3-27-25 Opening Day
I wasn’t sure how much Baseball I’d actually get to see today. There wasn’t a radio game on during the day to listen to, but when I came into work, there were immediately two extra-inning games on MLB.TV. (They show the extra innings of any game for free.) The Royals lost to the INDIANS badly in the tenth and lost the fashion show with their new powder blue uniforms, which look more like pajamas. The Nationals wasted a 13-strikeout, no walks, no runs, six-inning performance by Mackenzie Gore by losing badly in the tenth to the Phillies. There was almost another extra innings game with the Pirates, but the Marlins won it in the bottom of the ninth. (A third extra inning game would have been too lucky.) More on this game later.
These games finished in time for ESPN Radio's game between the Dodgers and Tigers featuring Tarik Skubal versus Blake Snell, two Cy Young winners. Skubal gave up a home run in the first, but Snell got ruffed up and lost the lead. A 3-run homer by Teoscar Hernandez in the fifth would give the Dodgers a 4-2 lead. Shohei Ohtani homered in the seventh, which was good for them, as the Tigers made it interesting in ninth, but lost, 5-4. With a pair of wins already from their Japan series last week, the Dodgers’ undefeated season is starting to look more likely.
Meanwhile on Twitch, DJ Pyka doing an 80's Night. I was trying to listen to both, but kept turning up the volume on the music and occasionally singing along. MLB.TV’s scheduled free game was a night cap between the Mariners and the Athletics. There was a guy with an Aussie accent doing the color commentary for the M's. I didn’t catch his name, but it was interesting to listen to for ballgame.
The A's went up 1-0 on a Tyler Soderstrom solo homer. This held up until the seventh. A passed ball brought in an M's runner from second, but he was called out on replay. A runner at third scored on a sac fly next anyway to tie it at 1. Soderstrom homered again in the eighth, but Randy Arozarena homered in the eighth to tie it again. A 2-run homer by Jorge Polanco off of departed Ranger, Jose Leclerc, gave Seattle the win, 4-2.
In other Opening Day news, the Pirates got a great start from Paul Skenes and former Aggie, Nick Gonzales, hit a two-run home run. Unfortunately, the Pirates not only didn’t win, Nick fractured his ankle and had one of the most painful-to-watch home run trots ever. The injury may have occurred in Spring Training, but finally busted on the home run. He’s going to be out for a while.
3-28-25
The Chihuahuas won their Opening Night game in El Paso. I listened to that game over Aggie Softball’s game, which was on a different station. The MLB.TV free game was a marquee matchup between the Dodgers and Tigers. Detroit’s games are being carried by Fan Duel, which was previously Bally’s, which was previously Fox Sports Regional. I would have liked to have watched more of the game with Jason Benetti calling it, but somehow the audio and video were 30 seconds out of sync for most of the game. There were even complete drops in the coverage. I wonder how much longer these regional cable sports networks for going to be around.
The Tigers kept it close and nearly took the lead late. Manuel Margot was tagged out on the foot at the plate trying to score. There was another replay on a play at the plate that overturned the initial “Safe” call to keep the score close. The Dodgers won it in the tenth on a home run by Mookie Betts. Blurgh! I nearly lost my dinner.
4-2-25
I got catch an afternoon Rangers game today. The Rangers won, 1-0, over the Reds. What was weird was that the Rangers beat the Reds by that same score yesterday. At work in the evening, I caught a Marlins versus Mets game in Miami, but only because it went for two extra innings. You could only tell the game was in Florida from seeing the stadium. Otherwise, the park was full of Mets fans and with the roof open, you could hear jets flying overhead. The Mets won in a 6-5 heartbreaker for whatever Marlins fans were there.
4-8-25
Hunter Greene got a 2-0 win over Giants for the Reds. He worked 8 2/3 innings and only had two 3-ball counts and that was to his final two batters. He was still throwing at over 100mph.
4-15-25
Here’s another one for Tim Hagerty’s book of Minor League Baseball oddities, Tales from the Dugout. The Albuquerque Isotopes scored three runs on the El Paso Chihuahuas on a walk tonight. Follow this. The bases were loaded and the batter was walked. One run is forced in. The runner who was forced to third saw that the pitcher had his back to the plate and took off for home and made it. The trailing runner ran to third and the pitcher airmailed the throw, which scored another run. A couple more errors and the Isotopes could have emptied the bases. They won 7-2 anyway.
Tim was uncharacteristically unprepared for the play. He was writing the walk on his scorecard and heard the crowd erupt. He called it, “Chaos on the bases!” and had to sort it out in the next inning. Luckily for me, the Isotopes posted video of the play on their Twitter. (Yeah, I’ve missed plenty of plays while writing something down. I guess it even happens to professionals.)
Meanwhile, the Padres and Cubs were playing a high-tension game on the MLB.TV Free Game. I was working and pretty busy, but caught some of the action. Both teams had loaded the bases and failed to score early. Manny Machado had struck out with the pond full of ducks. His next at bat in the fifth, there was an error on a foul ball and he took advantage by cranking out a solo home run. The Padres threw out a Cub runner at the plate later, but Chicago did tie it and send it to a tenth inning, where the Cubs won it, 2-1.
Both of these teams are playing well early in the season. The Padres are even ahead of the Dodgers. So far the biggest surprise has been the Braves. Their abysmal record is only have a slightly better than the Rockies and the White Sox.
4-18-25
“Show this to Jerry,” was the text on the above picture sent to my co-workers. My boss, Eric, was in the Dallas area for a conference and went to a Rangers game afterward. Meanwhile, we were at a business dinner with a motivational speaker. I’m sure he got the better of that deal.
Eric was nice enough to bring back souvenirs for the department. I got this cool team signed ball. Don’t get too excited; the signatures are printed on and I can’t read any of them. I will be putting it in a display cube, anyway. Actual signed balls are available on the website . . . for $1,200!
I spoke to the lady from work he went with. They had just wanted something to do when they were off for the night and this would be the first MLB game for the both of them. Tickets were $40, but actually $65 with taxes? Given that they were in decent seats, it was probably cheaper since the Rangers were only playing the Angels. Both had had a really good time with all of the entertainment around the stadium and the on-field between-innings antics. There were even cheerleaders there. (I didn’t know about that.) Both of them had good meals and got beer from a beer-serving robot. In short, the Rangers’ stadium is a great place to visit. (And the Rangers won that game.)
The Chihuahuas were still in Albuquerque playing the Isotopes that night. They’d lost a day game yesterday, which started off nice, but finished in howling winds. We got those winds here in Las Cruces soon after. The pups had an awesome 10-run, 15-batter inning in the fifth on their way to a 13-6 victory. I missed the entire barrage, because I was out of my office at the time.
Interestingly, this wasn’t the only 10-run inning in baseball. The Diamondbacks put up 10 in the eighth at Wrigley Field against the Cubs, but still lost, 13-11. The score was 2-1 before the seventh. During this session of game-time batting practice with the wind blowing out, the teams hit a combined 2 grand slams and 6 home runs.
4-20-25
With a Sunday off from Aggie Sports, I went over to see dad and we watched the final two episodes of Season 3 of Reacher and enjoyed a Whataburger meal. While watching, I was listening, via earbuds, to a Rangers game. My reception wasn’t great. At one point, I was wondering why they were talking about Orioles. I found out later that they had lost, 24-2, to the Reds. The O’s are having a tough season to this point.
I went back home in the late afternoon and cleaned my car. The Chihuahuas had a double header on, so I took a portable radio outside to listen to while I worked. (The twin bill was caused by the Saturday game in Albuquerque getting snowed-out.) I’d heard a bit of Game 1 earlier, where the pups lost to the Isotopes, 4-3, in extra innings (an eighth inning, since they were playing two 7-inning games). In Game 2, the Chihuahuas had a cool, 6-5, comeback win with a big sixth inning rally. Honestly, it was just a nice little suburban domestic moment of doing something with the car outside while listening to a game on the radio.
4-25-25
This was a little hard-to-believe. In the ninth with two outs, Chihuahuas reliever, Reese Knehr, took a 100+mph line drive off his pitching arm. He went straight down. The trainers looked at him and announcer Tim Hagerty was sure Knehr would come out. Amazingly, Knehr got back up, took a couple of practice pitches and resumed the game. The El Paso crowd was completely behind him and cheering on every pitch. Terrifyingly, Knehr got the final out on another comebacker straight at him. Chihuahuas beat the Rivercats, 9-8.
4-26-25
It was a stinging loss for the Chihuahuas tonight. After seven scoreless innings, the pups brought in the game’s first run in the eighth on sacrifice fly and went on to score another. In the top of the ninth with two outs and two strikes, the Rivercats scored two to tie it and went on to win, 4-2, in 10 innings. I’d give more details, but my reception was awful tonight. I’m lucky I heard as much as I did.
4-27-25
I went over to dad’s after Aggie Baseball today. While we were watching a golf tournament, I was listening to a Rangers/Giants game on the radio. It was 2-2 going into the bottom of the ninth in San Francisco. Heliot Ramos led off with a grounder and two errors later, he scored the winning rule on what was essentially a Little League home run. Ouch! What an embarrassing way to lose!
4-30-25
The Chihuahuas were facing off against a rehabbing Clayton Kershaw again in Oklahoma City. They’d faced him last year on rehab, as well. (I’m sure I made a post about it, but I can’t find it.) Tim Hagerty reported on some fireman outside the stadium watching the game from on top of their firetruck. Kershaw is so good; he got a strikeout with two strikes. There might have been a miscount on balls and strikes because of a successful challenge. We’re still not convinced of the count. He even threw an eephus pitch, which caused the catcher to run out and talk to him. Kershaw smiled. He found it amusing.
However, a pair of Chihuahua batters homered off Kershaw in the same inning and tied the game up at 3. Kershaw came out after five innings and the pups piled on late for a 13-4 win. During a mound visit, the PA there played a Dwight Yoakam song. Mom would have been so pleased.
Meanwhile, the MLB.TV free game was between the woeful White Sox and the Brewers in Chicago. It was cold there and the skies looked very threatening. Thus, there was a small crowd present. (The White Sox being bad also has something to do with attendance.) I swear it was mostly Brewers fans in the “crowd.” They got to cheer on a 6-4 Brewer win.
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