Baseball Journal April 23-27, 2018

4-23-18

I tuned in to the Giants versus the Nationals on MLB.TV and saw Lars Ulrich of Metallica doing the final bars of the Star-Spangled Banner on a Giants-themed guitar.  Apparently, he’s a big fan of the team and has done this annually.  Unfortunately, that was about all I got to see of the game.  The Giants did surprisingly win 4-2.  Meanwhile in Las Vegas, the Chihuahuas completed a sweep of the 51’s with a 6-3.  It’s their seventh win in a row.

4-24-18

“Grand slam, Trevor Story!” And here I thought I was going to get shutout on baseball coverage today (see what I did there).  The Chihuahuas had an off day and the MLB.TV free game was a Rockies game.  The video was blacked out, but this time they were nice and put up the radio call.  I didn’t get to listen to much of it, but did get that Story highlight in the second.  The Rox won 8-0 over the Padres in a quick two and a half-hour game.  Actually, if it weren’t for a 45-minute rain/light snow delay, I wouldn’t have gotten to hear the ending.  Pitcher Kyle Freeland went seven good innings for the win.

4-25-18

I’ve been really busy the last three days at work.  I started with the Chihuahuas pregame and learned that the Triple-A schedule had been cut by two games.  This was the first I’d heard of that.  That’s about all I really heard until the eighth.  The Salt Lake City Bees loaded the bases with one out with the pups leading 6-4.  Pitcher Kyle McGrath worked his way out of it.  In the ninth, Nick Shultz made a sliding catch for the first out and two more good plays in the field sealed the win.  6-4 Chihuahuas was the final.  The pups started their homestand with their eighth win in a row.

Meanwhile, the Aggies were playing Arizona State in Phoenix.  It was 97 degrees there at the start of the game.  What a change from chilly Greeley, Colorado last weekend.  I started listening and then missed all of the Aggie scoring later.  When I picked up the game again, it was 8-4 Aggies in the fifth.  I switched over to the ASU video feed of the game.  Their play-by-play guy was young, but sounded like a baseball announcer from the 40’s, which kept giving me giggles.

In the sixth, Marcus Still fouled a ball directly back into the radio booth.  When I was away from my desk and switched back to the radio call, Adam Young talked about nearly making a play on the ball.  In the bottom of the inning, big AJ Castillo pitched a scoreless inning.  A couple of runners got on, but he worked through it.  I like him.  He’s got good stuff. 

Chance Hroch came in for the seventh and got roughed up.  Matt Perea came in and finished, but the Aggies were now down to a one-run lead.  Perea worked the eighth and handed it to Brock Whittlesey in the ninth.  With two on and two out and a full count, Whitt got a strikeout looking to end the game, 8-7 Aggies.  That was the Aggies’ first win against ASU in Phoenix, a great win.

4-26-18

The Chihuahuas put up four runs in the first and lost 6-5 to the Bees.  Their winning streak has ended.  Well, so much for baseball tonight.  Here’s an awesome link to the MLB event of the year: Foodfest!  All of the best ballpark food in the country was gathered under one roof.  Oh, I missed out on this one.

4-27-18

Just as I brought up Aggie Softball playing Seattle U on WAC Digital, Kelsey Horton came up to bat and promptly crushed one to the opposite field.  It was the fourth inning and Seattle was up 2-0.  The Aggies would tie it by the end of the inning.  Unfortunately, Seattle piled on in the next inning to make it 6-2.  The Aggies would make a bit of a comeback, but the final would be 7-4 Seattle.  Kayla Green went 6 2/3 and took the loss.  Kelsey went 3 for 4 with a homer.  This loss is bad.  This series is for the regular season championship.  The Aggies will have win twice tomorrow to take it now (with me hopefully in attendance).

Aggie Baseball started their series in Phoenix against Grand Canyon University.  Adam Young was amazed by their refurbished stadium.  I started watching on GCU’s Youtube channel.  The place is like a Double-A stadium, if not better than the Diablos’ old Cohen Stadium.  Their scoreboard is built into the left field wall.  Not only that, it’s free admission for the games.

Today, 25-30 scouts were reported to be there to see a marquee WAC matchup between aces Kyle Bradish of the Aggies and Jake Wong for GCU.  It was not the pitcher’s duel we were expecting.  GCU scored twice in the first.  The Aggies tied it in the second, but the Lopes put up two more in the bottom.  By the third, it was 5-2 GCU, but the Aggies had their chances.  They loaded the bases in the fourth and in the fifth, but came up with nothing.  GCU came up big later.  I bailed when it was 9-2 in the sixth.  The final was 13-3 GCU in a run-rule in the eighth.  Not a good start there either.

MLB.TV blocked the video of the Astros/A’s game, but still put up the audio.  I listened to the last two innings, but it wasn’t much of a game as the Astros lost 8-1.  I totally missed the Chihuahuas tonight.  That’s okay.  They lost too.  What a night!