Baseball Journal July 2025 Part 6

7-12-25

I nearly forgot.    I was so half-dead Saturday morning, I almost forgot about the Cubs at the Yankees on ESPN Radio this morning.    I got there after the Cubs had scored in the top of the first, 1-0.    In the bottom, Pete Crow-Armstrong made a jump catch on an Aaron Judge line drive.   

Yankees’ starter, Max Fried, was hittable.    The Cubs scored in the third and then added two more after an error.    The Cubs attempted a catcher’s interference challenge, but were denied.    The batter walked anyway.    4-0 Cubs.    Fried was out in the fourth on a reported blister.    A couple of fans at the game make great catches.    One was a hard liner caught barehanded, and the other was caught by a Cubs fan.   

In the meantime, I offered to get dad lunch, along with his neighbor, Lamae, who’d just had surgery.    They picked a pizza at Bubba’s pizza, along with garlic knots and a salad (for Lamae).    We ate at her apartment with her dogs.    It was all good, but pricey.    (Lamae said they have the best salads.)    I’d brought my little portable radio and we listened to the game.    (There wasn’t anything special on TV.)   

The Cubs tacked on a solo homer to make it, 5-0.    Their starter, Matthew Boyd, worked eight shutout innings, but he didn’t work the ninth.    In the bottom of the ninth, Judge got his due and hit a two-run homer.    After a walk, a new pitcher was brought in to finish the game.    Cubs win 5-2.

Dad and I went back to his apartment.    There was a ballgame on Amazon Prime and a NASCAR Xfinity race on TV.    The Rockies were at the Reds, and the race was a road race at Sonoma.    I’m going to have to mix the coverage here, since these events were happening at the same time.   

I picked the Rockies’ broadcast.    They ran a promo for a Grateful Dead Night with Tie Dye t-shirts, which looked pretty cool.    The Reds sac’d in a run in the first.    The Sonoma race began with Marty Smith giving an enthusiastic command to start the engines.  Connor Zilisch and Shane Van Ginsberg were up front, the same two that were fighting for the win at the Chicago street race last week.

The baseball broadcasters had a discussion with a player in the dugout, Kyle Farmer.    I missed some of the story, but when he was younger, Farmer had kept a Sports Illustrated magazine with Pete Rose on the cover with him.    He was eventually able to meet Rose and get his signature on it.   

Rox rookie, Ryan Ritter, hit his first Major League home run and it was a two-run shot, to make it, 2-1 Rox.  On the track, Zil and SVG battling up front trading places for most of Stage 1.  In the fourth, Hunter Goodman, the Rockies’ All-Star, tripled when his hit got past Will Benson in right field, but he was left stranded.    In the bottom, Rox pitcher Bradley Blalock deflected a comebacker at his face with his glove.  The ump was concerned about him and checked on him first before the staff got there.  He was fine.  Orlando Arcia made great jump catch at second in the inning.

Zil and SVG came in early and gave up the stage points.  Sam Mayer took the first stage.    In the top of fifth, the Rockies lost a runner at home in a rundown.    Well, actually the player didn’t run, he just stood there and got tagged.  The Rockies got two runners on, but a double play ended the inning.  In other games today, Byron Buxton on the Twins hit for the cycle on his bobblehead day.       

Zil and SVG cycled back to the front to start Stage 2.    In the bottom of the sixth, Blalock was taken out after a couple of hits in between a DP.    The bases were loaded with Reds, but a strikeout ended it.    Zil and SVG came in again before the end of the stage, and Brandon Jones was the Stage 2 winner.    In the top of the seventh, Yanquiel Fernandez doubled over first base and drove in a run and drove Reds’ starter, Brady Singer, from mound, 3-1 Rox.    In the bottom, Noel Marte struck back for the Reds with a homer, and it was 3-2.

Zil and SVG started up front again in Stage 3.    There was some fuel drama.    Could they make it to the end?    They played an amusing interchange between Austin Hill and his pits.    It was all bleeps.   

In the top of the ninth, the Rox had two on with no outs.    There was even a pitch clock violation on the Reds’ pitcher.    The pitcher proceeded to get a strikeout on a virtual pitchout, another strikeout, and a fielder’s choice to end the inning.    To the bottom of the ninth, Victor Nodnick came in for the Rockies.    He got the save last night.    He gave up a single and Benson tripled him in, which tied it.    There was a walk.    The crowd at Great American Ballpark was standing.    The Rox brought the infield in.  Marte hit it to the infield.    Arcia gloved it and dropped it.   A run scored and the Reds win, 4-3.    I was genuinely disappointed.

We’ll concentrate on the race now.    There were 6 laps left.    Zil was in front with SVG right behind him.    Zil’s crew chief made the call, “about out of gas.”    He’d been urging him to save.    With 2 laps left, SVG bumped him hard and ran on Zil’s bumper for final lap.    Dale Earnhardt Jr., the owner of both cars, looked on with concern from the pit box, but they raced hard and clean.    Zilisch took it for some redemption for last week’s loss.    It was a nearly caution-free race and ran very quickly.

I returned home and turned on Game 2 between the Rangers and the Astros.    Regrettably, I had very bad reception.    I had the TV on, also.    Maybe it was interfering, but I didn’t want to turn it off.    I heard the Rangers take 1-0 lead in first, and then Jose Altuve tied it on a homer in the bottom, and I couldn’t take any more of the static.     I gave up to watch wrestling, but the matches weren’t very interesting.    Finally, the Chihuahuas/Aviators game came on, but I still wasn’t paying much attention.

I got a dust storm alert early in the game.    It hit here and was followed with a light rain storm.    By “light,” I mean about 30 seconds.    So, between the dust and that sprinkling, everybody’s car is now very dirty.    (I washed and waxed my car earlier this week to take it in for servicing.    It was only 90+degrees while I rushed to do it.)    This storm would hit El Paso and the Chihuahuas game later.           

When the sun went down, I tried another Rangers’ affiliate and had better success with reception.    I was surprised the game was still going.    Little wonder, it was in the eleventh, tied at 3.    What I did not know then was that the Rangers had come back on Josh Hader, the Astros’ closer, to tie it.   

Adolis Garcia drove in Marcus Siemen on the first pitch.    The Houston crowd issued an enormous “Boo!”    “Listen to that crowd!” shouted an exultant Eric Nadel broadcasting for the Rangers.    It was 4-3 Rangers.    In the bottom, there was a walk to start and a second walk loaded the bases.    The Rangers brought in a new pitcher and a single drove in 2 for an Astros win, 5-4.    The crowd roared.    I groaned.

Back to the Chihuahuas, it was raining in the eighth and the Chihuahuas were losing, 5-4.    In the bottom of the ninth, the rain had stopped and a double started the inning.    There was a bad throw on a bunt attempt and a Chihuahuas’ runner scored to tie the game.    Another bunt put a runner in scoring position, but he was left stranded.    We go to extras.

The Aviators scored in the tenth.    They then loaded the bases with one out, but the Chihuahuas brought in a new pitcher and got out of it.    In the bottom, the pups tied it on a little grounder that got by two fielders, 6-6.    In the top of the eleventh, El Pasoan Daryl Hernaiz drove in a run on a sac fly for LV.    In the bottom, a Chihuahuas’ runner was thrown out at the plate.    After, a huge flyball caught at wall.    A runner tagged up and scored on it, I think from second base.    Broadcaster Tim Hagerty was hysterical doing the game call.    There was another warning track fly ball that would have won it, but was caught, 7-7.   

Unfortunately in the twelfth, an error on a fielder’s choice brought in a run for the Aviators, which would be the winner.    8-7 Aviators.    I enjoyed the race today, but everything else was a pretty disappointing, especially the baseball (even the pizza relative to the price).

7-13-25

The MLB.TV Free Game was between the Indians and White Sox, so I decided to stay home and listen to the other two games available on the radio at the same time.    I chose to mostly listen to the rubber game between the Rangers and the Astros and peek in on the Chihuahuas and the Aviators.       

The Chihuahuas began the scoring and went up 3-0 in the first.    Yonathan Perlaza hit a 2-run homer.    In Houston in the bottom of the first, Nathan Evoldi’s first pitch nearly went out of the park.    It was ruled to have hit the top of the wall and was in play for a double.    This was followed by a walk.    Josh Smith at third made a good play to start a double play and Evan Carter in center made a diving catch to end the inning without damage.

In the second, Carter tripled in Wyatt Langford and Ezekiel Duran bloop-doubled him in.    The broadcasters were talking about how badly Zeke was hitting during his at bat.    2-0 Rangers.    Adolis Garcia blasted a high fastball out of the strike zone to make it 3-0 Rangers.    In the fourth, Carter doubled.    A single moved him over and Anthony Osuna sac’d him in to make it, 4-0 Rangers.

In the fourth in El Paso, it was 4-2 Chihuahuas.    I think I missed a two-run triple and a double steal by the pups in the interim.    Broadcaster Tim Hagerty brought in a guest.    He works at an ice cream stand in the park and also is a Hollywood actor.    He was working on a TV show that Tim and his wife were watching.    He’s also a special needs person and does talks at schools.    I was kind of fascinated with the interview and it went into the next inning.    Knuckleballer Matt Waldron picked off a runner on first to end the top of the fifth.

   

Meanwhile, Zeke made a great defensive play in the fifth, which I basically missed.    Evoldi surrendered a home run in the sixth, 4-1, but stayed in.    Marcus Siemen homered back in the eighth, 5-1 Rangers.    He’d hit a big foul ball earlier, so this was coming.      

Suddenly, I was listening to both games.    In El Paso in the seventh, Nate Mondou doubled when a fielder misplayed it on a jump.    Two runs scored, even with a play at the plate, 6-2 Chihuahuas.    Evoldi came out after starting the eighth and getting two outs.    It was a great performance with the short Ranger bullpen today.    The Rangers win 5-1.

In the eighth in El Paso, the Aviators scored on a double to make it, 6-3.    The pups brought in a reliever, who left two on and finished the inning.    In the top of the ninth with a runner on, a Chihuahuas’ fielder lost a fly ball in the sun, but fount it just in time to catch it.    That was the last threat and the Chihuahuas win 6-3 and split the series. Waldron got the wins to start and finish this series.   

It was midafternoon and I hadn’t eaten yet.    I trotted over to the mall and took note that it looked like it was raining over by the mountain.    When I got to the mall, there were sudden rips of thunder.    Was this a warning I should go back?    I pressed on and was glad I did, because I got back home with a tasty foot-long chili cheese dog and had a great lunch before it started raining.    I was glad I didn’t stop to buy anything else. Well, except for a snow cone from that new place.    They were doing good business today, unsurprisingly with the heat, and it was busy at the mall on a Sunday afternoon, which was surprising.    The craft faire was also there.    

Lastly for this weekend before the All-Star Game, there was a Mexican League game on.    I sort of ignored it, but sat down to watch the ninth.    The Dorados had come back to tie it.    In the bottom, they got a runner to third and a large player came to bat and sac’d him in.    5-4 Dorados win over Soles.    Not much baseball coming this week.    Hopefully I can get the radio call of the ASG.