8-25-18
Today’s MLB game
on Mexican TV was the Cubs and the Reds.
The game started a bit too quick for them and they weren’t able to show
all the league standings. Oh, my
God. The Orioles are 52 games back in the AL East. The Yankees are only 8 ½ games back as the
Red Sox are now only playing .600+ ball.
Some divisions are decided, others are too close to call.
In the second, Daniel Murphy hit a two-run homer to
cap a three-run inning for the Cubs. It’s
his second homer since he was been traded from the Nationals. In the third, he
made a diving catch at second. That was
his second good fielding play of the game.
I told you this guy was a good pickup for the Cubs.
Kyle Schwarber
hit a two-run homer in the fourth to make it 5-2. The pitcher spun around on the mound without
looking at the ball fly out. By the
seventh, it was 7-2. Cubs’ catcher Willson Contreras got the Purple Heart
for this game. After getting hit on the
knee while batting in the first, a foul ball bounced off the ground and hit him
right between the legs while he was catching.
(I didn’t need the slo-mo replay of that.)
His Little League
uniform nickname read “Willy the Beast.”
The players were all wearing Little
League World Series style uniforms this weekend. Speaking of that, Hawaii won US bracket this afternoon while this game was going
on. I stopped watching the LLWS after
too many domestic abuse scandals and steroid allegations. I also don’t like the kids taking a knee
during the Anthem, even the International kids doing it now. (Or maybe I couldn’t take the five-minute
commercial breaks between each inning and the announcers breaking down each
kid’s game like they’re a bunch of prospects in the minors.)
The Reds played
like a bunch of Little Leaguers in the bottom of the seventh. (Ooh, what a segue.) Three fielders converged on a popup only to
have it clank off a glove and load the bases.
“Murph” hit a sure double play ball that the shortstop muffed, allowing
everyone to be safe. A single drove in
two more runs. The bases were loaded
again before the Reds got the final out.
It was now 10-2 Cubs.
In the eighth,
the Reds did make a comeback on a three-run homer, followed by a solo shot, to
make it 10-6. I’d name names here, but I
had the sound down and couldn’t figure out who was who based on the nicknames
on the back of their jerseys. In the
ninth, Anthony “Tony” Rizzo went
over the rail at the camera well to catch a foul ball for the second time. The Cubs won 10-6 and are looking sharp.
About halfway
through the Cubs’ game, the Rangers
and Giants game came on the
radio. As the coverage started, Brandon Crawford hit a three-run homer
to center as part of a four-run inning in the first for the Giants. Well, that was all the scoring until the
seventh, when Hunter Pence hit a
pinch hit homer for a 5-0 lead.
I didn’t hear
about last night’s game until today, but the Rangers went down early then and
came back late and won. This afternoon
in the eighth, Roughned Odor hit a
three-run bomb off Hunter Strickland
to make it 5-3. He’d hit a similar home
run last night. Joey Gallo had reached on an error with two outs to start the
rally.
I suddenly became
a bit worried about Eric. To start the
eighth, he got ready to read his daily limerick. It was dedicated to Bruce Bochy, manager of the “A’s?” And then he lost the paper that he wrote it
on and couldn’t read it until he found it later. On the other hand, Eric did write a limerick,
something I couldn’t do on the fly, so he’s still got plenty of faculties
left.
Ranger reliever Chris Martin let runners on the corners
with no outs in the bottom of the eighth, but got out of it. In the ninth, the Rangers got two on in
scoring position. Adrian Beltre came in as a pinch hitter, but struck out. Bochy took out his closer after a walk loaded
the bases. Carlos Perez, just called up, came in to pinch hit and ended the
game on a fly out. Giants won 5-3. That wasn’t much
of a game until the end.
Aggie Football’s
game against Wyoming and the Chihuahuas’ game against the Rainiers both started at the same time
later at night. Football was on FM and
was the Aggies’ opening game of the season.
The Chihuahuas’ station was on AM and was coming in poorly tonight,
however they were on the verge of clinching their division tonight. I put two radios on and tried to listen to
both, which worked about as well as you’d think.
Let’s just pull
the band-aid off. The Aggies lost 29-7. Those 7 points came inside of the last two
minutes when new quarterback, Matt
Romero, threw a 31-yard touchdown.
It was against the Cowboys’ first team defense, who were going for the
shutout and are reportedly one of the top 10 defenses in the country. Offense and special teams were an issue
tonight for the Aggies. 20,000 fans
showed up at Aggie Memorial stadium,
which is awesome. That’s about 2/3
capacity. Hopefully, they’ll all come back
next month for the game against the Lobos.
In Tacoma, the Chihuahuas either needed a win tonight
or a loss by the Bees in the Fresno
to win the division and get to the playoffs.
Admittedly, it’s a matter of “when” not “if,” but you want to hear that
winning moment. The Rainiers went up 4-0 early.
The pups got back in it with a couple of runs in the fourth. In the seventh, they put up three runs to
take the lead, 5-4.
But in the
bottom, the Rainiers tied it back up on a solo home run. In the eighth, they loaded the bases and
scored them all, as Dusty Coleman
fell down in the outfield trying to catch the ball. In the ninth, down 8-5, Tim Hagerty was somewhat excited by the out-of-town score. The Bees and the Grizzlies were in the ninth.
The Grizz were down 6-2 to start the inning, but had scored a couple and
had two on. The Chihuahuas got one on in
their ninth, but a double play ended the game, 8-5 Rainiers. We went to
commercial.
A completely
stunned Tim Hagerty came back on two minutes later and announced that the
Grizzlies had beaten the Bees. The
Chihuahuas are the PCL Southern Division
champs for the fourth time in a row!
What a way to end a 10-game winning streak! Tim pronounced Kyle Tucker a “friend of the Chihuahuas” for his walk-off home run
in Fresno, at least until the playoffs.
That homer also clinched a playoff berth for the Grizzlies too. Okay, that was fun and unexpected.
8-26-18
When I got back
from Aggie Soccer, I tuned
into Stadium for a scheduled Women’s
College Volleyball match, which wasn’t on, as usual, unless they finished up
real early. I’m getting disenchanted with
their scheduling. The Chihuahuas were on and I came into
their game with the Rainiers in the
seventh.
With the pups
clinching yesterday, neither team is playing for anything. Manager
Rod Barajas even put out a joke lineup card before the game. It was 4-2 El Paso when I started
listening. Tim Hagerty was commenting on the between-innings entertainment
there in Tacoma where a community theater puts on skits. They only do original bits. So, as Tim said, “Sometimes they’re good,
sometimes not.”
The first pitch
of the bottom of the seventh went straight out to make it 4-3. Then the score would get tied on a blooper
just inside the foul line. The crowd got
into it and then booed loudly on a close play at first that ended the
inning. The Chihuahuas worked three
walks to start the ninth. Auston Bousfield drove in one run on a
fielder’s choice, but that was enough. Seth Simmons allowed a lead-off single
to start the bottom, but got the save. 5-4 Chihuahuas.
KROD
carried the ESPN game right
afterward. It was the Yankees versus the Orioles. Didn’t I just
mention that the O’s are 52 games out of first in the AL East? (It may be more than that today.) I know these games are chosen well in
advance, but was this really the best matchup to broadcast? I was almost insulted. Was this game even necessary? I think we can all guess who the winner was
going to be, it was just a question what the final score would be (in this
case, 5-3 Yankees). The Red
Sox have hit a bit of a skid lately and the Yankees are closing in, just five
games back.
I did learn a
couple of things from the broadcast. You
can use player nicknames to get their attention for autographs. And Hawaii
won the Little League World Series
over Japan. Congratulations.
8-27-18
I hate to admit I
wasn’t into baseball today. Going to the
soccer match yesterday got me
worked up for Aggie Sports this
season. I made a half-hearted attempt at
listening to the Giants and the Diamondbacks on the MLB.TV free game. The warm friendly tones of Jon Miller greeted me on the broadcast
for a game that at least was meaningful for the D-Backs. However, the stream suddenly dropped when I
walked away from my desk for a minute and I gave up on it. Listening at my other workstation to another
game, the Richmond Flying Squirrels
were in the midst of a three-game, 20+ inning scoreless streak. Their announcers were downright depressed.
I eventually
settled on listening to the Chihuahuas
playing the Rainiers, but didn’t pay
a huge amount of attention. Granted that
the pups have won their division, the rest of the regular season doesn’t
matter. Not to mention, I missed all of
the scoring in the game. That was Shane Peterson getting an RBI hit in
the second inning. The final score was a
1-0 Chihuahuas’ victory. Logan
Allen, Kazuhisa Makita, Carter Capps, and Rowan Wick obviously pitched well for the dogs.
Speaking of Kaz, Tim Hagerty mentioned that most
Japanese players in the US have significant fan followings in their home
country. Kaz live-streamed the
Chihuahuas’ victory celebration on Saturday to thousands of people back in
Japan. Tim gave the disturbing news during
the game that Chihuahuas’ star Luis
Urias was about to be called up because of an injury on the Padres.
He did assure everyone that all Triple-A teams lose good players at this
time of year. Don’t panic yet. This was the Rainiers last home game of the
season. After the game, their players went
into the crowd to sign autographs. That’s
a nice gesture.
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