Baseball Journal July 29-31, 2018

7-29-18

I feel like I should apologize, as I was way too distracted while writing this.  The game on the radio was the Rangers against the Astros.  I hadn't noticed yesterday, but Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, and Brian McCann were all out the Astros' lineup.  The Rangers definitely caught the Astros at the right time.  Tyler White, who I hadn't heard of on the Astros' roster, got the scoring started with a home run in the second, 1-0 Astros.

I had to see it to believe it as I turned on the TV an hour later.  There it was, ESPN on ABC broadcasting Overwatch League.  Yes, a computer game competition was being shown on over-the-air television.  I know that Disney XD on cable had been showing video game competitions, but this takes it to a new level.  Is it for real?  Well, the two international, corporate-sponsored teams were playing in a sold-out Barclays Center in front of a full-house of screaming fans. 

The ESPN commentators were as cringe-y as you'd expect in the introductory segments, but it was informative.  I've watched Amourettie on Twitch for months without really figuring out how Overwatch works.  Now, I have some vague idea of what's going on.  The two teams in the championship were London versus Philadelphia, or rather, a bunch of Koreans playing against each other.  Like I said, the crowd was really into it.  I thought it was interesting, but I couldn't really follow the action very well.  (Starcraft I can follow.)  London won, if you needed to know. 

In any case, I was watching and sometimes listening to the TV with the radio in the background, so I wasn’t paying close attention.  In the fourth, Delino Deshields tied the score for the Rangers with a ground-rule double.  I'm not sure how the play went, but Robinson Chirinos got sent back to third because the ball was trapped.  He would have been the go-ahead run.

In the sixth, Jurickson Profar doubled and drove in a run, but paid the price as he got cut on the cheek by Yuli Gurriel's spike as he was late covering the bag and jumping over him.  Profar got patched up and stayed in the game.  Gurriel next whiffed on a grounder by Isiah Kiner-Falefa that allowed another run to score.  Can you tell that Yuli hasn't played second base much and that the Astros are low on personnel?  Ronald Guzman doubled him in to make it 4-1 and chase Lance McCullers from the game.

The Astros managed to score in the bottom to make it 4-2.  I didn’t note how it happened as an NHRA drag race came on FOX.  Now I was flipping between two shows on TV.  (Thank goodness NBC isn't bothering to broadcast their NASCAR races over-the-air during the summer when I could be watching them.)  I ended up not really watching the drag race, so I don’t have anything to say about it. 

In the seventh, a ball went into Deshield's glove in the outfield and came out.  I briefly thought they'd said the ball had deflected over the wall, but it did result in a runner at third.  Next came the key play of game, Roughned Odor, playing back on the infield, caught a grounder and threw out the runner at home to keep the score unchanged.

In the ninth, they guys were talking about Rod Barajas, manager of the Chihuahuas.  Matt Hicks remembered calling his games when Rod was a player with the Double-A Diablos in El Paso.  I hope those are happy memories for Matt, because they are for me.  Keone Kela came on for the save in the bottom.  He gave up a run and had two on with two out.  George Springer came up and fouled out to Chirinos to end the game, 4-3 Rangers.  Eric Nadel had a great call of ending. 

This three-game sweep by the Rangers was the first series sweep the Astros had had all season.  I'm pretty sure they'll bounce back when they get their injured players playing again.  Shockingly, this was the last meeting of the year between these two division rivals.  Who made up that schedule?

A bit later, the Chihuahuas and OKC Dodgers came on.  I was still distracted.  A Mexican station was showing Ironman 3 and then Guardians of the Galaxy.  Even in Spanish, Guardians was still great.  After that, they showed Star Wars: The Force Awakens, while another Mexican station showed X-Men: Apocalypse.  It was a lose-lose proposition, but I picked X-Men, since I hadn't seen that movie.  I wrote a review of Star Wars a while back, but I can sum up both movies in one word: atrocious.  (Except for that one great scene with Quicksilver.)

The crowd was really quiet to start the game.  Tim Hagerty remarked that it was a smaller crowd than the last two days.  Their pitcher walking the first three batters probably didn't inspire the fans much either.  After two strikeouts, the Dodger manager said the wrong thing to the ump from the dugout and was tossed immediately.  What is this magic word that managers keep saying to get such a quick hook?  Not only did the Dodgers escape unscathed in the inning, they took the lead in the bottom on a home run.

Forrestt Allday drove in a run in the second to tie it, but the Dodgers came right back to get the lead, 2-1.  In the fourth, Tim chatted about today's Hall of Fame inductions.  Several of the players had links to the PCL.  Trevor Hoffman is a roving instructor for the Padres and has come by El Paso.  Shane Peterson threw out a runner at the plate from the outfield to keep the score the same in the bottom.

In the sixth, Brett Nicholas crushed a ball.  Tim started doing his home run call, but the ball died on the warning track.  Later in the inning, Dusty Coleman knocked in Peterson, who slid into home under the tag.  Diego Goris hit a fly ball deep in the outfield that the fielder juggled and lost that brought in two more runs.  Goris was thrown out at the plate on a hit to end the inning.  It seemed to be the day for plays at the plate.  4-2 Chihuahuas.

In the seventh, another deep fly ball died on the warning track.  “I don't know how anyone hits a home run here,” said Tim.  There's a lack of elevation and some heavy air there in Oklahoma City.  In the eighth, another sure home run didn't make it to wall.  This one was by the Dodgers and would have tied the game.  Tim tagged this as the critical play of the game.  Rowan Wick closed it out.  4-2 Chihuahuas final.  Hey, all my teams are winning!  (At least for now.  I doubt this lasts.)

7-30-18

I’m hard pressed to say what I was doing at work tonight, but whatever it was, it was taking up all my time.  Trying to follow a couple of games was nearly impossible.  First up, the Chihuahuas were taking on the OKC Dodgers for their final game of the series.  It was 77 degrees in Oklahoma City.  (It was warm and raining here in Las Cruces.)  Franmil Reyes has rejoined the Chihuahuas.

My first note of the game was somewhere early.  Forrestt Allday got hit on the leg.  It seemed like he was legitimately hurt, but he did try to steal second.  I’ve seen players kind of fake injuries after getting hit so that the opposition won’t think they’ll try to steal.  It didn’t work as former Chihuahua, Rocky Gale, threw him out to end the inning.

No one really threatened to score for the first three innings, but Tim Hagerty kept talking about the Chihuahuas winning today and sweeping the series.  He kept going on about it until I was sure he’d jinxed it.  In the fourth, the Dodgers loaded the bases for a real chance, but Colin Rea got a strikeout to end it.  By the fifth, Rea had racked up 10 strikeouts, but he came out after that.

It was still 0-0 like a soccer match in the seventh.  Tim could see Pat Venditte, the ambidextrous pitcher, warming up for the Dodgers.  This guy utterly fascinates every broadcaster who calls one of his games.  Venditte came in in the eighth and mowed ‘em down.  In the bottom, the Dodgers got runners to second and third with no outs.  A hit went just over the head of Diego Goris at third to score a Dodger run.  They got another on a fielder’s choice to make it 2-0.

In the ninth, Tim took a foul off his pressbox window.  I think he had a flashback to a previous game in Oklahoma where we almost lost him to a foul ball (8-14-16).  During the inning, a group of people near a crowd mic started singing loudly in Spanish.  Tim didn’t comment on it.  I don’t know what to make of it.  The pups did make it dramatic by getting two on, but they were stranded.  2-0 Dodgers was the final.

Meanwhile, about two hours after the Chihuahuas’ game started, the MLB.TV free game was the Giants and Padres.  I knew that due to inexplicable blackout restrictions, I wouldn’t be able to watch the video, but both teams are blessed with great radio announcers.  I couldn’t tune away from a scoreless tie (baseball with no scoring is boring up to a point and then it becomes really dramatic late in the game), so I started the Giants’ radio call and paused it until the end of the Chihuahuas’ game.  However, when I picked it up, Jon Miller wasn’t doing the call.  When I switched to the Padres’ broadcast to listen to Uncle Ted Leitner, it jumped the coverage to the fourth inning.  As it turned out, Ted wasn’t there at all.  I switched back again, and there was Jon Miller.  Okay, we’ll go with it.

I’d missed former Chihuahua, Chase d’Arnaud hitting a three-run homer to put the Giants up 3-0.  In the fourth, Hunter Renfroe, another former Chihuahua (I should just put that in a macro), hammered a monster home run to make it 3-1.  Derek Holland was starting for the Giants and began to lose it in the fifth and another run scored to make it 3-2.  In the sixth, the Giants lost a runner on an appeal by the Padres and then ran themselves out of the inning on a caught stealing by former Chihuahua Austin Hedges. 

In the seventh was the play of the game (that it involved my favorite player had no bearing on my judgment).  There was a popup at the plate.  Buster Posey, who’d gotten hit on the backswing, had no idea where the ball went.  His pitcher called out the location to him.  Buster looked straight up and caught the ball.  That’s composure.

I think Miller’s time ended by this point, so I switched back to the Padres, which jumped the game forward again (due to some more pausing).  I actually got both broadcasters’ take on the popup.  Both press booths also complained about an inconsistent strikezone, so it was bad, but fair.  In the eighth, former . . . you know . . . Chihuahua (maybe I’ll just stop mentioning past affiliations), Christian Villnueva doubled in Eric Hosmer to tie the score at 3.  Gorkys Hernandez had trouble gathering the ball in the outfield (for the second time in the game).

With a big cheer from the San Diego crowd, the Padres’ new closer, Kirby Yates came on in the ninth.  The announcers liked his work quite a bit too.  Joe Panik came in to pinch hit.  Earlier today, he’d played in Sacramento and was recalled to the Giants.  Newcomer (read: I haven’t heard of him) Ray Black came in to pitch for the Giants.  Both pitchers worked about two innings and did a good job. 

Yeah, it went to extra innings.  In the eleventh, the Padres got runners on the corners with one out.  A safety squeeze was called that didn’t work and nothing came across.  No, I don’t understand that play call either.  By this point, only Giants fans were apparently left in the stands as they cheered on their team.  It was getting late, and I was getting close to leaving.  I jumped ahead on the broadcast one more time to the live coverage and heard the last out.  The final was 5-3 Giants after twelve innings.  Gorkys Hernadez hit a go-ahead home run and Buster got an RBI on a fielder’s choice.  This felt like a long night of baseball with some unexpected results.  It was interesting though.

7-31-18

I’d like to do in-depth analysis of the MLB trade deadline.  I would, but I was busy with month end processing and I only glanced at the headlines.  I am curious about the Chris Archer to the Pirates trade, but other than that, nothing jumps out to me as playoff changing.  You never really know about these trades until the postseason starts anyway. 

With the Chihuahuas off, I picked a bad night to listen to the Flying Squirrels.  I came in in the middle of a seven-run third inning by the Blue Jays’ affiliate, the New Hampshire Fishercats.  The announcer was talking about Vladimir Guerreo Jr.  He was called up from the Double-A Fishercats to the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons.  The team was planning on promoting him heavily.  He may be a star in the making. 

The Fishercats still have plenty of legacy players on their team though.  Cavan Biggio is in the lineup.  Bo Bichette got an RBI on a bases loaded walk right before a grand slam was hit out.  “The wheels have officially come off the Flying Squirrels’ apple cart,” reported the announcer (whose name I still haven’t picked up) as the score when to 10-4. 

In the eighth, the Squirrels picked up a run off a wild pitch.  If I understood the call correctly, the ball didn’t go that far.  The catcher tried to throw out a runner from first trying to take second, but no one was covering the base.  A runner who was at second scored on that throw to nobody.  The Fishercats still won 11-5.  Jonah Arenado for the Squirrels at least had a good night, going 4 for 4.  He was below the Mendoza Line before the game.

I noticed the TV was still on in the break room later in the evening.  I usually eat dinner at my desk, but I decided to see if the Diamondbacks were playing.  They were, and they were playing the Rangers.  I sat down and took my dinner there.  Bartolo Colon, “Big Sexy” himself was pitching.  Bob Brenly told a story that whenever the manager comes to take Colon out or after the game, he thanks the manager for letting him pitch that day.  What we should all say “Thanks” for is watching him bat in National League games.  His team was all up on the rail smiling, hoping for another improbable home run or at least seeing Colon’s helmet fly off on a swing.

It wasn’t the Rangers’ night as they lost 6-0.  During the Squirrels’ game and this game, the commentators mentioned tonight’s Nationals/Mets’ game.  The final was 25-4 Nats.  The D-Backs’ scoreboard wasn’t even able to display out-of-town scores that high.  Do we want to psychoanalyze this score?  Bryce Harper was on the trading block at the deadline.  Were his teammates happy that they kept him?  Meanwhile, the Mets kept all their good pitching.  Did they want to get dealt?

Over on the MLB Network, they were probably showing the game of the day between the Dodgers and the Brewers in LA.  I think it was Manny Machado’s home debut.  I would have liked to have sat down and watched all of this one, especially knowing the result, but like I said, it was month end and I was really busy.  I checked in on it a couple of times.  It seemed like a close game at the time.  In the bottom of the ninth, I couldn’t believe the score was still 1-0!  I did watch Jeremy Jeffress close it out, including getting Machado.  I’m sorry I have no other details.  Elsewhere on MLB.TV, the free game was the A’s and the Blue Jays.  The A’s are still hot, winning 6-2.  And that closes out July.