Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Baseball Journal August 25-27, 2018

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment