Baseball Journal July 7-8, 2018

7-7-18

There was some stiff competition for the Cubs and Reds game on a Mexican channel this Saturday morning.  Umm, there were a couple of really good-looking anchors reading the news on another Mexican station.  One of the girls looked like she’d just walked off the set of a music video where she was a hot, dancing chick.  The other woman had the most luxurious head of hair imaginable.  You could get lost in it.  Somehow, I managed to keep up with the game anyway.

I’d already had a busy morning.  I went over to the Mall and bought an Archie trade paperback: Jughead’s Time Police.  It looks fun and silly.  I said “No,” to a couple of other things though.  I’ve just about completely cleared out my reading pile.  I’m curious what I’ll do when I’m out. 

However, the real reason for the trip was so I could get lunch.  I’d been hearing Raising Canes commercials during Chihuahuas baseball all week and was going crazy.  Friday night, I actually dreamed about eating there.  Usually the only time I’m dreaming about food is when I’ve got a bellyache and it’s not a dream.  Well, there was the restaurant, just across the street.  Unfortunately, it was one of the busiest streets in town.  I was walking at the time and discovered there wasn’t a crosswalk on my side of the street at the intersection.  Undaunted (and hungry), I scampered across with the light.  It was my bravest act of the day.  Finally, I got my chicken fingers, fries, and Texas toast.  Oh, my.  It was even better than I’d dreamed.  I feel like there’s some sort of addictive chemical agent in their food.  I may need more samples.

Back to the game, there was a tremendous crowd at Wrigley and even across the street on the rooftops.  A section of the bleachers was filled with fans wearing yellow.  I never found out what that was about.  Tyler Chatwood loaded the bases full of Reds in the first.  He spiked two successive pitches into the ground that scored two runs, 2-0 Reds.  Matt Harvey started for the Reds and did a reasonable job.  (I don’t have his final line.)

This was the Reds’ broadcast.  Tom Browning was sent up to chat with some Reds fans on a rooftop.  They showed some flashbacks of him doing that as a player during a game.  That just cracks me up.  He was still in the stands later, signing autographs.

Eugenio Suarez hit a three-run homer to make it 5-0 in the fifth.  The Cubs would score two in the fourth to make it 5-2.  Newly slimmed down Kyle Schwarber is still in left field.  He made a good diving catch earlier, but in the fifth, he misplayed a Joey Votto hit off the wall.  Votto later scored, 6-2 Reds.

The broadcast showed video of a Rays player punching a water cooler in the dugout yesterday.  Today, he was smiling and had a sign up on the cooler that read, “I hope we can be friends.”  In the sixth inning, it was finally demonstrated to me that Billy Hamilton is very fast.  I know I’m a little late in that revelation.  This may have been the first time I’ve really gotten to see him play.  He was just a blur around the bases.  Votto drove him in to make it 7-2.  In the bottom, a Reds infielder, with sunglasses on, completely lost a popup which led to a run, 7-3.  A couple plays later, their left fielder lost a ball too.  It must have been a tough sky there today.  Hamilton ran in front of him and just made the catch.

Javier Baez homered in the seventh to make it 7-4.  The Cubs then loaded the bases.  With the crowd standing, the Cubs then tied it on a double and an infield hit.  Anthony Rizzo sacrificed in the winning run.  8-7 Cubs in a typical Wrigley game.  This game took forever to play out.  The Reds changed out pitchers constantly after Harvey left, and nearly ran out of mound visits.  The umps had to huddle and confirm the count at one point.  Still, this was a great game.  

Before the end of the Cubs’ game, I started listening to the Rangers and Tigers.  Unfortunately, it was over in the first.  Cole Hamels lasted 2/3 of an inning and gave up 7 runs, 3 unearned.  Normally sure-handed, Delino Deshields made an error in center that cleared the bases.  The Rangers never recovered. 

Eric Nadel talked about being a tennis ball boy (presumably at the US Open).  There was a trivia question that I didn’t understand (poor reception) that took the guys several innings to answer.  The Rangers lost 7-2.  Matt Moore and Alex Claudio did good jobs in long relief and Roughned Odor hit a home run. 

This was kind of annoying in the evening.  FOX’s Saturday Night baseball was on at the same time as NBC’s NASCAR coverage of the Coke 400.  Given that I don’t like the Dodgers or the Angels, who were playing, I should have watched the race more.  Also, the Chihuahuas started playing an hour later, and I had to listen to them.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. was on NBC’s broadcast as their new color commentator.  I like his energy, though I wasn’t able to listen much.  I may have seen him smile more on this broadcast than in his entire racing career.  That plaid jacket has to go though, without a doubt. 

As I kept flipping back and forth, I couldn’t help but notice that I wasn’t running into commercials like I usually do when half-watching a race.  Hopefully, there will be a race on soon that I can watch and give more attention to.  (And I got to see Kelli Stavast   

a couple of times.  Squee!)

Like I said, I wasn’t rooting for either the Dodgers or the Angels.  I did cheer in the first as Joc Pederson robbed Albert Pujols with a diving catch with two on.  There was no score through four.  I missed “The Big One” at Daytona for that.  Justin Turner doubled in two in the fifth.  By crowd noise and shirt color, I can tell there were plenty of Dodger fans in attendance there in Anaheim.  I flipped back in time to see another big wreck at the race.  I think leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was blamed for the wrecks, but he stayed up front.  In the sixth, Mike Trout hit a solo home run, going 3 for 3 to this point.  He has Dodger starter Ross Stripling’s number.  I think they said Trout had never made an out facing him.    

Joe Buck and John Smoltz were calling the game, so I had the mute button on most of the time.  They seemed to mostly be talking about the other regional game with the Nationals.  They were wondering if the Nats might trade a poorly-performing Bryce Harper if the team starts to fall out of contention.  I guess the players figured that out and that’s what caused their team meeting a couple of days ago.  As Smoltz said, “If you’re having a team meeting, always do it right before your ace pitches.”  In this case, do it right before you play a terrible team.  Tonight, Mark Reynolds single-handedly beat the Marlins with 10 RBI’s.  (Why did the Rockies let this guy go again?)  After the Marlins, the Nats next play the fading Pirates and Mets.  It looks like the winning will continue without the need for another meeting.

It was the ninth at the ballgame and inside of 10 laps at the race.  It got a bit easier to choose as another late wreck brought on overtime.  Stenhouse would not make it to the end after leading most of the race.  Yasiel Puig homered to give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead in the top of the ninth.  In the bottom, Shohei Ohtani fouled a ball off himself and was clearly injured.  Just what him and the team needed, another injury.  The Dodgers won 3-1 and the Anaheim crowd cheered (?).  In overtime, there was another large wreck just about one second before the leader would have crossed the line and made the race official.  Surprisingly, Erik Jones would hold off Martin Truex Jr. in the second overtime for his maiden win (as they say in F1).            

The Chihuahuas/Bees game started with a bang as Franmil Reyes hit a home run over the batter’s eye in Salt Lake.  Tim Hagerty was excited and estimated it at 440’.  The crowd was less enthusiastic.  It was also Reyes’ birthday today. 

He wasn’t the only one having a good game.  Eric Young Jr. (I saw his old man at a game once, 5-29-16) hit a two-run homer into a tree in the third.  In the fifth, he had a solo home run and another run scored later, 4-1 Bees.  The pups started a comeback in the sixth as Auston Bousfield singled in Allen Craig.  Dusty Coleman made a great play in the field in the bottom of the sixth and hit a solo home run in the seventh, 4-3. 

In the eighth, the Chihuahuas loaded the bases with no outs.  Tim dropped all objectivity and was urging them to score.  Forrestt Allday obliged and singled in two runs to give the team a 5-4 lead.  In the ninth, Phil Maton closed it out.  Young was the last out.  He hit it deep to the warning track and nearly tied it.  Whew!  And what a long, busy day.

  

7-8-18

The broadcast for today’s Rangers/Tigers game was buzzing, albeit in a confused manner.  Right before the game, the team had traded for a good low minor leaguer and a Major Leaguer they weren’t planning keeping for a player to be named later.  Is that ambiguous enough for you?  Don’t expect any in depth analysis on this deal here.

As I tuned in late for the game (thanks to my affiliate and that I was eating lunch at my parents’ apartment beforehand), the Rangers were up 1-0 after one inning.  A Ranger player I’d never heard of (sounds like most of this season), Carlos Tocci, and who isn’t listed in my baseball preview, got hit on the head trying to get to first after a great bunt.  Eric Nadel and Matt Hicks thought he was coming out for injury, but he was actually called out for being out of the lane. 

Manager Jeff Bannister was ejected for arguing, since that call wiped off a run.  This all started a discussion in the booth about the lane.  Tocci was crossing over to get to the base, which isn’t in the lane, when he was hit.  Eric wants a rules change.  The run scored anyway on an error.  Shin Soo-Choo drove in another on a fielder’s choice, 3-0 Rangers.

In the eighth, Joey Gallo hit into a double play.  That was his first of the year.  He had the longest streak in the MLB without one.  In the bottom, Jurickson Profar started a double play with a throw behind his back.  Choo’s on base streak was in jeopardy, but he got an infield hit in the ninth to extend it to 47-games and a team record.

Keone Kela converted the save for a 3-0 Rangers win.  He’s 22 out of 22 chances.  Austin Bibens-Dierkx got the win.  He struck out side in bottom of the second.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa did a good job as his battery mate and threw out a runner early.  Choo and Kela might be in line for All-Star nods later.  We even got a good rain shower here during the game.  (Trust me, that’s big news in Las Cruces.)

It was an extraordinarily quiet crowd in Salt Lake.  Attendance was later announced at 3,000, which is way off their 14,500 Fourth of July crowd.  The Bee’s opponent, the Chihuahuas, have won 15 of 18, including four in a row there.  The Bees were up 3-0 in second after two-run homer.  The ball landed in front of the kids’ train beyond the outfield wall.  I kind of missed a couple innings listening to the end of the Rangers’ game.  I did hear Ben Revere steal two bases in the fourth.  That guy plays really hard.

In the fifth (score unknown), Dusty Coleman hit a two-run homer.  Brett Nicholas shot a ball through a gap from the shift to drive in another run.  Raffy Lopez then doubled him in.  Revere almost made a great catch at the wall on it.  It was 6-3 Chihuahuas at that point.  In the bottom, the Bees scored one and threatened more with the bases loaded with one out.  Colin Rea was left in and got out of it with a double play.  The Chihuahuas seemed surprised by the end of the inning and stayed on the field for a moment.  Perhaps they forgot the strikeout earlier or didn’t think a DP could be turned that started with a dropped ball and with Revere running to first.

The Chihuahuas came right back with a two-run homer in the sixth by Javy Guerra, and Raffy hit a grand slam in the eighth.  Runs kept getting tacked on by both teams, but the Chihuahuas really piled on to the tune of 15-6, which was the final.  That was a five-game sweep on the road.  I bet the team really wishes the All-Star break didn’t start tomorrow; they are red-hot.  Tim Hagerty was wondering during the game how close they were to a record with all of the doubles hit in the game.  The final cheer from the crowd came in the ninth, as a pair of rowdy fans were ejected.

After about 15 insipid minutes of ESPN Radio commentary (the hosts don’t like baseball except to criticize it, we get it), the equally insipid Baseball Tonight pregame came on (they at least pretend to like baseball).  It was slightly interesting since they announced the All-Star Game selections.  Bryce Harper was voted in, as per his demands.  Now he has to show up and play in the Home Run Derby.  That plan might have backfired on him, as the rest of the starters are preparing their excuses so they can take the break off. 

Mike Trout was voted to his seventh ASG in his seventh year of playing.  The previous hosts (the baseball haters) were complaining about how nobody knows about him and his greatness.  The fans seem to be aware of him.  Guys, it’s a team sport.  If Trout wants more publicity, it doesn’t matter where he plays; he needs to play on a team that doesn’t suck.  

It was the Dodgers versus the Angels again for the Sunday Night game.  Yea.  (Sarcasm.)  Yasiel Puig had a three-run homer in the second, but he pulled a muscle in his ribcage in the fourth on a swing and had to come out.  Justin Upton had a two-run single in the third to get the Angels to 3-2. 

The fifth may have been pivotal.  The Dodgers loaded bases with two outs, but left them all there, even after challenging a close play at first that ended the inning.  In the sixth, Albert Pujols had a solo home run to tie it.  The broadcasters mentioned that while his other stats had gone down, he was still producing RBI’s.  Oh, is this why Sabrmetricans say RBI’s are a meaningless stat?  (They’re still wrong, even if I have to pass up a cheap shot at Albert.)  In the seventh, an injured Shohei Ohtani pinch hit and homered to put the Angels up for good, 4-3.  He was real slow going around the bases.  This is probably a bad sign, in spite of the win.