6-1-18
The MLB.TV free game was another good
one. This was between the Braves and the Nationals. Who would have
thought these two teams would be battling for their division? It was Mike
Foltynewicz versus Stephen Strasburg
on the mound. It was 0-0 into the
seventh. Dansby Swanson battled
Strasburg for several pitches before belting a two-run homer. An Atlanta fan with a mitt dropped it and it
fell into the bullpen. Folt pitched a
complete game, two-hit shutout. He
struck out Bryce Harper to end the
game. 2-0 Braves. I saw a closeup
of Trea Turner in the game for the first time.
He looks like he's 16 years old.
In El Paso, it
was about 102 degrees to start the game for the Chihuahuas and the Rivercats. The
Sandlot promotion game is tomorrow.
The actor who played “Smalls” was interviewed on Sportstalk. (I missed it.) Hunter
Pence didn't have a good rehab, but was called back to the Giants today. The first three Rivercat batters all
collected hits. The last one was a
three-run homer.
It didn't get
much better for the Chihuahuas after that.
The Rivercats kept adding on. The
pups managed a run off a series that went walk, walk, wild pitch, sac fly. The classic run without a hit. In the ninth, they even lost a runner at
third in a rundown on a bunt. 8-1 Rivercats final. What is with the Chihuahuas at home?
6-2-18
It was an overcast,
hazy day in St. Luis . . . err . . . St. Louis for the Cardinals' game against the Pirates. Once again, thank you to a Mexican station
for providing this coverage on Saturday morning. Marcell
Ozuna got the scoring started in the second with a home run to straightaway
center that plopped right on to the batter's eye lawn. 1-0 Cardinals. In the fourth, he had a comebacker to the
Pirates' pitcher, Chad Kuhl. Kuhl lost his mitt fielding it and then
couldn't find the ball right next to him.
I'm not sure if that was an error or not, probably.
By the fifth, the
sun came out and it got hot. The umps
were wearing sweat stains. The Pirates
tied it on a solo home run. Luke Weaver (I wonder if he's related
to the other Weaver pitchers?) watched the ball fly out and stomped on the
mound, cursing. In the bottom, Tommy Pham would give the Cards back
the lead with an RBI double. 2-1
Cardinals.
The Pirates kept
it close. In the seventh, their catcher
(didn't catch his name) made a jump catch on a bunt and got the lead runner at
second. In the eighth, David Freeze pinch hit for the Pirates
and received a standing ovation from the St. Louis crowd. They remember him well. In the bottom, their left fielder Colin Moran
(I think) made a great leaping catch at the wall.
Bud Norris came in to close for the Cardinals in
the ninth. His first pitch was a home
run to right field by Austin Meadows
(I got his name and what a great one).
Norris struck out the side for the rest of the inning. At this point, I flipped around the
stations. When I got back to the game, Kolten Wong was just touching home
plate after his walk-off home run and getting mobbed by his teammates. 3-2 Cardinals. I don't feel as bad as the two fans who
missed catching the ball as it bounced out of the stands.
Later in the
evening, welcome to Baseball Night in America on FOX featuring women’s' golf, which was running way over
because of a rainout yesterday. Only
people in the games' home markets got them on time. Nearly two hours in, they went to my regional
game. It was the Rockies versus the Dodgers
in Denver. Great, I would have loved to
have seen all of this game. I don't even
know if the Rockies have ever been on a FOX Saturday game. 4-3 Rox in the fifth when I joined it. Great crowd there at Coors Field.
Of course this
ran right into the Chihuahuas and Rangers games just coming on. This was the anticipated Sandlot jerseys game. I
wanted to hear about it. The actor
playing “Smalls”
threw out the first pitch and was doing autographs on the concourse. According to Eric O'Brien
on the El Paso news, he was signing for the whole game. (Unfortunately, Tim Hagerty wasn’t able to do an interview with him.) Huge Lego sculptures were also at the park,
including one of Buster Posey. It is an exhibition touring ballparks around
the country. There were no runners on
base until the bottom of the third with two outs. Tim couldn't remember a game starting so
quietly. An error got the Chihuahuas the
first one.
In the sixth in
Colorado, Joc Pederson hit a solo
home run to tie the score 4-4. I noticed
that the late afternoon glare along the first base side was profound. In the Seventh, a ground out brought in
another Dodger run to make it 5-4. Then
it went completely sideways. Matt Kemp hit a two-run homer to make
it 7-4. The Rockies brought in their
third pitcher of the inning when it was 9-4.
Starter German Marquez was
side himself in the dugout. The bases
were filled again on walk. Rockies
Manager Bud Black stalked rail. I think he was taking it personally. A wild pitch brought in a run. Then there was a bases clearing triple. By the time the Rox finally got the third
out, it was 12-4 Dodgers. That would be the final. Why couldn't I have seen the good part of the
game?
While that was
going on, it was the fourth in El Paso.
An error in outfield scored a Rivercats' run (or as Eric put it in the
game recap, “You're killing me, Smalls!). This led to a nine-batter, 3 run inning. That could have been worse. In the bottom, the Chihuahuas got a couple
on, but a double-play ended the inning.
In the fifth, they loaded the bases loaded, but Carlos Asuaje
flied out to end
the inning.
Bottom of the
seventh, Allen Craig singled in a
pair of Chihuahuas' runs. Luis Urias tied it with an RBI. In the eighth, Javy Guerra doubled in Shane
Peterson for the lead. Okay, that's
what the box says. What actually
happened, Javy thought he had a home run, may have thought the runner was out
at home, and got tagged out walking between first and second, but the run still
counted. 4-3 Chihuahuas.
Whoa boy, then
the ninth. It was another nine-batter
inning for the Rivercats. Five runs
scored. An error (the pups' third of the
game) and a wild pitch brought in a couple of them. The Chihuahuas got on a couple runner in the
bottom, but a double-play ended it. 8-4 Rivercats. The Chihuahuas cannot win at home.
I didn't get any
of the Rangers' game until
later. I saw a highlight of Angel Mike Trout hitting a home run.
Tim mentioned that Tim Lincecum
was pitching at the Rangers' Triple-A team in Round Rock. That's
encouraging. I hadn't heard anything
about him all season and was worried he was out of baseball. In came in in tenth with poor reception. I didn't get the score, but did hear Ronald Guzman scoring Roughned Odor, who dove across the
plate, to give the Rangers a one-run lead.
Trout faced Keone Kela with
two outs in the bottom. Fly ball
out. Rangers win 3-2. It was a
comeback win as they tied it in the ninth on a reviewed play with the tying run
crossing before the third out was made.
6-3-18
The Rangers faced
the Angels in Anaheim again
today. Eric Nadel wasn’t there for yesterday’s broadcast. It was hard for me to tell, because of some
crappy reception and I only heard one inning.
Matt Hicks welcomed him
back. He apparently did the whole game
and got wore out by it. Eric was
wondering where the crowd was. They were
barely boo’ing Roughned Odor. (This must be a new feud. I don’t know what started it.) Matt said was the crowd was “woke.” That is to say, they just woke up and came to
the ballpark. (A good crowd would show
up over the course of the game though.)
Eric also mentioned he’d be at a Dallas library on their off
day tomorrow and would be reading to some kids.
Between this and players going out to What-a-burgers for signings, this
is some pretty good community outreach.
(It’d also be a great excuse to go get a hamburger.) While this was going on the radio, I had an Indycar race on the TV. If you can believe it, the pace car crashed
on the warm up lap. Belle Isle is a dangerous course, basically a slot car track.
In the second, Shohei
Ohtani got on by a hard hit ball to first that got knocked down, but he
beat it out. Eric was impressed with his
speed. Ronald Guzman was manning the bag today. His long wingspan allowed him to have a
chance at fielding the ball. It’s also
the source of his nickname (maybe) “The Condor.” Isiah
Kiner-Falefa, another new player this year, has been dubbed “Izzy.” (It took me few innings to figure out who
they were talking about.)
The Angels did score two in the inning, though the Rangers
had a couple of good defensive plays.
The Angels had a good play by Mike
Trout, of course. He ran into the
wall making a catch. He came away
hurting, so we’ll say the wall won that one.
Justin Upton added a home run
in the sixth to make it 3-0 Angels. Nomar Mazara homered in the eighth for
the Rangers to close it to 3-1. The new
home run line in the outfield may have come into play.
Eric did his limerick for the game in this inning. Matt had earlier apologized for not getting to
the daily limerick until the tenth yesterday.
Eric forgave him since he was busy calling the game by himself and
complimented his poetic effort. (This is
a strange season of Rangers’ baseball.)
There was also a discussion about RBI’s.
The stat is considered “useless” by Sabermetricians. I officially consider Sabermetricians
useless. RBI’s are how you judge a
productive batter in a game. Going 3 for
4 doesn’t mean anything towards winning unless you score or bring somebody
in.
As listless as the Rangers were on offense, they were only
down two runs in the ninth. This came up
as the Angels’ reliever walked three in the inning to load the bases. There was some drama, but they were all left
stranded to end the game. 3-1 Angels was the final. Doug Fister was the hard luck loser
for the Rangers. It was a quick game at
two hours, 40 minutes.
I had trouble listening to the end of the Rangers’ game
because of lightning crackles and weather alerts. A couple of big storms moved through the
area. We could use the rain, but not in
the form of hail delivered sideways at 70mph.
Luckily, it missed me. I only
heard some distant thunder. (I’m as
languid as a fainting heroine on a chaise lounge in high humidity though. It had to be about 80%.) It did rain in downtown El Paso, which
delayed the start of the Chihuahuas’
game tonight by a half hour. It had
stopped raining, but they needed to drain it a bit.
During the break, Tim
Hagerty played a couple of interviews.
One was with Jayson Werth,
who was a visiting player. In contrast
to his stoic demeanor on field, he was very pleasant in conversation. He was in Triple-A trying to make it back to
the majors. With the consent of his
family, he was giving it one more try this year. Werth was very humble and grateful about his
time playing baseball. This was great to
hear.
It was the Chihuahuas versus the Rivercats to end this five-game series. In the first, there was a great diving double
play started by Javy Guerra with a
glove flip of the ball. Tim is really
impressed with him this season. Luis Urias came up in the bottom and
“Happy Birthday” flashed on the video board.
The crowd actually sang to him.
In the second, Javy singled in a run and another came in via a
double-play, 2-0 Chihuahuas.
In the third with two on, one by an error, Brett Nicholas singled. There was a misplay in the outfield, followed
by a wild overthrow to third. Nicholas
ended up on third, driving in both runs.
Allen Craig then drove him
in, 5-0 Chihuahuas. For the Kid’s Club
feature, Tim had a talky giggler in the booth.
The kid’s main hobby was sleeping, which his mom kept interrupting in
the morning. Tim encouraged him to play
a prank on his mom by waking her up early.
(How subversive. I didn’t know
Tim had it in him.)
There was a spectacular sunset in El Paso that evening,
filled with oranges, yellows, and reds.
Tim talked about it, and the video board even put it up between
innings. (Here it was just yellow to the
west and dark and nasty to the east.)
Chihuahuas’ starter, Dillon
Overton, went seven scoreless innings, only giving up two hits. For the eighth, the team’s new Japanese
pitcher, whose name I’m not going to be able to spell out by myself, worked a
quick inning with some great defense behind him.
The Rivercats got a runner on in the ninth. Before it happened, Tim called a double play,
and that was how the game ended. 5-0 Chihuahuas win. This was a very quick game, even with a
half-hour delay. It was two hours and 17
minutes and finished before 9:00.
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