Friday, August 10, 2018

Baseball Journal August 6-9, 2018

8-6-18
I finally figured out that I was using the wrong e-mail address to log into MLB.com Friday.  No wonder it wasn’t working.  I still don’t know why it was demanding that I login.  Ironically, I was too busy tonight to watch the free game, Tigers versus Angels.  What little I did watch was two out-of-contention teams going through the motions while playing in front of a lousy crowd in Anaheim.  It was kind of depressing.  The Angels had such high hopes this year.  Now they have the final indignity of their manager, Mike Scioscia, denying reports that he’s retiring, while the baseball media is writing retrospectives on his career.  I don’t want to feel sorry for these guys, but it’s kind of hard not to.

In El Paso, the Chihuahuas continued their series against the Round Rock Express.  The pups came out swinging.  In the first, Luis Urias hit a two-run homer.  Auston Bousfield nearly hit another, but still doubled in two runs.  Javy Guerra drove him in with a triple off the wall.  The crowd moaned.  They wanted him to go for an inside-the-park home run, but settled for a 5-0 lead.

Call up, Cal Quantrill started for the Chihuahuas.  The Express loaded the bases on him in the fourth and got a run, but Cal got a double play next to end the inning, 5-1.  In the fifth, the Express again went to a four-man outfield for Raffy LopezHanser Alberto, playing nowhere near third base, got the out standing in the outfield.  Round Rock scored in the sixth to make it 5-2, but the Chihuahuas loaded the bases in the bottom.  Raffy got a RBI on a walk.  Brett Nicholas got another on a fielder’s choice, 7-2.

Tim Hagerty got a weather report from Omaha where the Storm Chasers were playing the Bees.  It was raining and the game was official.  He was hoping for a rainout and it happened later, so the pups would be gaining a game on the Bees tonight.  On the subject of the Angels’ affiliate, Tim talked about Scioscia retiring.  Seriously, the last quote I’ve seen from Scioscia was that he wasn’t leaving.

I was having déjà vu in the seventh, Raffy drove in another run on a bases loaded walk.  Forrestt Allday and Nicholas also drove in runs to make it 10-3 Chihuahuas, which was the final.  That’s six wins in a row!  Cal got the win.  Eric Yardley, the only other pitcher used, got a three-inning save. 

8-7-18
Once again, I was too busy to watch the MLB.TV free game.  It was the Cardinals versus the Marlins.  I like the Cards, but this wasn’t the most relevant matchup for potential playoff baseball.  There wasn’t a great crowd there in Miami, and it looked like there was quite a bit of Cardinal red in the stands.  The announcers even mentioned a family they’d met that follows the Cards around for road games.  I’m still amazed by how pleasant Tim McCarver is during the Cardinal broadcasts I’ve seen him on, totally unlike his broadcasts with Joe Buck.  The Cards got a good 3-2 comeback win, though I can’t honestly tell you how it happened.

I’m going to have to talk to somebody about not being to get Chihuahuas’ games at my other workstation.  It’s killing me and affecting my work.  I listened to the end of a Flying Squirrels’ game.  I missed apparently the play of the game where a Rumble Ponies’ player successfully stole second and was then ejected.  I didn’t get an explanation in the postgame. 

The Chihuahuas played the Round Rock Express in their final game of their series.  The puppies (I’m just going to keep trying to find another nickname for El Paso) got the scoring started in the third with an error and Francisco Mejia and Raffy Lopez driving in runs.  Raffy was thrown out at the plate on an Allen Craig single, but three runs scored in the inning.  Round Rock came back in the fifth with a two-run homer and then tied it on another run. 

The Chihuahuas came right back in the bottom, as Craig doubled in two to make it 5-3.  The Express intentionally walked Raffy to pitch to him.  They seemed scared to death of Raffy at the plate this series.  However, the Express went through two Chihuahuas’ relievers in the seventh to take the lead with three runs, 6-5 Round Rock. 

The bottom of the seventh got interesting in a different way.  El Paso manager, Rod Barajas, started giving the ump grief from the dugout during Forrestt Allday’s leadoff at bat.  Allday struck out, made a quick comment to the ump, and was immediately ejected.  Barajas charged out the dugout and threw down his hat and was also ejected.  The fans cheered him on.  After he left the field, Barajas threw another hat out on the field for good measure.  Luis Urias then struck out and had words with ump, but remained in the game.  Mejia then struck out to end the inning.  No arguments there and not unexpected given how the inning started.

In the eighth, Shane Peterson made a great jumping catch of a foul in the outfield.  In the bottom, Deolis Gurrea, the Round Rock pitcher from the last inning, finished out his line with five strikeouts, one walk, and one groundball.  In the top of the ninth, Brad Wieck started complaining about the strikezone from the mound along with one of the coaches in the dugout.  I’m guessing the game was being poorly called, but that’s a dangerous way to live as a pitcher.  Babe Ruth, as a pitcher, got tossed for arguing like that. 

Bottom of the ninth, down one run.  No problem.  Javy Guerra bunted his way on to first.  Dusty Coleman then doubled into the corner to put the both of them into scoring position.  Brett Nicholas, facing his old team, singled.  Guerra scored to tie it and Dusty came in under the tag with the winning run.  Chihuahuas 7-6 to complete a four-game sweep.  Not to mention, they did it off RJ Alvarez, the best closer in the league.  Oh, the Chihuahuas must be hating that they’re getting a day off tomorrow when they’re this hot.

8-8-18
Day game today in Arlington between the Rangers and Mariners.  It wasn’t blisteringly hot there, but was very humid without a breeze.  The Rangers had five rookies in the lineup, I guess to see if they can really play or not.  I joined the game (or rather my local affiliate joined the game) in the first with the M’s up 1-0.  Adrian Beltre drove in a run on an error.  Joey Gallo singled (!) to drive in another.  He now has one more single than home runs (that’ll change here shortly).  It was 2-1 Rangers right off the bat (see what I did there).   

In the second, there was an uncharacteristic error on a foul ball by Ronald Guzman, but no harm was done.  In the bottom, Willie Calhoon took first after being hit by a pitch, maybe.  Or did ball hit the bat and was it an out?  The umps conferred about it and didn’t change anything.  Then Mariners’ manager, Scott Servais, came out and complained.  Calhoon was called out.   Unsurprisingly, the Rangers’ manager, Jeff Bannister, came out and asked for a challenge.  Eric Nadel called this whole incident a “fiasco.”  Calhoon was obviously hit in the replay and stayed at first.  “We have been subjected to four minutes of twittery,” declared Eric. 

It was Gallo again in the third with a two-run home run.  Guzman joined in by driving in another run, 5-1.  The Rangers were getting their hits today.  In the fifth, Mike Zunino homered to the tune of one of the longest home run calls ever.  Eric kept hesitating, because it looked like it might get caught by Carlos Tocci at the wall, 5-2.

Then that Gallo guy came up again in the bottom with a leadoff home run.  It was his 31-st of year.  He probably has more homers than singles again.  There was also another long home run call as the ball just tucked around the pole.  Matt Hicks was convinced that the pitch was so inside that it should have hit him.  How did he hit that out?  The Rangers keep hitting and scored another run on a double play, 7-2.  In the sixth, Roughned Odor tripled.  He hit it right into the shift and it still fell in.  Ruggie ended up getting caught in a long rundown on an Elvis Andrus hit, who made it all the way to third during the play.  The M’s pitcher somehow got injured on the play and had to come out.     

Yovani Gallardo went six strong innings for the Rangers in sweltering conditions.  In the seventh, the Rangers gave up a run on bad defense and had to go to a second reliever, who gave up two more.  Suddenly it was 7-6.  No worries.  In the bottom, Guzman drove in Isiah Kiner-Falefa with a double.  Isiah got on after Dee Gordon took a ball in the face from a bad hop.  Calhoon then doubled in Guzman, and Jurickson Profar drove in a run.  What was in the water today! 

It was a long hot inning.  A new M’s reliever came in.  With Profar at second, Kyle Seager somehow brain farted on an Andrus’ grounder and everyone was safe.  I was listening and I’m still not sure what happened.  No error was charged and Elvis got on via a fielder’s choice.  Seager had had a rough series with three errors and a mental error over the last two games.  Beltre drove Profar in to make it 11-6 Rangers.

In the eighth, Eric read a fan submitted limerick and encouraged others to send theirs’ in.  I’ll get my quill out and start scribbling later.  In the ninth, Zunino hit his second homer to lead off, but that was the last score of the game.  11-7 Rangers!  The boys pounded out 19 hits today!  Well, that was fun.  That was also my only game of the day, except for a little Flying Squirrels’ action.  In the postgame, they promoted the next game featuring “Fireworks in your face!”  No explanation was given.  Before the game, some of the players will also be doing faith testimonials for the crowd.  I hope these two events don’t end up being connected in some tragic way.

8-9-18
The Blue Jays faced the mighty Red Sox in Toronto in the MLB.TV free game.  It was already 3-2 Jays in the second inning.  It looked like a great game.  If only I had time to watch.  (Not to mention Gibi on Twitch was playing Monster Hunter, which dropped today.)  I did see a beauty of a catch by a fan of a Teoscar Hernandez home run.  The fan reached over (but wasn’t interfering with play like he would be in Yankee Stadium) with his mitt and backhanded it.  He then handed it to his boy sitting next to him.  Awesome.  The Blue Jays won 8-5 in a good, back-and-forth game.

I have to mention the Flying Squirrels’ game tonight.  In the eighth, their announcer made the comment that the Rumble Ponies’ manager was “Treating this like Game 7 of the World Series.”  There were three runners on base, all of them put there by different pitchers.  A fourth pitcher came in and struck out Jonah Arenado to end the inning.  In the postgame, I could hear the explosions and terrified screams of agony from the Squirrels’ “Fireworks in your face” promotion.  Like the event organizers, I’m shocked that this turned out so badly.  Who could have guessed?

Meanwhile, the Chihuahuas played the Rivercats in Sacramento.  There was a haze in the air from the California wildfires.  (When is the whole state finally going to burn down?)  The game in Fresno was actually delayed for poor air quality.  Kelby Tomlinson was playing for the ‘Cats tonight, down from the Giants.  Tim Hagerty talked about the Rivercats being affiliated with the Giants because they were more popular than the A’s in Sacramento.  Tonight’s team had posted three rosters before the game, leading to speculation about some possible movement with the big league club. 

The Rivercats scored first on a home run in the second.  Ty France, in his first game up with the pups from Double-A, homered to tie it in the fourth.  Tim gave his background and mentioned Ty, who was playing third base, got a win pitching with his last team.  In the sixth, Ty and Allen Craig collided on a popup.  Craig caught it and neither was the worse for wear.  Earlier, Craig had laid out for a catch at first.

I was still a bit distracted.  (DizzyKitten was also playing Monster Hunter on Twitch.)  In the seventh, the Rivercats got another solo home run to take a 2-1 lead.  In the eighth, Hunter Strickland came in and worked an uneventful inning (unlike most of his appearances with the Giants).  In the bottom, Dusty Coleman threw out a runner at second from centerfield trying to stretch a single.  Francisco Mejia picked off a runner at second, who’d doubled.  It was an odd inning with two hits, but only three batters. 


The final was 2-1 Rivercats.  It was a well-played game, if not a lot of offense.  Credit the pitching.  Starters Dillon Overton for the pups and Chris Stratton for the ‘Cats, along with the relievers, did an excellent job.

No comments:

Post a Comment