Baseball Journal July 27-28, 2018

7-27-18

Oh, this was a problem.  My two games of the night came on at the same time and I wanted to experience them both.  On the MLB.TV free game, we had the Cubs and Cardinals in St. Louis.  On the radio, the Chihuahuas were playing the OKC Dodgers in Oklahoma City.  Having to choose, I started off with the TV coverage.  As you might expect, there was a huge crowd there at Busch Stadium for the game.  There was plenty to talk about in the pregame.  The Cubs just got Cole Hamels.  The Cardinals just completely upended their bullpen. 

When I had to leave my desk, I changed over to the radio game.  It sounded like a big crowd in OKC too.  Tim Hagerty chatted about yesterday’s rainout in Colorado Springs spoiling the El Paso Cup for the year (and forever, since that was probably the Chihuahuas’ last game against the Skysox with the franchise leaving for San Antonio).  Both teams, by odd coincidence, play their home games in El Paso County (Texas and Colorado).  They’d even made up a trophy.  Oh, well. 

“This is unlike Brett Kennedy,” said Tim during the first inning as he gave up two runs on three hits to start the game.  With the Dodgers up 2-0, the game sped along without further scoring for a few innings.  I noticed that former Chihuahua, Rocky Gale, was now the Dodgers’ catcher.  I got back to my desk and put the Cardinals’ game back on and put the Chihuahuas up on Gameday. 

The Cardinal announcers chatted with former player, John Stuper, in their booth.  He’s currently the coach for Yale baseball.  Hey, I’ve seen this guy and his team here in Las Cruces (3-5-17).  Their fans travel well and were really nice people.  Stuper was really proud that he’d been able to place a couple of players in the Major Leagues.  “Are all your players smarter than you?” an announcer asked, since they are Ivy League students.  “No, because I make out the lineup card,” Stuper answered.  Can’t argue with that reasoning if you’re a player.

Anthony Rizzo homered in the third to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead.  Somewhat upsettingly, I noticed that the broadcast inserted an ad during a mound visit.  I’m getting a queasy feeling.  In the bottom, Jason Heyward dropped a fly ball by Paul DeJong that bounced off the wall.  Heyward caught it before it hit the ground, but it was still a live ball.  Yadier Molina chugged all the way from second to slide in under the tag at home.  The Cards then took the lead on an RBI single, 2-1 Cardinals.

I was away from my desk again and went back to listening to the Chihuahuas.  In the sixth, the pups loaded the bases with one out.  A new pitcher came in for the Dodgers. He walked in a run with two outs and a full count on Shane Peterson, though a fan did make a great jump catch in the stands of a foul ball.  The crowd was really into it as Diego Goris came up.  He hit a high fly ball.  The outfielder never saw it and started waving for help.  It wasn’t going to matter.  The ball flew well over the fence for a grand slam.  Tim went crazy doing the call. 

The inning wasn’t even over.  The crowd suddenly started cheering.  There was cat running around loose on the field.  Tim explained that sometimes teams were okay with feral cats around the stadium, since they helped to control the rodent population.  Presumably all the staff there had all seen videos of unfortunate people who had tried to pick up cats in situations like this.  Thus, they tried to open gates to get the cat to leave on its own.  After about five minutes, he eventually jumped into the stands and disappeared.  The crowd roared. 

Amazingly, this wasn’t the Chihuahuas’ first “cat delay.”  One happened during the Chihuahuas’ very first game.  (I was listening to that game, but wasn’t blogging baseball at the time.  I don’t remember this incident either, so I must have been away from the broadcast when it happened.)  This isn’t even the first time there was an animal delay that disrupted a Chihuahuas/Dodgers game.  That happened in El Paso when a Wiener Dog race went awry between innings.  (I don’t have a blog entry for that either, but I remember there was a viral video about it.)

Everything else seemed anti-climactic after that.  Back in St. Louis, Yadi and DeJong drove in a couple more runs to make it 5-1.  In the sixth, Javier Baez homered, but the Cardinals won 5-2.  As fast as the Chihuahuas’ game was going before that sixth inning happened, I can’t believe that the Cardinals’ game probably finished 15 minutes before the Chihuahuas. 

In OKC in the seventh, Forrestt Allday drove in a run on a sacrifice.  In the eighth, Francisco Mejia drove in a run.  Finally in the ninth, Peterson drove in Allen Craig to make it an 8-2 Chihuahuas final.  Brett Kennedy had a rough first, but did well after and got the win to go to 10-0.  It was a good night of baseball.  You never know what you’re going to get in baseball, even a grand slam and a cat delay in one inning.

7-28-18

It’s Saturday morning and it’s time for MLB on Mexican TV.  I’m really pretty grateful for this, since FOX wasn’t showing a game tonight.  However, it’s the Yankees for the second week in a row, this time playing the Royals.  Both teams were in the news last night for bad reasons.  Aaron Judge was going to be out for a few weeks with a broken hand, and the Royals dealt off Mike Moustakas to the Brewers.  “Moose” will be reunited there with Lorenzo Cain.  If the Brew-crew makes it into the postseason, they’ll be bringing some good playoff experience with them.  In any case, the Yankees are playing at home with a .600-something record and the Royals are selling off, so this wasn’t a good-looking matchup on paper.  But, you never know what kind of game you’re going to get on the field. 

In the second, the Yankees loaded the bases with nobody out.  Yankee catcher Austin Romine (an upgrade over Gary Sanchez, in my opinion) got to first to fill them when he got hit on the arm by a pitch.  He was okay, but probably bruised.  The ball ricocheted and hit Salvador Perez on the helmet and he was shaking his head afterward.  His thinking was not impaired though.  The next batter hit what he thought was a foul in front of the plate.  Salvy jumped on it while it was fair, stepped around the batter to touch home and then tagged the batter.  It was a double play and nobody scored for the inning.

That play alone was worth me watching, but it got better.  Rosell Herrera drove in two in the third to put the Royals up 2-0.  I wish I could understand the Mexican announcers better.  I’m catching words if I concentrate.  They seemed to really be having a good time calling this game with a lot of laughing.  Their coverage also shows highlights from some of last night’s games and they show some fan submitted baseball Twitter pictures.

Salvador came up big again in the fifth by driving in two runs to make it 4-0.  Lucas Duda came up next and hit a hit a high pop up to right field for a deep out . . . in most any other ballpark.  In Yankee Stadium, though, it’s a home run.  The Royals were now up 6-0.

But in the bottom, Giancarlo Stanton came up with a runner on.  I noticed he was back to wearing his faceguard.  He absolutely blasted one a straightaway center into the second deck, 6-2.  Royals’ starter Brad Teller was showing signs of fatigue at that point.  In the sixth, he came out after giving up two runs with two on and two outs.  The reliever walked the bases full for Stanton, who hit a high liner the other way to right field.  Jorge Bonifacio made a running catch to save three runs.  It was now 6-4 though.

While flipping channels between innings, I saw a bit of a West Coast Conference news show.  They showed one of their member schools’ baseball teams wearing, I kid you not, an Astros’ throwback jersey.  I have to remember to do some research on this later and find out which team that was.  Update: It's the Pepperdine Waves.  Check it out.

Back to game, Gleyber Torres drove in Didi Gregorious to make it 6-5.  The Royals almost let in the tying run on a wild pitch, third strike on the third out.  Perez was able to throw out the batter at first to end the inning.  David Robertson came on in the eighth to lock it down for the seemingly inevitable Yankee comeback.  He let two runners on and then Brian Goodwin hit a three-run homer to right field.  This one went into the second deck and would have gone out at any stadium.  Well, that was unexpected.  9-5 Royals.

In the bottom, the Royals announcers, who I could just barely hear under the Mexican announcers, talked about the new George Steinbrenner mural on a back wall behind the outfield.  They were very complimentary in talking about him.  (Meanwhile, the Yankees’ broadcasters were likely wondering if the Royals might accept a couple of minor leaguers for Salavador Perez.)  Duda sacrificed in a run in the ninth to make it 10-5 Royals, which was the final.  Okay, if the Yankees keep playing entertaining games, I may start looking forward to watching them more.      

The Mexican TV coverage showed highlights from the Rangers pounding the Astros last night.  Tonight, they continued the series in front of a sellout crowd in Houston.  It was Justin Verlander versus some guy I’ve never heard of, Ariel Jurado, which I’ve found myself saying all season about the Rangers’ roster.   

The scoring started in the second with an Isiah Kiner-Falefa solo home run, though Verlander did strikeout out the side.  In the fourth, the Rangers loaded the bases when two infielders collided on a grounder, but no runs scored.  George Springer tied it in the bottom with a solo homer.  In the fifth was the play of the game, as Roughned Odor hit an inside-the-park home run with a head-first slide into the plate.  Springer hit the wall hard trying to get it.  Eric Nadel did a great call of the play.  2-1 Rangers.  

That was Verlanders’ last inning.  Jurado went six in his second MLB start.  Who would have figured this game to be a pitcher’s duel?  Ruggie added to the lead with a solo homer in the seventh, 3-1.  The Chihuahuas had already started their game, but I kept with this game as I unexpectedly still had decent reception late in the evening on my local affiliate. 

In the ninth, the Rangers blew it open.  Ruggie got his fifth hit of the night and was driven in.  Then Joey Gallo delivered the hammer with a monster three-run shot to make it 7-1.  Alex Bregman would get a two-run homer off of Austin Bibens-Dierkx in the bottom.  There was a ball that hit the roof that would have been an out, but was ground-ruled dead.  Finally, a double play ended the game.  7-3 Rangers final.  I can’t believe I was able to listen to the whole game.  It was a pretty quick at two hours, 44 minutes, which helped.  I still like the Astros, but it was good to see the Rangers playing with some pride in their rivalry series.

In Oklahoma City, the Chihuahuas were playing the OKC Dodgers.  In the pregame, Tim Hagerty mentioned that the “Cat delay” video from yesterday went viral in the national sports news.  I flipped over occasionally.  By the fifth, OKC had a 1-0 lead.  I tuned back in for good at just the right time, as Forrestt Allday tied the game in the seventh off of Pat Venditte.  Yes, you’ve heard that name before.  It’s the switch pitcher.  I’m sure Tim talked about him at length, but I missed it.  He did mention that Venditte was throwing to first to warm up his other arm. 

In the eighth, Francisco Mejia doubled and was moved to third, but was left stranded.  In the ninth, Dusty Coleman decided he’d end it with a 400’ blast to centerfield.  Tim did great dramatic call of the homer.  Trey Wingenter closed it out for a very tight 2-1 Chihuahuas win. 

I pressed my luck on reception and tried to get the Rockies game.  Seunghwan Oh, the Final Buddha (still an awesome nickname), made his Rockies debut.  I think he did okay; I couldn’t really hear and eventually I gave up.  It’s been a good, full day of baseball anyway.