoli tied it for the Rangers with a homer, but Whit Merrifield doubled in a run in the bottom, 3-2 Royals. In the eighth, Normar Mazara drove in Elvis Andrus to tie the game again. For the ninth, Jason Grilli came in to pitch for the Rangers. He loaded the bases with two outs. Grilli induced a flyball, which Shin-Soo Choo, fighting the sun, dropped. 4-3 Royals final. The sun had been giving fielders fits during the game. I’m not sure if Choo was charged with an error or not. In the post-game, Jared Sandler counted three Royal runs that came off of misplays.
I flipped on the Chihuahuas/Aces game as soon as it came on to see how Tim Hagerty was doing. He sounded a bit weak, but he was good to go for today. I got to hear the pups score their first run, but went back to the Rangers. I tuned back in the fifth with the Chihuahuas up 5-0. In the sixth, Nick Buss lost a flyball in the sun and an Aces’ run scored. He wasn’t even the only one in Reno having trouble with flyballs. The sun must have extra bright today. The score was 5-2 in the seventh when Dusty Coleman hit a three-run home run as part of a five-run inning. 10-3 would be final with a victory for the Chihuahuas. They are now three back of Salt Lake City.
I was not surprised that KROD went ahead and decided to carry the ESPN game this evening, since it was the Yankees and Red Sox. ESPN is loving baseball right now. They’ve got a single player to focus their unrealistic adulation on, Aaron Judge. Also, they’re able to focus on interesting teams in major markets (New York, Los Angles, Boston, and Chicago) and disregard the rest, in spite of the standings. It’s the way they think all sports should be.
Of course KROD also decided to go with auto-pilot programming, thus the game kept getting interrupted with local commercial breaks. I had to hope nothing interesting happened in the game during those breaks. (This got better later, and I think somebody was manning the board there.) In the third, Mookie Betts gave the Red Sox a two-run lead off a home run over the Green Monster. In the sixth, the Red Sox put up another run. In the eighth, Jackie Bradley Jr. stole a home run off Aaron Judge and the Boston Crowd roared.
There was some drama in the ninth with Craig Kimbrel closing it out, but 3-0 Red Sox was the final. It didn’t even last the usual four and a half hours, like other Yankees/Red Sox games. After losing in 16 innings yesterday and earlier today as part of a day/night double header, this was a nice bounce back for Sox. As a footnote to the broadcast, it was announced that Pablo Sandoval was released by the team. Is this the sad end for such an iconic player?
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