It’s so rare to catch Tim Hagerty in an unguarded, opinionated moment, that one must cherish each instance. Such was the case on today’s pre-game segment with Steve Kaplowitz. It was “Bad Music Friday” on the local sports talk show, and Kappy innocuously asked Tim about music that he wouldn’t want to hear during a game. Unexpectedly and somewhat uncharacteristically, Tim went off on Freefallin’ by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He thought Petty was a great artist, but that song was “like a bad boy band song.” It was something of a “sellout.” Of course, Kappy immediately had the song played and, listening to it in that context, Tim may have had a point. Kaplowitz enjoyed the light ranting so much that he insisted that Tim must give out a “hot take” every Friday.
Sidebar: I’m basically neutral to uncaring about Tom Petty, but I can empathize with Tim’s point view on popular songs. I’m a huge fan of Sting and the Police. I even saw Sting in concert, which is about the only concert I’ve attended as an adult. Can you guess what my least favorite Police song is? It’s Roxanne, the one song of theirs that everyone else likes. I’m convinced it’s just because of the Eddie Murphy’s gag version, because it’s just pure caterwauling.
Before I heard the pre-game and the game, I had a meeting with my boss’ boss. She was at the business’ outing to the ballpark last Saturday, and she didn’t stay till the end of it either! Like the other two people I’ve talked to that didn’t stay, she felt kind of dumb and cheated. The people who’d watched the end obviously rubbed it in on the others.
Tonight was the finale of the Chihuahuas versus the Isotopes. It was the pups’ last chance to directly affect a team in front of them. Jose Rondon rejoined the team from the IR. Peter Van Gansen was sent down to High-A to make room for him. I’m sure he’ll be back with the club in the near future. The game started well in the first with Carlos Villanueva bouncing a ball off the wall to score Franchy Cordero. Nick Buss, finally in the lineup, drove in CV for a 2-0 Chihuahuas lead.
Brian Rodriguez had the start for the team. He got in trouble in the second with two on and no outs, but a double play and a strikeout ended the threat. A fielder’s choice scored another run in the bottom for the pups, 3-0. Buss collected his second hit in the third. Franchy doubled in a run in the fifth, 4-0.
BRod got in trouble again in the sixth, yielding four hits in a row. Rocky Gale helped out by picking a runner off third, but Jordan Patterson (again with this guy!) doubled in a run. Eric Yardley came in and got two outs, without further damage, 4-1. At this point, I got busy working. Looking at the scoring, the Chihuahuas scored in the sixth via a wild pitch/ball four that brought in a runner from third, 5-1.
In the seventh, the crowd went wild for Nick Buss, who got this third hit of the night, a run-scoring triple. Jose Rondon doubled him in, and Rocky Gale singled in the third run of the inning for an 8-1 lead. Meanwhile in Salt Lake, Tim reported that the Bees were down by one in the ninth and had loaded the bases. With this game out of hand, he was keeping a close eye on the out-of-town scoring apparently. Third out! Bees lose 7-6. The Chihuahuas would finish out their game 8-1 before a happy crowd of 9,099. El Paso retakes second place, two games back of Salt Lake.
8-19-17
Since I was at Aggie Volleyball in the evening, I didn’t bother trying to pick up the Rangers’ game when I got back. I indifferently watched the NASCAR Bristol race until the Chihuahuas/Rainiers game came on. Given the late start, my night time reception was bad and made worse by storms in the area (which thankfully didn’t go off over my head). I had some hard times following the action.
Two bits of news. Hunter Renfroe was optioned back to the Chihuahuas from the Padres. That should help the pups. Also, while the team was catching their connecting flight to Tacoma in Dallas (ugh, hold on a minute, I’m momentarily sick imagining how miserably long that trip must have been), they saw Manny Ramirez at the airport, who is still somehow playing baseball professionally. (Were there any direct flights from El Paso to Seattle? You could have taken a bus to Tacoma from there.)
Tim Hagerty started off the game scoreboard watching, as Salt Lake was playing at the same time. In the second, the Chihuahuas made two errors in the field, but somehow managed not to give up any runs. The Infield Fly rule was invoked during the inning to the delight of baseball rules geeks. The first hit of the game didn’t actually occur until the third by Rainier, Gordon Beckham.
Reception-wise, it was probably a good thing that there wasn’t a lot of action in this game, since I had trouble hearing anything. Rainier starting pitcher, Max Posey, came out of the game in the fifth, after pitching four 2/3 scoreless. To that point, he’d only given up one walk in the inning and that for the entire game. As you might imagine, he tried to talk his way into staying in the game. The Mariners organization told the Rainiers a week ago to limit all of their pitchers to essentially a long relief role at most. This was so they could have all of them available to the big league club as relievers. Tonight in Tacoma, Posey’s relief gave up two hits to score the walk, 1-0 Chihuahuas.
On the other side, Dillon Overton pitched seven scoreless innings for the Chihuahuas. In the eighth, the Rainiers got two on with one out. That threat ended on a fly ball and Rocky Gale then throwing out a runner at second on a double steal attempt. (Why? You already had the tying run in scoring position.) Carlos Villanueva hit a homer in the ninth to give the Chihuahuas a little breathing room, 2-0. Kevin Quackenbush came in for the save, giving up only a hit and ending it on a strikeout. The Chihuahuas won 2-0. Salt Lake was losing by five late in their game, so the pups may be only a game back of them after tonight.
8-20-17
The Rangers’ game didn’t come on. I had to endure more Kaepernick talk while waiting for the game. I have more to say about him and the media supporting him, but I’m sick of talking about this (even if they aren’t). Maybe the game came on later. I didn’t bother checking and got a final score at the end of the Chihuahuas’ game. Disappointing. At the beginning of that game, we started off getting the final from last night’s Salt Lake game. They lost. The Chihuahuas are one game out.
Once again, the Chihuahuas’ and the Rainiers’ hitters started off the game stone cold. Tim Hagerty reported a pair of good fan catches in lieu of talking about the players making good plays. Those plays at least gave the large crowd something to applaud. The first Chihuahuas’ hit was by Franchy Cordero in the fourth. He took second on a wild pitch, but was stranded there.
In the fifth, the pups left two on without scoring. In the bottom, the Rainiers got their first hit. The heavy air in Tacoma was knocking down long fly balls left and right. Oh no, since there’s only Three True Outcomes, if nobody can hit a home run, nobody will score. Just to prove me right, in the sixth, Chase d’Arnaud hit a homer down the line. Tim hesitated in calling it since it was so close to being foul. There we go. They just needed to hit the ball harder to get it out. Franchy got a hit next, but was caught stealing later. In the bottom, the Rainiers figured it out too and hit a tying home, 1-1.
Jose Rondon threw out a runner on a great play in the eighth. Fired up, the Chihuahuas got two on with no outs. Ryan Schimpf was then awarded first on Catcher’s Interference. Again, baseball rules geeks celebrated. Now, the bases were loaded with no outs. Next, Rondon singled in two. I think he came back off injured reserve ready to play. Two more scored on a single by Travis Jankowski, 5-1. The Rainiers got a double in the ninth, but that was all, as a pair of strikeouts ended it. 5-1 Chihuahuas final.
Chris Huffman pitched six shutout innings, though he didn’t get the win. That’s another good starting effort by a Chihuahuas’ pitcher. The team is finally .500 again. Salt Lake doesn’t play until later, so we’ll have to wait on the standings. If it wasn’t overly exciting, at least the game was quick at two hours and 20 minutes. A song with a winsome sax solo was playing in the background while Tim was doing his post game message. He was very pleased with the game, the outcome, the large crowd, and the beautiful day there in Tacoma.
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