(I've been writing too much this month, so I'm starting early on posting.)
7-1-25
Strangely, I was even busier tonight at work than last night for month end processing. I was also listening to a debate for much of the evening. After it was over, I tuned into the Chihuahuas versus the Isotopes late. The pups came back from being down, 7-2, to tie it in the eighth, but gave up 2 in the bottom to lose 9-7. Both teams had opportunities late to tack on, but weren’t able to. There was a great crowd there. You could hear them.
The MLB.TV Free Game was the White Sox at the Dodgers. As you’d expect, the Dodgers were an easy winner, 6-1. Shohei Ohtani homered. The announcing was terrible. They were reminding me of peak Yankees broadcasts, where they’re not even watching the game and are barely interested. “We’re just waiting for the playoffs to get serious about the game call.” Clayton Kershaw was prominently mentioned. He’s expected to hit the 3,000 strikeout milestone in his next game.
7-2-25
Our only weekday day game of the month was this afternoon between the Chihuahuas and the Isotopes. (There is a week off for the All-Star Game this month, so it’s not a full month of games.) The first pitch was a couple of minutes early. Broadcaster Tim Hagerty was chuckling, but clearly irritated that he didn’t get to give out the lineups before the game. The early start was for ESPN Sports Center. They’re broadcasting from 50 states in 50 days and today is New Mexico’s day. Albuquerque came out in force and over 10,000 showed up for a weekday day game. Many were under umbrellas. I’m not sure if those were giveaways.
In the second inning, after Chihuahuas took a 2-0 lead, the Isotopes came back. The pup’s infield bobbled two double play balls in a row and end up with two errors. A third DP ball only produced one out due to a speedy runner. Then there was a third error on a bad throw to second trying to catch a runner stealing. When the laughing stopped, it was 4-2 Isotopes.
In the top of third, the Chihuahuas left the bases loaded. That was their last threat of the game. In the fourth, the Isotopes scored 5 before the first out and two more errors extended the inning. The Isotopes batted around with only one out. The big blow was a three-run homer. The pups brought in their third pitcher of the inning. The Isotopes sent up 12 batters for 9 runs and a 13-2 lead.
There was another Chihuahua error in the fifth, which brought it up to six total, a team record. The offending infielder was biting his glove afterward. Strangely, there were only 2 unearned runs. In the sixth, the Isotopes had another three-run homer. I wasn’t hearing much of the large crowd before, but you could hear them after that one. 18-5 Isotopes was the final.
7-3-25
It was an early Free Weekend on MLB.TV on a Thursday. What a delightful surprise! I was busy at work and had had other distractions earlier in the evening, but let’s take time for what’s really important: baseball. I picked the Tigers and Nationals game first.
Tiger Spencer Torkelson had a huge battle in the first with Nationals pitcher Jake Irwin. Tork won it was a three-run homer. Irwin made 38 pitches in the inning. Things were looking good. I walked away for a bit and suddenly it was 5-3 Nationals after the first inning. The Nats had had a three-run homer of their own.
Tiger Broadcaster Jason Benetti said it looked like a high scoring game. Unfortunately, it was mostly the Nationals scoring. Him and Dan Petry were having good time anyway. The Tigers were not. They had three errors in the fifth and the Nationals went up, 9-3. In the seventh, the Tigers came back a bit and scored 2 to force a pitching change to make it, 9-5. But the Nats carried it in the end, 11-7.
I peeked in at the end of the Brewers at the Mets. The Mets’ broadcast was doing this weird “Soap Opera” like view with a close up on pitcher side-by-side with the batter at the plate. I got to see former Aggie great, Joey Ortiz, double, but he was later thrown out at the plate. He made a great play at short in the game.
With the Mets up, 3-2, Edwin Diaz came in to the Narco trumpets. There was a full house cheering in NYC. Diaz locked it down. Christian Yelich did get on and stole second, but was out on appeal to kill the rally in the ninth.
The other New York team was playing the Blue Jays in Toronto in front of another full house. The Jays had a one run lead in the eighth, when George Springer hit a two-run homer to put it away, 8-5. That was a four-game sweep that knocked the Yankees out of first place and put the Jays in front of them.
The Cubs and the Indians were scoreless in the top of the sixth. Neither had scored after 9 innings either. It didn’t happen until the tenth with the Cubs winning on a sac fly, 1-0. The Cubs’ coverage said, “They win. We sing.” And they showed the crowd singing. Fly the W flag, guys.
There was a sixth inning “Perfect Game” notice on the game ticker between the Dodgers and the White Sox. Calling no-hitters and perfect games before seven innings have been played is usually a waste of time. Indeed, the notice was taken off a minute after it was put up. The Dodgers sleepwalked to a 6-2 win, much like the Dodgers broadcasters, Joe Davis and Orel Hershiser, sleepwalked though calling the game. (Okay, that isn’t fair to Orel, but definitely to Joe.)
On the radio, the Chihuahuas and Isotopes’ game start was delayed for rain. I picked up the coverage after it had started. Chihuahua Mason McCoy was picked off of third in the fifth. However, the Isotopes failed in the rundown and the ball went into left field. Two runs scored to put the Chihuahuas up, 4-2.
In the sixth, a bad throw on a steal attempt tied the score for the Isotopes. In the seventh, the pups made a double steal and there was an error on the catcher’s throw. The Chihuahuas went up by 3 and won it, 7-4. By the ninth, the rain was back and blowing sideways, which had the crowd ducking for cover, but they stayed for the fireworks.
Finally for the night, it was the Royals versus Mariners playing to a full house in Seattle. The Royals were up 3-1 late when I tuned in. The M’s got a home run and then got two on with one out. A wild pitch moved them up. The crowd was up and cheering. Julio Rodriguez struck out next. Cal Raleigh, the MLB home run leader, came up and grounded out. 3-2, Royals win. Yes, I did get all of my work done, though I did have to stay for a bit after I’d clocked out.
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