8-7-25
Tonight’s MLB.TV Free Game was the Reds at the Pirates. Paul Skenes was pitching for the Bucs and Ke’Bryan Hayes facing his old team after being traded. I looked over the Pirates lineup. Three guys were hitting under .200 with nobody close to .300. Aggie great, Nick Gonzales, was the top hitter at .279. That’s swell, but I’m sure Nick wishes that he had some more teammates hitting better.
In the first, the Reds got a couple of runners on. Nick turned a nice double play to end the inning. The broadcasters were questioning the small crowd size in Pittsburgh and were hoping that it wouldn’t be too much of a letdown for the Reds from playing in front of a full house in Chicago against the Cubs. They were also asking why Pirate Brian Reynolds was having such a bad year. They concluded that it was from playing on a last place team year after year. I didn’t realize at the time I was listening to the Reds’ broadcasters! Harsh!
Regardless, Reynolds somehow heard them and cranked out a solo shot. After three walks, Jared Triolo singled in two runs and it was, 3-0 Pirates. Reds’ starter, Brady Singer, was already over 30 pitches. I went over to the Pirates’ broadcast for the rest of the game, but I didn’t hear the regular play-by-play guy, who has the great catch phrases. (I keep forgetting his name.)
In the top of the third, Hayes came up to bat. He was given a nice hand by the crowd. The video board played a montage of his decade as a Pirate. What a classy move! Hayes tipped his helmet to the crowd and did something he’d been wanting to do since last year: take an at bat against Paul Skenes. He singled. Nick nearly turned another tricky DP, but the ball was dropped at first.
There was some bonus coverage with the White Sox at the Mariners in the 11-th. The M’s walked off the Sox. New (and returning) Mariner, Eugenio Suarez, slid in just ahead of a tag at home on a swallow single, 4-3.
In the bottom of the third, a foul line drive nearly took out the dugout reporter. He made no effort to try and protect his very attractive blonde assistant, which the other broadcasters gave him a hard time over. In the fourth, the Pirates added a run and chased Singer from the mound, 4-0. In the fifth, Andrew McCutchen thrown out at home trying to score on a swallow single. On close up replay, he might have snuck his hand in first.
Skenes finished the sixth. It was a terrible game for him. He gave up seven hits for the first time in his career (his 47-th start). No runs, 8 strikeouts, and no walks, but a disappointing game. (He’d given up a three-run homer in a preceding game and the broadcasters were shocked.)
In the bottom of the sixth, Nick singled and Oneil Cruz’s fielder’s choice brought in another run, 5-0. The Pirates’ broadcast ran an ad for suites. They seemed to be targeting common fans with this. (Meaning, they’re having trouble selling them to rich fans.) To cap the evening, Henry Davis hit a two-run homer in the seventh to make it, 7-0, which was the final. “Raise the Jolly Rodger! Pirates win!” (I had to say it, since the broadcaster wasn’t there to say it.) This was a blowout and I wasn’t listening to the broadcaster I wanted to, but I was really enjoying the game and happy to see the Pirates do well tonight.
It was 4-2 Comets when I tuned in in the third inning of their game with the Chihuahuas. The pups loaded the bases this inning and a wild pitch brought in a run. After a walk reloaded the bases and a change of pitchers, Rodolpho Duran cranked out a grand slam on his first pitch to make it, 7-4. The Chihuahuas scored two more runs score to make it 9-4 in a 12-batter, 5 walk inning.
Again, work interrupted my listening. The top of the seventh ended on catcher Luis Campusano picking off a runner at second on a walk. Broadcaster Tim Hagerty commented on the rarity of that play. I missed whatever caused it, but the benches emptied in the top of the ninth. I think it was on a hit by pitch. There was no fighting, but the benches were warned. The Chihuahuas won their sixth in a row, 11-5. After these three games, I can see the Comets being pretty frustrated.
8-8-25
The Chihuahuas were playing the OKC Comets again tonight. Pups’ starter, Jackson Wolf, had issues in the first. He loaded the bases with no outs, but managed to get out of it with only a sac run. Catcher Rodolpho Duran threw out a runner at second. In the bottom, Nate Mondou singled in two runs to give the Chihuahuas a 2-1 lead. Oddly, both teams lost all of their challenges in the first inning. The home plate ump was doing a pretty good job.
The Comets retook the lead in the second on two-run homer. Tim Locastro came back and tied it on solo shot. Yonathan Perlaza doubled in another run for the lead, 4-3 Chihuahuas. The Comets had two solo homers in the top of the third, 5-4 Comets. The balls were flying out. The bottom of the third was first scoreless inning.
The Comets homered again in the fourth with a low line drive that was barely fair. Esteury Ruiz, a former Chihuahua, followed that with a 400’ shot. Wolf came out, but another run scored to make it, 8-4 Comets. It’s not over, yet. In the bottom, Tyler Wade singled in two runs. A Will Wagner bunt single and a walk loaded the bases with nobody out. The pups only got one run off of a Fielder’s Choice. 8-7 Comets.
The Comets scored again in the fifth, 9-7, and the second scoreless inning of the game was in the bottom. Another run was added by both teams to make it, 10-8 Comets. In the bottom of the ninth, Mason McCoy homered to close it to only a one-run lead. The Chihuahuas loaded the bases with two outs. The crowd was into it, as you might imagine. Clay Dungan hit a line drive into the corner that was just foul. He finally fouled out to end the game, 10-9 Comets. What a barrage! Just glancing at the box score, the Comets kept the Chihuahuas in the game thanks to 12 walks.
I was very busy at work and later in the night, I was listening to a very interesting political talk show. Something had to give and that was the MLB.TV Free Game. The Red Sox were at the Padres in a great matchup, but what turned out to be a lousy blowout. I didn’t pay much attention to the 10-2 Red Sox win. I did see in the eighth that Fernando Tatis Jr. took a dive on a pitch at his head. I wonder if that’ll have repercussions for the rest of the series.
8-9-25
Dad and I went over to Subway to get lunch. We split a foot-long Chicken Bacon Ranch sub. It was filling, but kind of tasteless. It was nothing like Domino’s version of the sandwich. We watched the NASCAR Xfinity race from Watkins Glen this afternoon. It was a road race where a Talladega “Big One” broke out in the late stages and took out a bunch of cars. I’d never seen that before. 19-year old Connor Zilisch mostly dominated the race, but had to come from behind twice to win it. That was fun, though the wreck clean up took a while.
Dad wasn’t pleased with the delay, either. He had somewhere he wanted to go. I chose to go back home after the race, since it was late in the afternoon. I was in time for the Rangers playing the Phillies on the radio. It was Josh Hamilton Day there, as he was inducted into the Rangers’ Hall of Fame. The broadcasters spoke glowingly about him during the game.
The Rangers scored a run in the first and that held up until the seventh. Starter Jacob deGrom held the Phillies down until then, but gave up a two-run double. He came out and a reliever gave up another run to make it, 3-1 Phillies. In the eighth, Corey Seager hit a solo shot to make it, 3-2.
Meanwhile, I was peeking in on the Chihuahuas against the OKC Comets. In the first, knuckleballer Matt Waldron was again having issues. He gave up four runs and didn’t come back out for the second. 4-0 Comets.
The one-run Rangers game went to the ninth. Bzzzzzz! The station powered down for the evening. I tried the Amarillo affiliate, but it wasn’t dark enough yet for them to power up. I flipped over to the Chihuahuas game for good. They had also powered down, but were still listenable. The game, however, wasn’t. I tuned in just as the Comets doubled in three more runs in the fourth. It would be 8-0 when the inning ended. During this time, broadcaster Tim Hagerty gave the final of the Rangers game, 3-2 Phillies.
I tuned into the Dallas Cowboys preseason game radio broadcast off-and-on briefly during the Rangers’ game. (It was on TV on a local station I don’t get.) I swear every time it was a play with a flag thrown. If there was ever a game where all of the plays were called back on penalties would anyone notice? I didn’t get much out of listening to this one other than the Cowboys’ defense was apparently lacking.
It was 11-0 Comets by the fifth. Slightly desperate, I tried KOA out of Denver for the Rockies game, hoping it hadn’t finished yet. They were doing a Broncos’ preseason game. I kept listening to the Chihuahuas. They managed a few runs, including Will Wagner’s first Chihuahuas’ home run (400+’), but they lost, 11-3. Oddly, like yesterday, there were 12 walks, but this time it was the Chihuahuas issuing the free passes. I could only feel for the fans in El Paso. The game was taking forever (three-and-a-half hours), their team was losing badly, and the likely large Saturday crowd was waiting for fireworks and there were storms in the area.
No comments:
Post a Comment