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 Lopez. Hanser
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