7-3-17
I was still probably a bit wore out from the day before and wasn’t entirely paying attention to the games today. That was a mistake. I missed out on most of the Rangers/Red Sox game on ESPN. It was 2-2 when I’d last checked the score. When I finally turned it on in the sixth, of course the Red Sox had just scored three runs. An error by Roughned Odor was given the blame. ESPN was doing “goat cam” on Ruggie for the rest of the game.
In the seventh, Jason Grilli came out in relief for the Rangers. He’s a new addition to the club. Grilli came in with a head full of steam and left after a scoreless inning, fired up. That must have inspired the team a bit. They scored in the eighth to bring the score to 5-4 Red Sox. Another ESPN storyline was the un-touch-ability of Red Sox closer, Craig Kimbrel. There was even a recent Sports Illustrated article about how great he is. In the ninth, Mike Napoli homered off him to tie the game. I was out of the room at the time, but I’m sure the announcers had plenty of excuses for this deviation from their storyline.
Unfortunately in the eleventh, Ernesto Frieri coughed up two runs to the Red Sox. The Rangers couldn’t mount another comeback. 7-5 Red Sox was the final in front of a packed house in Arlington. At least they probably got fireworks afterward, and there were some happy Sox fans there.
The MLB Network was doing some live coverage of games in progress. They picked up the Royals versus the Mariners late. Royal Mike Moustakas hit a monster home run, which I missed. Moose will be at the Home Run Derby. I forgot to check on who else was going to be going. Joakim Soria got the save for the Royals in a 3-1 win. Soria quick-pitched the last batter for a strikeout. The batter and Soria were trading words, when the network suddenly skipped over to a game I didn’t care about.
“Buss is in the driver’s seat,” Tim Hagerty slipped that into one of Nick Buss’ at bats. Shame. Shame. I found myself not listening for much of the rest of the Chihuahuas’ game because of that, but it turned into a pretty good contest. The pups fell behind to the Aces, then got ahead, then blew it in the ninth to go to extras. 9,900 fans (an awesome crowd) wanted their fireworks show, not more baseball. Thankfully, it didn’t go long. In the bottom of the tenth, the Chihuahuas loaded the bases with two outs. Franchy Cordero beat out an infield single to win the game, 6-5. I’m sure the crowd wasn’t too unhappy about having to wait a bit since the team won in a walk off.
7-4-17
I suppose the big sports news of the day was the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. The winner, Joey Chestnut, ate 72 in 10 minutes, a record. I didn’t see it, but I talked to a co-worker yesterday who was looking forward to seeing it. To show solidarity with this the event (and because I’d read a fun article in Sports Illustrated about hot dogs recently), I went to 5 Guys for hot dog myself. I brought it home and put chili (a nearly unforgivable omission from their menu of toppings) and cheese on it. The real revelation was their milkshake. I noticed that they have a caramel and sea salt flavor and, oh boy, is it very, very awesome.
The matchup was at least good between Yu Darvish and the Rangers versus David Price and the Red Sox. Eric Nadel quickly lost patience with Price’s slow-working routine, as he described it in detail. Darvish doesn’t exactly pitch like his car is sitting at a parking meter either. I found myself losing it with the game by the fifth as the Sox went up 7-0. Plenty of highlights for the Red Sox tonight, but I could care less. 11-4 Red Sox was the final. At least the large crowd at Arlington got a fireworks show afterward.
As the signal dropped on my Rangers’ station, I switched to hear the start of the Chihuahuas game. Tim Hagerty reported that the starting temperature tonight in Las Vegas was 107 degrees. In spite of that, there was a large, enthusiastic crowd there for the 51’s. The Chihuahuas announced a bullpen day and started reliever, Adam Cimber. All he did was throw 6 and 2/3 innings and give up one run (that came in via the next reliever), and he hit a triple.
The pups’ offense took care of the rest, scoring three in the third and then a Jabari Blash two-run homer in the eighth. “Chihuahuas’ folk hero,” as Tim described him, Cody Decker came into the game as a pinch hitter for the 51’s. I admit, since there was nobody on base at the time, I was rooting for him to hit a home run. It didn’t happen this time. The bottom of the ninth gave the fans there something to cheer about. It was 5-1 and two outs, but the bases were loaded from three walks, but the potential tying run struck out to end the game. At least the large crowd got a fireworks show afterward. I think I’ll end all of my game summaries with that line from now on. Sheesh. Like watching some explosions will make losing feel better.
On that note, one of my other co-workers and his girlfriend went in Los Angeles this week. Their main planned activity was going to the Dodgers/D-Backs game tonight. Mostly, they just wanted to see the fireworks show afterward, as neither of them cares about baseball. While I wait for my co-worker’s report, I’ll assume that this big NL West matchup didn’t interest them, nor did Clayton Kershaw taking a no-hitter into the seventh of this game. They might have had some interest in the D-Backs mounting a ninth inning comeback, but only because it was delaying the fireworks. 4-3 Dodgers. Given my dislike of the Dodgers, I said, “No souvenirs.” A couple of days later it occurred to me that I would have liked a program anyway. Damn.
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