8-10-18
The MLB.TV
free game was radio-only with the Diamondbacks
versus the Reds. I tuned in to hear Greg Schulte, who I used to listen to on a daily basis when the
D-backs games were carried locally. He
wasn’t there in Cincinnati, but Luis
Gonzalez was there doing the color commentary. It’s always good to hear from the 2001 World
Series hero. I never got the name of the
play-by-play guy. He was giving Gonzo
the business, as he tried to remember his hitting stats in the Queen city. They had a nice banter going, but I was busy and
didn’t follow the game much.
At my other workstation, I listened a bit to the Richmond Flying Squirrels. Their season had had a couple of
disappointments this year, namely that they missed Tim Tebow (injury) and Vladimir
Guerrero Jr. (call up) as visiting players.
During their games, they do a report of the other Giants’ affiliates. Of
particular interest, they talked about the Augusta
Greenjackets, specifically their Twitter account. After a three-hour delay, the Greenjackets
won Game 1 of a double header in extra innings.
Here’s their tweet: “Greenjackets win on a walkoff balk. Hey, we’ll take it. Game 2 of the double header will be starting
at 12:55 am. That’s right AM.” This led to a response: “We’re down to about
20 fans.” And the reply: “Shoutout to
those fans. You guys are dedicated.”
They did actually end up cancelling the game, likely
after somebody read the league rules, which probably prohibit starting games
that late. This reminds me of last
years’ double header between the Chihuahuas
and the Baby Cakes (8-4-17). The games had relevancy to the playoffs, so
they had to get them in if at all possible.
Game 1 got delayed by rain and started at 8:00 in New Orleans. The PCL had to waive their curfew rule before
the games even began. Game 2 started at
10:45 and went into extra innings and didn’t end until after 1:30 am there.
I’m sure Tim Hagerty
remembers staying up for that game well.
The Chihuahuas played the Rivercats
later tonight. Tim stopped his pregame
for the Anthem, which was a great idea, because the lady did a really great job
of singing it. There were some familiar
names at the park today. Giant Gregor Blanco was in the game for
Sacramento. A pair of guys with great
names were in the lineups: River Stevens
with the Chihuahuas and Ryder Jones
for the ‘Cats. Barry Zito, working in the Giants’ farm system, was also in the
stadium and signing autographs.
Let’s quickly sum up the first seven innings. In the second, Auston Bousfield reached over the wall to rob a Rivercats’
homer. In the third, Chihuahuas’
starter, Kyle Lloyd, tripled but was
stranded. That hit was a bigger deal
than you might think. Rivercats’
starter, Daniel Camarena, threw six
1-2-3 innings apart from that single hit.
A couple of fans got hit by foul balls, even with the extended netting,
so it was still pretty exciting to be there in the crowd.
Pups’ pitching was pretty good too; it was 0-0 going
into the eighth. In the top, Ty France got the second Chihuahuas’
hit. Two strikeouts followed, but then a
walk. A new pitcher came to face Luis Urias. It was a battle, but Urias went down on
strikes. In the bottom, the crowd and
Tim were into it. Peter Bourjos doubled, and the El Paso pitcher came out for an injury. Bourjos was sacrificed over, but he got in caught
a rundown at home on a grounder by Ryder Jones, who made it to second. Cesar Puello drove him in on a single
to give the Rivercats at 1-0 lead.
It wasn’t over yet.
In the ninth, the pups got two singles, but a fly out and a double play
ended the game, 1-0 Rivercats. That was disappointing, but still pretty
dramatic. I should mention that it was
an odd day at work. I had to come in
early for a meeting, about seven and a half hours early. I ended up sticking around all day, took a
nap, watched Cincinbear on Twitch, some Gibi ASMR, and then clocked back in for the evening. I don’t even want to add up how long I was
there, but it wasn’t too bad. Having
interesting stuff to listen and watch helped.
I did finally ask my boss about the Chihuahuas’ radio
station being blocked on the network. He
didn’t block it, but also wasn’t able to get it unblocked. He’d had trouble earlier in the day when a
senior officer asked him to unblock the PGA
website for the PGA Championship being played today. He wasn’t able to get that to come through
either, which may have possibly shortened employment tenure. Who’s controlling our network!
8-11-18
This worked out well.
The MLB game on Mexican TV this morning was the Rangers at the Yankees. So, I was able to bring up the Rangers’ radio
broadcast to listen to while I was watching the game. The TV was about 30 seconds behind the radio call,
but it wasn’t too bad. What was bad was
the impending weather in New York City.
It was 80+ degrees with 79% humidity.
Can you guess that the forecast was for rain? Still, that didn’t deter 45,000 fans from
showing up with umbrellas and ponchos ready.
In the first, with Shin-Soo
Choo on first, Roughned Odor
struck out on a hit and run. The umpire,
however, made a slow call and Choo reached second without a throw. It was an odd-looking play. In the bottom, Giancarlo Stanton hit a solo home run on a 3-0 pitch. Greg
Bird drove in a run to make it 2-0 Yankees.
In the second, Ronald
Guzman came to bat. He got mentioned
on the Mexican pregame show where he was called, “Yankee killer.” Last night, he had three home runs in a big 12-7
win. The Condor also had his whole
family there, in Rangers gear, watching.
His dad hadn’t seen him play in person in the Bigs before because of a
fear of flying. Guzman was pitched
around and walked twice in the game.
In the third, a light rain started. Matt
Hicks gave some ominous weather warnings concerning the rest of the
afternoon. On field, Elvis Andrus drove in Choo from
third. Elvis was then thrown out at
second, when he tried to take second on a pitch that skipped a little ways away
from the catcher. Adrian Beltre was at the plate at the time and had motioned for him
to stay. 2-1 Yankees.
In the fourth, the Yankees stranded two runners. Eric
Nadel and Matt were looking at the radar and counting the outs until the
game was official. The imminent storm
cell just missed the stadium as the guys seemed ready to call the game for
weather. In the fifth, Ranger starter, Drew Hutchinson came out with one
on. The runner scored, but it was a good
effort today, much better than his start last Sunday (8-5-18). 3-1 Yankees.
In the seventh, the TV coverage was showing dark clouds
massing overhead. This was the YES TV
coverage. They were doing game breaks
showing the Red Sox game in progress. It
was the only other game being played at the time, but it looked like the
Yankees were watching the Sox with stalker-like green envy. Zach
Britton came in for the Yankees and loaded the bases with two outs. He walked Beltre to bring in a run. Ruggie was moved up to third. Odor faked a move to home and drew a balk out
of Britton which brought him home as the tying run. When are pitchers going to stop falling for
that?
The rain finally arrived in the bottom. It was heavy enough to send the fans
scurrying for cover. Ranger reliever, Chris Martin, actually lost his grip on
the ball and dropped it on the mound. He
also dropped the ball in pitching and gave up a two-run homer to Miguel Andujar. In fairness, the ball went out to right field
and would have been an out in any other stadium (except ironically the Rangers’
Globe Life Park). 5-3 Yankees.
In the eighth, the rain stopped temporarily. Eric jipped Paul Olden making a PA player introduction and dedicated his
limerick of the day to him. Olden
replaced the Yankees’ iconic PA, Bob
Sheppard, whom I do a great impersonation of. Pouring rain began again in the bottom. Matt made a Biblical movie reference to the
cloud cover.
Aroldis
Chapman came in to close in the ninth. The rain could be classified as a
deluge. The guys in the booth could hear
it hitting the mound from the field mics.
Chapman was having some understandable trouble gripping the ball and
finding the strikezone, as he walked Isiah Kiner-Falefa. New dry balls were being cycled into the game
constantly. At this point, the field was
wrecked and the umps certainly didn’t want to call the game or suspend it
now.
Chapman got two outs as the rain faded
a bit, but then Ruggie singled. Beltre next
took a 100mph fastball to his thigh. He
jumped around and whinced, but waved off the trainer as soon as he got to
him. Jurickson Profar came up with the bases loaded. Even the rain held its breath as their battle
went to a full count. Finally, Chapman
struck out Profar swinging on a strike to the outer black. Yankees
win 5-3. “What a finish!” proclaimed
Eric. I have to admit, even with the
result, that was a great game. No doubt
the weather added to the drama.
The environment was nicer in Sacramento. The California wildfires had died down a bit,
I guess. Tim Hagerty reported not smelling smoke for the game between the Chihuahuas and the Rivercats. There were 10,000
in attendance. Perhaps there were
fireworks afterward. Would that be a
fire hazard?
Brandon
Belt,
rehabbing from the Giants, was in the lineup for the Rivercats. The crowd gave him a good cheer when he came
up to bat. Before the game, Tim
mentioned that there had been four total runs in the last two games. For the first three innings, it was looking
like more of the same. In the fourth,
after a couple of deep shots to the outfield, Allen Craig finally willed one over the fence to make it 1-0
Chihuahuas. In the bottom, the ‘Cats hit
a couple of deep fly balls. Forrestt Allday was kept busy in the
outfield. In the fifth, he made another
great catch at the wall.
In the sixth, Belt came out of the game. His replacement at first got booed. Cold.
More Allday (and all night) as he doubled in the inning. Raffy
Lopez drove him in to make it 2-0 pups.
Chihuahuas’ starter, Logan Allen,
in his Triple-A debut, was putting on a great performance. It wasn’t until this inning that the
Rivercats finally threatened. They got
two on with nobody out. Logan got a
strikeout, but then loaded the bases.
Then it was Allday again, who made a sliding catch on a shallow hit that
saved a run. Logan stayed in and faced Kelby Tomlinson. It went to a full count, but Logan finished
with another strikeout.
In the seventh, there was another fan hit by a
ball. I think it was a kid hit in the
stomach. Tim reported he had the wind
knocked out of him. More netting? The Rivercats’ manager got himself ejected
after taking out his pitcher after a pair of Chihuahuas got on. He was complaining about check swing call
that resulted in a walk and two on, instead of a strikeout and a caught
stealing at second. An intentional walk
then loaded the bases, but a double play ended the inning without damage.
Raffy had a rough eighth. He made an error on a bunt base hit and the
batter would come around to score later.
Another batter hit him on the head on his backswing, which resulted in
concussion protocols by the trainer. Rowan Wick came in and got a strikeout
to end the inning, but it was now 2-1.
In the ninth, Shane Peterson
tripled, but a strikeout and another double play kept the pups from getting any
insurance runs. Wick came back out in
the bottom and didn’t need a bigger lead.
Allday appropriately squeezed the final out in the outfield for a 2-1 Chihuahuas’ win. They also gained a game on the Bees, who lost
tonight. This was a good day of
baseball.
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