10-16-18
I wasn’t able to watch or listen to the last couple of LCS games. The Red Sox beat the Astros 7-5 Sunday to tie their series at one. The Brewers won 4-0 on Monday over the Dodgers to take a 2-1 lead in their series.
KROD decided to preempt their local show to broadcast the two LCS games today. First up was the Red Sox versus the Astros in Houston. In the first, Dallas Keuchel gave up three straight hits, which resulted in a 2-0 Red Sox lead. The Astros mounted a rally in the bottom as Marwin Gonzalez drove in a run to make it 2-1. It was hard to not notice the full house in Houston. The fans were very loud as the Astros scored.
Astro Tony Kemp had the defensive play of the game in the third, as he scaled the left field scoreboard to rob Steve Pearce of an RBI double. In the fifth, Alex Bregman drove in Jose Altuve on a bouncer past third to tie it at 2-2. The Red Sox regained the lead in the sixth, as Steve Pearce hit a homer well out reach of any Astros defenders, 3-2 Red Sox.
Nathan Evovaldi went seven strong innings for the Red Sox. The Astros’ closer, Roberto Osuna, came in in the eighth. What have I said about bringing in closers into non-save situations? Jon Sciambi made a comment about how slow he was working, but no comment about ESPN’s lengthy commercial breaks. Osuna got two outs, mostly thanks to Bregman making some great plays at third, but the wheels fell off trying to get that third out. He loaded the bases and forced in a run thanks to two hit batters. Jackie Bradley Jr. then finished off the game with a bang and a grand slam home run. 8-2 Red Sox was the final and they took a 2-1 series lead.
Jessica Mendoza was working with Sciambi for the radio broadcast. They sounded like they were having a good time. Certainly she was more relaxed here than with Matt Vasgersian a couple of weeks ago on TV. I had plenty of time to listen to the pair over the FOUR-HOUR broadcast.
The NLCS game started right after, but Stadium had on another Mountain West Women’s Volleyball match this evening. I had the baseball game on in the background, but only turned down the TV sound when the radio announcers got excited. That didn’t happen much, so I pretty watched and listened to the volleyball.
The Utah State Aggies were facing the Boise State Broncos in Logan, Utah. I seem to be watching a lot of these other Aggies lately. They play in a small gym with bleachers for their fans. It’s interesting to see all these different places where volleyball teams play. The crowd was also fairly modest, but mostly filled the stands. Neither team is very good in conference this year, so the announcers at figured it would be an even match.
At least the US Aggies were pretty good looking. Their libero, #2 Tasia Taylor looked downright glamorous with the big curls in her hair. #21 Corrinne Larsen was very tall and beautiful. (Volleyball is ruining me with this completely pointless fixation on tall girls, who will never give me the time of day.) I was also intrigued by their setter, #6 Kassidy Johnson. Her hair was dark, but pulled back into two silver-colored braids. I wonder how you get that effect.
The Broncos outright dominated Set 1, 25-13. Cassedi Simon had three aces on serve. Their reserves did a “can-can” dance on sidelines. Set 2 was much more competitive. Neither team could mount more than a two-point lead and it went back-and-forth. At 23-23, Boise State took a time out, which surprised the announcers, since the scoreboard showed they had none left. Utah State prevailed 25-23.
The US Aggies had a small lead going into Set 3. #2 Kiley Lewis for the Broncos had a big jump serve and went on a run to tie it. (She also has great hair.) Utah State had two set points, but Boise State came up with four straight points to win it 26-24. Tasia fell into a fan’s lap in the front row trying to save one of those points. There’s some fan service for you.
Bully the Utah State mascot came out on court before the fourth set and did some break dancing. (Actually, I have no idea what his name is. Their mascot logo is a blue bull.) Boise State started off the set with two aces. Utah State got two aces right back when they got on serve. The US Aggies got a four-point lead, but the Broncos came back. Kiley tied it at 19-19 with an ace. But, Utah State would go on a run for the rest of the set and won it, 25-20.
Boise State went up 6-2 in the fifth set. After a pair of aces, Utah State took a timeout. During a lengthy challenge later, the play-by-play announcer marveled at a troop of little girls dancing at the top of the bleachers. They’d been at it for the whole match. The US Aggies managed to get it to within 10-9. During another long challenge, the Bronco girls started dancing on court. The announcer suggested a dance-off between them and the bleacher girls. Boise State would finally take it 15-11 and 3-2 for the match. Utah State had their chances in this set, but kind of self-destructed. It was another fun match to watch. At least I’m getting some entertainment on my vacation.
Meanwhile in the background, the Dodgers played the Brewers in LA. Brian Dozier drove in a run for the Dodgers in the first to make it 1-0. The Dodgers loaded the bases in the second, but didn’t score. I think the Brewers’ starter, Gio Gonzalez, was already out of the game by this point. In the fifth, Domingo Santana drove in Orlando Arcia, who dove into home under the tag, to make it 1-1.
If I’d known what was coming, I’d have turned off the radio at this point and watched the volleyball and then Babylon 5 on Comet in peace, and turned it back on later. I think the pinnacle of boredom hit in the eighth, when there were two lengthy challenges on the same play. After four hours, we’d played nine innings without a winner.
In the tenth, Manny Machado had a collision with Jesus Aguilar at first. This nearly started a benches-clearing fight, but I think both teams were too tired to throw any punches. By the twelfth, even the announcers were tired of being there. Finally in the thirteenth, Cody Bellinger drove in Machado for a 2-1 Dodger win to tie the series at 2.
I suspect Kato Kaelin was questioning on Twitter Manager Craig Counsel’s decision to pitch to Bellinger in that situation with two poor hitters behind him and a base open. So were the ESPN announcers. With two outs, I think he was trying to ensure that those two hitters would be leading off the next inning (all of the bench players had been used by both teams by this point). Whatever. At FIVE HOURS, it was a no-win situation for everyone involved anyway.
10-17-18
Perhaps because the games were going to overlap a bit, KROD decided to only broadcast the later game. So, I only got a few updates about the Brewers and Dodgers game. The first thing I heard was that Manager Craig Counsel took out Brewer starter, Wade Miley, after a five-pitch walk. It was part of an elaborate/deep analytic/fifth dimensional chess strategy. The final update I got had the Dodgers winning 5-2. Their starter, Clayton Kershaw, went seven innings. How old fashion. The Dodgers are now up 3-2 in their series.
Meanwhile on TV, Stadium was broadcasting a Women’s College Soccer match between the Bucknell Bisons and the Lehigh Mountain Hawks in the Patriot League. I admit, I’ve kind of enjoyed these soccer matches on the weekend. Since I don’t have much of a rooting interest in the teams they usually show, I find it kind of relaxing, a sports ASMR, if you will. There’s a bit excitement here and there and some mild titillation from watching the girls play.
Today however, there was way too much competition for my attention. I had the radio on with the baseball. Then I switched stations to listen to the Aggie Coaches Show. Elsewhere on TV, I had to watch the Like novella on Televisa. I had to see how the Japanese girl, who doesn’t speak Spanish or English in real life, was going to be able to interact with the rest of the cast. (She used an app on her phone to translate.) Not to mention, my ultimate sports crush, Alex Morgan, was playing an international match tonight, which I wasn’t going to be able to watch, so any other women’s soccer was just going to leave me pining away for her.
All that said, I watched most of the first half. It looked cold and windy there in Pennsylvania at night with threatening clouds in the area. I was hearing what sounded like a good crowd, but there was never a crowd shot. The people at the field who weren’t playing were bundled up. The poor girls were out there in shorts, but many were wearing long sleeves. A couple had gloves on.
There weren’t any kids or students behind the nets, so the goalies had to retrieve their own balls. One time, the game had to be paused as the ball went over a fence behind the goal. 36’ left in the half, the Lehigh goalie made a smart play. After an attack, with a couple of Bucknell players still in the box behind her, she ran to the front of the box and threw the ball out for an immediate attack. Bucknell was short-handed at that point, and Lehigh got their goalie in a one-on-one.
32’ near tragedy, a Bucknell player nearly kicked it straight into her own goal trying to clear it out of the box. 28’ a Lehigh player had the Bucknell goalie beat, but a defender kicked it out with less drama. 2’ the Bucknell goalie officially had a rough night as she fell down hurt retrieving the ball from behind the net after a shot. The trainer didn’t even run out to check on her, probably not believing she could have gotten injured from that. She did stay in the game.
Well, nil-nil at the half. (Soccer insists on using the word, “nil,” instead of “zero” or “nothing” to try and fool people about the score.) Unfortunately, I missed most of the second half. Even worse, I just barely missed the only goal of match. Thankfully, they replayed it few times in during the half. A Bucknell player managed to chip one right over the goalie inside the box. Beautiful shot. 1-0 Bucknell was your final.
By the time I started listening to the Astros/Red Sox game on the radio, the signal had gotten pretty bad. The Red Sox were already up 2-0 in the first. A possible two-run homer for the Astros was waved off on fan interference. In the modern era, why are they still building stadiums where fans can interfere with batted balls? (Jeffrey Maier anyone?)
From here, the game sounded interesting as the lead went back-and-forth, but it was requiring too concentration to keep track of as the signal faded in-and-out. In the sixth, I did clearly hear Jackie Bradley Jr. hitting another home run. This was a two-run shot that put the Red Sox up 6-5.
After watching Babylon 5 on Comet, I tried focusing more on the game. OMG, they’re only in the eighth inning! The reception was impossible, but I gathered it was 8-6 Red Sox in the bottom of the ninth. There were two outs, but the Astros had loaded the bases on Craig Kimbrel. Alex Bregman was coming up and . . . fade out . . . commercial.
What? Did I miss the last out or the game-winning play because of my poor reception? No. The commercial break ended and the game was rejoined in progress in the middle of an interview with a happy Red Sox player. They’d just won 8-6 and are up in the series 3-2.
Yeah, KROD had apparently put the station on autopilot and the computer interrupted the game with a scheduled break. What a great way to f-up a FOUR-AND-A-HALF HOUR broadcast. Why don’t you guys just broadcast dead air from now on since you don’t have the staff or inclination to broadcast live sports correctly. It’ll be an upgrade over your regular ESPN Radio sports talk programming. Just hand the Chihuahuas broadcasts over to an FM station, so people can listen over their phones and here in Las Cruces. You miserable losers.
10-18-18
The Red Sox eliminated the Astros 4 to 2 in the ALCS by winning tonight 4-1. The game wasn’t on anywhere that I know of in my area. That’s how it goes. David Price had an uncharacteristically good playoff pitching performance for the win. What do they say about stopped clocks? Blind squirrels and nuts? Insert other euphemisms here.
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