9-14-17
Today was the start of my first vacation
week of the year. I overslept a bit, but
still managed to tune in on time to the rescheduled Game 2 of the PCL
Championship. The game was switched to a
day game so the teams could still come out and play in El Paso Friday
night. Tim Hagerty referred to the crowd as “respectable.” He praised them for coming out for this
awkwardly scheduled game. He also noted
that Memphis was playing walkup music, not necessarily flattering, for the Chihuahuas’ at bats.
I have inning-by-inning notes on the
game, but I’m on vacation. Here’s the
short version. Kevin Herget, the Redbirds’ starting
pitcher, struck out a whole bunch of the Chihuahuas batters and held them
scoreless. He nearly achieved an
“Immaculate inning,” with three strikeouts on nine pitches. Tim mentioned that was a feat that had only
occurred about 60 times in baseball history.
Brian Rodriguez, starting for
the Chihuahuas, also had a scoreless performance.
Chihuahuas’ catcher Rocky Gale threw out three runners, two stealing and picking off Herget
on second. However, Gale was thrown out
trying to stretch a single into a double.
Diego Goris reached on an
error, and he was thrown out trying to make it to second. Both teams were pressing ineffectually on
offense. To bury the lead, it was 0-0
after nine.
By the eleventh, Tim remarked, “This is
getting surreal.” In the bottom, with
two out and one on, an Adolis Garcia
home run finally ended the game. The
crowd, which had been fairly quiet, suddenly erupted. It was a 2-0 Redbirds win and a 2-0 Redbirds
series lead. Our potentially relevant
stats of the game: The Redbirds were
12-0 this season in extra innings (now 13-0), and the Chihuahuas struck out 20
times in the game. Lastly, this was a
quick one at two hours and 52 minutes.
This wasn’t a good start to my vacation.
I attempted to listen to the Rangers and Mariners in the evening, but reception on their El Paso affiliate
went south quickly. Later, I got caught
a bit on their Amarillo station. It was
the sixth and it was 6-1 Mariners. Eric Nadel and Matt Hicks were talking about the Indians and Royals
game. Francisco Lindor tied the game in the ninth, and it was going to
extras. Reception got worse and I gave
up. The Rangers lost anyway. I’m getting really skeptical of their chances
to get a Wild Card birth.
I accidentally stumbled on the New Mexico Lobos and the Boise State Broncos playing football on
an Albuquerque station. Reception faded
in and out there too. The Lobos got
buried late. I’m not sure if I was
rooting for or against them. Meanwhile,
I discovered that the new Stadium
digital network has a live nightly show recapping the day’s sports. Tonight’s big topic: Cleveland won #22 in a
row. I saw the fans in the stadium and
even the players going crazy as Lindor tied it to preserve the streak.
9-15-17
While I was waiting for the Chihuahuas versus the Redbirds, I found women’s volleyball on
the Stadium Network. It was #1 and
unbeaten Minnesota versus Boise State in Boise. They were playing in a gym, but it was sold
out and full. There were bright school-themed
overlays marking the boundaries on the court.
Those would be nice for the Aggies, if practical (perhaps not, since
basketball and volleyball overlap).
There was a very enthusiastic student section behind on end of the
court. The kids there encouraged their
servers, but when the teams switched sides, they got all over their opponent’s
servers. They were about four feet away,
screaming “Choke!” and other things right at them. The girls at least seemed to ignore
them. Minnesota won the first two sets,
but Boise state came back and forced a fifth set, which Minnesota won
15-12. It was quite a match. (Did you know Boise State has a beach
volleyball team? I wouldn’t have
believed it either, but I saw video of it.)
The baseball game was mostly polite
enough to wait until the match was over before it got interesting. The Chihuahuas were back in El Paso for Game
3 of the PCL Championship, down by two games.
A couple of my co-workers were going to the game. (And they were indeed together and looked happy. Ahhh.)
They were among the 5,000+ in attendance. The pups did load the bases in the bottom of
the first, but a good catch of a hard liner by Nick Buss ended that threat.
The next best chance came in the fourth
on a Tony Cruz drive near the wall which
was robbed on a good catch. The next
inning, the Redbirds tripled, but left the man stranded. In the bottom of the fifth, finally there was
a breakthrough as Franchy Cordero
homered over the batter’s eye, 1-0 Chihuahuas.
The crowd roared. The Chihuahuas
loaded the bases again in the seventh with no outs. The inning started on an eleven-pitch at bat
by Jose Rondon, and even included Dusty Coleman attempting a sacrifice
bunt but still managing to be safe at first on the play. Franchy came through again and sacrificed in
a run. Another run came in on a Chase d’Arnoud single, 3-0
Chihuahuas. That was all they needed to
win. We go to a Game 4 Saturday night.
I flipped over to the Rangers’ Amarillo affiliate and was
surprised that the game was on instead of high school football. I immediately regretted doing so as their
opponent, the hated Angels, scored
to take the lead. The Rangers would make
a comeback, but fell short, 7-6. Finally
in Cleveland, the Indians’ 22-game
winning streak ended 4-3 to the Royals. Wow, it was still close. The players came out and saluted the fans
afterward.
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