I was at work till nearly 2:00am on Friday, but on Saturday, the hard work paid off. The company picnic this year was at an El Paso Chihuahuas game. I was going with my co-worker Toni and her fiancĂ© Nico. I’d bought some comics for them recently (7-30-26). I own a Chihuahuas shirt and an Albuquerque Isotopes shirt, but I was going to the game debuting my new Expos shirt (7-1-26), which they’d bought for me on a trip to Montreal. I still had on my Chihuahuas hat.
We left Las Cruces with a heavy rain cloud behind us to the north. The weather forecast for the evening was not promising. I did mention to my hosts that last night’s game had had an hour rain delay (8-4-26). It was certainly very hot and sunny for now. I also mentioned that the Chihuahuas had lost four in a row to the Isotopes this week. Toni has gone up to see the Isotopes and likes them, too.
There was some scary, busy traffic in downtown El Paso. Nico is a good driver. I was glad I wasn’t driving. I paid for the parking garage, so Nico was glad I was along. We walked over a bridge over the road from the parking garage to the stadium. I got a program and a lineup card at the courtesy booth. There is a scorecard on it, but the program is printed on slick paper, which you couldn’t use pencil on. I’d brought my own scorecards, anyway.
The team shop was next door and full of fans. I offered to get Toni something for her birthday this week, but she didn’t see anything. I got large magnet for a girl. I thought about a stuffed Chico, but it didn’t look that good. A stuffed baseball was cute, but I didn’t know if she liked baseball or not. The guy at the register liked my Expos shirt. They had team baseball card packs behind the counter, but I guess I was serious about not getting any cards. The fans in the store were wearing a whole variety of jerseys, including MLB, throwback Diablos, various Chihuahuas from over the years, and even a Juarez Indios jersey.
It was Eddie Guerrero bobblehead night. I’d head the name, but wasn’t familiar with the pro wrestler. He’s from El Paso. We didn’t get anywhere near getting one. It was a very hot item locally. There was wrestling ring set up by the front gate with local wrestlers performing in front of a good crowd. (Toni and Nico were not interested in standing around in the sun and watching them.) The player pictures they put on the video screen had all the players dressed up as famous wrestlers. (One Isotope was goofy villain, Danhousen, which got a laugh out of me.)
The Locomotive soccer team store was open. We went in (it was air-conditioned) and were the only ones there with a lonely salesman. A few years ago, I had made a suggestion to an attendant to have it open (7-16-22). (I’m sure the Chihuahuas’ teamshop is open during Locomotive games.) Apparently, they took that seriously, so I felt obligated to buy something. I got an okay shirt. Maybe not quite what I really wanted, but it was in my size and $30 for a t-shirt was plenty. I didn’t want something more expensive.
The field was in decent shape, probably due to the rain lately. The Chihuahuas were in black tops with the howling dog logo. The Isotopes were in Rockies’ purple tops. There was a great crowd of 8,630 present. The Anthem singer got the words wrong, but really belted it out.
We were in the shade in the open Santa Fe pavilion. There was a video screen beside us, which was good, since our view of the deep outfield was occluded. I’d brought my AM radio with me, but they were playing Tim Hagerty’s commentary for the whole game with the video. (Usually, they don’t for some reason.) I still listened to my radio and almost immediately got a weather alert, thankfully not for El Paso.
There was a scoring change in the second inning from a hit to an error that messed up my scoring. Me and Tim both saw the play as a double, and I don’t think he corrected the scoring later. Otherwise, these basically added up. I was struggling to fill out the lineups until I remembered I’d picked up a printed lineup before the game. I was uncertain with the pitchers, since not all of them were on the printed roster, and I was concerned I wasn’t catching every pitching change.
First inning, first pitch and it was a 425’ home run to center by Isotope Adael Amador. This wasn’t a good sign for the Chihuahuas. Starter Sean Boyle finished off the rest of the inning in order. Dustin Harris led off the bottom with a single. I pointed out the Padres’ top prospect, Ethan Salas, just as he grounded into a double play to end the inning. I jinxed him. 1-0 Isotopes.
They started serving food in the pavilion in the second inning. I got a chicken sandwich with ranch sauce and some chips. It tasted pretty good, but was a bit stringy. The other option was a hot dog, which apparently wasn’t much better. I also had a couple of cookies and some lemonade, which I was tasting for the rest of the night. Boyle had a 1-2-3 top of the second inning. There was a new on-field MC between innings, not Andy Imfield. The new guy had a wrestling announcer’s attitude for the game.
In the bottom, Chad Stevens made a nice running putout from third base to start the inning. From there, the pups busted out. A single and two walks followed. During Nick Pratto’s at bat, there was confusion on number of balls, since there was an auto ball issued for a violation. Romeo Sanabria came up with the bases loaded and unloaded them with a 433’ homer to right. It was just fair. We had to watch it on the video screen. The crowd went crazy, as you’d expect.
Harris came back up and hit Nate Mondou, who was injured and working as the first base coach. Harris got on and went to second on an error by Vimael Machin at first. The Isotopes brought in a new pitcher. Mascon McCoy cashed in Harris and Nick Solak singled in McCoy. It was an 11-batter inning and 6-1 Chihuahuas. This was looking good.
Chico, our lovable mascot, also came by during the inning. Happy fans mobbed him for pictures. Toni was all over him. She almost took him home with us or nearly got handed a restraining order. Chico’s handler was barking at him to move along. He’s an important person at the park and has many responsibilities.
The ‘Topes struck back in the top of the third with a single and a double. Ryan Ritter doubled in both runners. 6-3 Chihuahuas. The pups got a couple of walks in the bottom, but left them stranded. Between innings, fans were doing wrestling poses for the camera. Tim mentioned that Pratto was in the Little League World Series when he was a kid and there’s video of him being interviewed there.
There was more trouble in the top of the fourth. Two doubles and a single brought in two more Isotopes’ runs. 6-5 Chihuahuas. The pups only managed a walk in the bottom, but with two strikeouts. The video board cut away to the wrestling ring. Chico was wrestling a guy in an alligator suit there. Awesome!
I took a bathroom break between innings. They went back to the ring on the video board after I left, and I missed Chico finally taking down the alligator to the cheers of the crowd. I did see a jacked up lowrider bouncing around out on the street below playing music. It wasn’t a great trade, but I got something (and relieved my bladder after two lemonades). Boyle gave up a double in the top of the fifth, but no one scored. In the bottom, some co-workers brought in big churros from the concessions with sauce on them. I thought I saw lightning, but apparently not, so play on. The pups went down in order.
Before the top of the sixth, there was kid’s race wearing inflatable dog suits, which deflated as they got to the finish line. On the radio, there was a weather alert for flooding in Las Cruces. It still wasn’t raining in El Paso. We were sweltering at ballpark with no breeze blowing.
Miguel Cienfuegos came on in relief. Toni questioned why Boyle was left in so long. Looking at the line score, I told her it was because, while he’d given up 5 runs, he hadn’t given up any walks. Miguel ripped a 1-2-3 inning. The Isotopes also brought in a new pitcher in the bottom of the sixth, Andrew Baker. He gave up a walk and had two strikeouts.
Cienfuegos had a strong second inning of work in the seventh with a pair of strikeouts. In the Stretch, Chico did a mariachi dance on field that the crowd loved. The Isotopes brought in another pitcher in the bottom. He gave up two singles and balked them into scoring position. The infield fly rule was invoked on a soft liner to second that was dropped on purpose. All we needed was a detached equipment call to complete the trifecta. The runners were left stranded after a strikeout. This might have been the turning point in the game.
Before the top of the eighth, a cart came blasting out and went around the stands tossing t-shirts. They did not have a t-shirt cannon, though. The wind was picking up and everyone was smelling rain. The breeze was nice. The Chihuahuas brought out a new reliever, Ty Adcock. He gave up a wind-aided popup double. Three fielders made a campfire around it. There was a walk with two outs, when back-to-back singles drove in two runs to give the Isotopes the lead. Bryce Johnson made a sliding catch in left field to end the inning and save any further damage. 7-6 Isotopes.
Johnson led off with a single in the bottom of the eighth. Harris made a great bunt and ended up getting an infield single off it. McCoy bunted the both of them into scoring position. The crowd was up for Salas. He’d had a tough day at the plate tonight, but hit a liner to right to sacrifice in the tying run, 7-7. Solak made the final out at the plate. He thought a tapper at the plate was foul and stood there while he was thrown out at first.
Aleck Jacob pitched a 3-batter, scoreless top of the ninth. There was a Dizzy Bat Race on field. An attendant mentioned a guy once proposed to a girl at one of those events and had worked it out with the staff. He probably would have already been on his knees from spinning around. In the bottom of the ninth, Nico and Toni saw a little bird on the field. It looked like a quail, which it surely couldn’t have been. Security tackled the bird and escorted him from the facility. The section behind home plate got up and started cheering the Chihuahuas’ batters, but it was another 1-2-3 frame. Fireworks would have to wait while this game got settled.
That didn’t take long. The first pitch in the top of the tenth was a double that scored the automatic runner. (I wasn’t sure how to score that. This couldn’t have been my first extra innings game with an automatic runner.) Jacob got the next two outs, but a low dying liner got past a diving Harris in centerfield. That doubled in another run. (Two days later, one of my co-workers was still bitter about the play. Hey, he gave it his best shot to catch it.)
Another double brought in another run. A run-scoring single followed, along with a run down, which resulted in the ball being thrown away for an error. After a walk, a new pitcher was finally brought in to finish the inning, but the damage was done. 11-7 Isotopes.
In the bottom of the tenth, Tim forgot the challenge rule in extra innings. (You get a new one in extras.) It’s hard to keep track of the new rules. He then reported that the Dodgers had just traded to get Tarik Skubal. I threw a fit in front of everybody over that news. I won’t get into it here, but that was the worst thing that happened during the game as far as I was concerned. Harris came up with two outs and hit a 425’ 2-run homer. I could hear it hit the walkway between the pavilion and the bar. A daughter of a co-worker got it. It was likely wind-aided. That was the Chihuahuas’ final outburst, as the Isotopes won, 11-9.
Out of 10 innings, the Chihuahuas scored in 3. The Isotopes scored in 5. It’s kind of amazing the Chihuahuas even forced an extra inning. Still, it’s not the offense; it’s the pitching. The best they can do limit the damage and hope that the bats keep connecting.
Let’s hand out a few Gameballs. For the Isotopes, the bottom of the order really did in the pups. Conner Capel, Braxton Fulford, and Drew Avans all went 3 for 5 and drove a combined 7 runs. For the Chihuahuas, Dustin Harris was 3 for 6 with a 2-run home run. (He was Player of the Week.) Romeo Sanabria was 1 for 4, but that 1 was a grand slam home run. Miguel Cienfuegos was the most effective pitcher of the night with 2 scoreless innings and 3 strikeouts.
The extended game time went for 3 hours, 19 minutes. The fireworks were worth the wait. That were loud and right there in front of you. I was really impressed with these whistling, spiraling shots that went off together. I couldn’t hear the music (or the radio for the postgame). Maybe you could hear it in the stands.
Light sprinkles began as we walked out of the stadium. The dome held for the game and that was what was important. A car show was finishing next door with classic cars being loaded on to trailers. It took a while to get out of downtown and on the Interstate, but it was a lot quicker than last time (7-30-23). It was raining by this point and we got slowed down by an accident, but traffic kept moving.
The rain got worse outside of the city with lightning and thunder overhead. I was crabbing about the Skubal trade on the way back to explain my behavior in the tenth. I was delivered back home. Once again, Nico is an excellent driver. Hat’s off to him. Inside, I was completely exhausted like I’d run back home from the stadium. I checked the weather and it was 65% humidity, which is way above my normal operating conditions.
Didn’t quite get the result I was hoping for (the Chihuahuas lost on Sunday for a 6-game sweep), but it’s so nice to be out for a game and Southwest University Park is wonderful. I told Toni and Nico I’d take them for an Aggie ballgame next year. That’ll likely be a letdown by comparison, but we’ll see what they think of it.






