Alex Dickerson’s hitting streak ends at 29 for the Chihuahuas, but they win anyway on a walk off on a blown double play. Elsewhere, the Giants lose Hunter Pence again to injury.
6-3-16
Interesting stat after Madison Bumgarner’s latest home run. In their last 190 plate appearances, Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, and Mad Bum each have 11 home runs.
6-4-16
Interesting week for the Padres. Their GM rips the team for being bad. They blow a 10 run lead the next day and lose the game. Then, they trade James Shields, their showpiece acquisition of their offseason a year ago, to the White Sox and still have to pay most of his remaining salary. Then their Triple A affiliate, the Chihuahuas, lose their luggage on the way to Fresno, causing a delay to the start of the game. The dogs end up winning anyway, 10-5.
6-5-16
Rangers vs Mariners. A friend that Rangers’ broadcaster, Matt Hicks left tickets for catches a foul ball in the stands. He’s able to see it from the booth and his wife, seated nearby, immediately texts him. Play of the game: Elvis on third. There’s a short fly ball to center. Elvis dekes out the centerfielder with a delayed tag up. The ball is lazily tossed in and Elvis takes off and scores. Rangers win 3-2.
6-9-16
Rangers vs Astros. Profar hits a liner to Altuve hard enough to knock him down. It’s scored a single. The Rangers win 5-3 and take 3 of 4 in the series. They are 9-1 vs Houston so far this year.
6-11-16
Dodgers vs Giants. In the 1st inning, Buster Posey accidently tosses his bat, swinging at a pitch. The bat flies high up into the netting behind home plate and lodges there. Has this ever happened before in a ball game? I doubt you could do that on purpose in a hundred tries. The bat is removed in between innings. Nervous spectators who were underneath it were able to continue enjoying the game.
Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors is there at the stadium in a luxury box watching his brother, Trayce, who plays for the Dodgers. Klay wears a Dodger hat to support his brother, forgetting where he is. When they show him on the video board at the stadium, though he’s representing the Bay area in the NBA playoffs, Klay is roundly “boo’ed.” Steve Kerr, coach of the Warriors and also probably a Dodger fan, was sitting next to the Giant’s dugout, without any team gear. He apparently better understood the depths of the Dodger/Giant rivalry. [Writing this a couple of weeks later, thank you NBA for your blatant fixing of the finals, thus giving me a new reason to hate your league and renew my vows to not watch you. A**holes.]
About four hours later, after trailing in the 10th, Buster Posey drives in the winning run. Giants win 5-4. Kerr, who stayed for the whole game, went over to the dugout and congratulated Bruce Bochy. “Four hours?” you ask. There were 15 pitchers used in the game. Elsewhere, the Rangers and the Mariners also went 10 innings. 2-1 Rangers, all scoring was off solo home runs. The Chihuahuas won 3-0 over the Rivercats, but only needed 9 innings.
This was not all the baseball I had on though. On a Juarez station, there was a Mexican league game on with the Indios (versus some team whose name I couldn’t hope to pronounce). I’m not sure when the game started, since I only found it flipping stations during the commercials, but it finished after 11:00 pm. The pace of the game could be described as leisurely. Real leisurely. If the Giants/Dodgers game needed some pace of play adjustments, this needed a complete overhaul.
The players had sponsorship all over their uniforms like NASCAR drivers. (You can look forward to this in the NBA in the near future, by the way.) Their stadium was really large. It was one big grandstand with a roof and a screen covering all of the seats inside. Keep looking at your cellphones. You didn’t have to worry about foul balls there. There was a pretty good crowd, though it’s hard to judge given the size of the grandstand. There was a small contingent of American liberals there protesting the name of the team. (Just kidding. They wouldn’t be able to figure out that “Indios” means “Indians.” Juarez also uses that name for their soccer and their basketball teams.)
In spite of the game’s pace, it was pretty lively from what I saw, occasionally checking in on it. There was lots of scoring. The lead changed hands several times. I saw a guy take five minutes to round the bases after a home run. There was a hard slide into a catcher that started a benches clearing brawl. The Indios won 11-10 on a walk off home run in the 9th. They came from behind three times in the game. Persistence.
This isn’t baseball related, but I have to mention this. On another Juarez station, I see a US vs Mexico football game going on. No, not futbol, American football. The US team ended up losing 35-7. Before you start slitting your wrists, I have question where they got this “US” team. On a punt, I saw the ball actually bounce off the helmet of the receiving US player. I think Mayfield or Cruces (our local state champion-caliber high school teams) could have given the Mexicans a better game.
Also not baseball related but I have to mention this. There’s a Trump commercial airing on Juarez television. It shows “Trump” (a guy in a bad wig) stopping some guy on one of the downtown entry bridges. Thankfully, the guy has an entry card (which this PSA is promoting) and is able to pass. “Trump” shouts after him, “You’re fired!” It doesn’t entirely make sense to me either. As I’ve mentioned before, they don’t like Trump in Mexico.
6-12-16
Rangers vs Mariners. A 6-4 win. The final out is Robinson Cano thrown out a second by Nomar Mazara from deep right field, after he had driven in the 4th run. The crowd in Seattle is stunned. Me and Eric Nadel were yelling in victory. I learned something new from Eric during the game. Rougned Odor had struck out 4 times during the game. In his fifth at bat, Eric mentioned Ruggie was wearing the “golden sombrero” for four K’s and was trying to avoid earning “Olympic Rings,” for five strikeouts. I hadn’t heard that term before as it’s a fairly rare occurrence. Ruggie flies out, avoiding the issue altogether.
6-17-16
Chihuahuas vs Rivercats. The pooches let a 4-0 lead evaporate. Daniel McCutchen was perfect through five until Tim jinxed it on the broadcast. (Don’t mention things like that until at least the 7th.) The score was tied on a solo home run in the 9th. The pups had runners in scoring position in the 10th and the 11th, but couldn’t push them in. In the bottom of the 11th, the bases were walked full to pitch to an 0 for 4 Travis Ishikawa of the Rivercats. You remember him? Jon Miller calling out, “The Giants win the pennant,” on Ishikawa’s walk off home run. One single later, Rivercats win the game 5-4. The most startling stat of the game: time of game two hours 43 minutes. 11 innings in under three hours! Pace of play indeed.
In St. Louis, the Rangers beat the Cardinals 1-0. Cole Hamels goes 7+ and Rougned Odor’s home run is the only scoring of the game. Mentioned during the game, Ruggie has a younger brother, also in the Rangers’ system, with the same name. While Ruggie was serving his suspension, the team could have conceivably brought up another Ruggie to replace him. Thankfully, the front office would rather be smart than cute.
6-18-16
With the Rangers down 3-0 in the 8th vs the Cardinals, they get two runs. In the 9th, the Rangers get the bases loaded on an infield hit, a single, and a hit batsman, knocking Cardinal closer Rosenthal out of the game. Shin-Soo Choo works a walk on a full count to force in the tying run. Ian Desmond drives in the go ahead run on a sac fly. Rangers win 4-3.
I also watched the Fox national broadcast of the Cubs vs the Pirates. Well, actually it was a Cubs homer broadcast that was broadcast nationally. I think they’re trying to hype up the Cubs, hoping they make it into the World Series and thus getting the best World Series TV ratings ever. Cubs win again 4-3.
6-19-16
The Rangers beat the Cardinals 5-4 and sweep their three-game series in St. Louis. This game changed leads several times before the Rangers finished it. The Rangers are actually undefeated in Busch Stadium since their World Series losses there in 2011.
6-20-16
The MLB Network picked up a Giants’ broadcast versus the Pirates. I was blissfully able to hear the dulcet tones of Jon Miller for a couple of innings. Not so blissfully, the Giants lost 1-0 and waste 8 great innings of pitching out of the Madison Bumgarner. There were two interesting plays during the game. Angel Pagan almost robbed Erik Kratz of a home run, as he went well over the left field wall to get the ball. He had it briefly, before losing it. Pagan came off the top of the wall and in a pure Little League-like show of emotion, slammed his mitt into the ground. Meanwhile, how good a hitter is Bumgarner? In the 7th with a man on, the Pirates actually brought on a reliever to face him at the plate.
6-21-16
KROD program director, Steve Kaplowitz, came in and did play by play for a couple of innings. He’d done this before. I think the last time was when Tim had laryngitis. I’d kind of thought it would be a good idea to bring in some guest co-announcers to help save Tim’s voice a bit. Steve was clearly having a good time and the dogs had one too, winning 11-6. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to listen to most of it, as I was doing some voluntary business training over the Internet instead. See if I do that again.
6-24-16
This was comical. Jabari Blash of the Chihuahuas hits a mammoth shot out of Southwest U. Tim Hagerty gives his trademark home run call . . . and then has to take it back as strong winds knocked it down into a long fly out. Tim chuckled, as the Chihuahuas were winning handily anyway. Certainly the fielders were working overtime trying to figure out where balls in the air were going. 9-3 dogs.
This was not so comical. Another home run call taken back in the 9th of a Rockies/Diamondbacks game. It was a full home run call for Nick Hundley, no doubt about it. I was momentarily elated after a 4 ½ hour game for the Rockies to walk off this back and forth battle of a game. The Rockies announcer then, more surprised than anyone else, had to retract it as Rickie Weeks, utility infielder playing out of position in the outfield, showed the ball. He’d gone over the fence to get it. This was a pretty crushing defeat, especially after coming back from six runs down.
Meanwhile, this had come up in the previously day’s Diamondbacks’ TV broadcast (another hard loss for the Rockies). Nolan wants his last name pronounced AR-enado, instead of AIR-enado. AZ TV accommodated him, though the Rockies radio broadcast didn’t until today. At least Nolan didn’t demand to be called Giancarlo. He got some great clutch hits in this game. Unfortunately in the 9th, he’d made a baserunning mistake right before that non-home run, that otherwise would have brought him in on a sacrifice. His name is “mud” until the Rockies win again.
Meanwhile again, the Rangers coughed up a three run lead at home in the 9th to lose to the Red Sox. It was kind of a bad night baseball-wise for me.
6-26-16
The Rockies and the Rangers bounce back with wins. Thank goodness. In Reno, the Chihuahuas face the Aces for a double header. In game 1, Tim is amused and irritated by a pair of loud hecklers giving it to the pooches. He reports that they weren’t together initially, but joined forces later in the game. Regardless, the pups win that one easily. However, they lose game 2 on a walk off. I have to blame the manager, Rod Barajas, for leaving reliever Jose Dominguez in for a second inning to try and finish the game when he clearly didn’t have it.
6-28-16
I didn’t expect I’d get to hear any of the Rangers/Yankees game tonight, since it was on the east coast (and I was really surprised that none of their games were nationally broadcast on TV). However, thanks to the game start being delayed by rain and a 3 ½ hour rain delay after the 9th inning started, I got to hear the end of the game. I didn’t’ hear the particulars as to why the game wasn’t called or suspended.
I’m sorry I missed nearly all of Rain Delay Theater listening to another game. The guys seemed to be having a good time discussing Yankee Stadium ballpark food. The Rangers were down by a run when play resumed. The home plate ump was giving the pitchers a very generous strike zone, but three hit batsmen and a couple of clutch hits gave the Rangers the lead and a 9-6 win. The game ended at 2:45 AM in NYC.
The stat of the game was a Tweet by the infamous Marlins Man. He posted a couple of pictures. The Rangers’ dugout was full. The Yankees’ dugout was empty. The caption read that the umps had to go get the Yankees to come out, while the Rangers were all ready. But here’s the freaky thing. The next night, I see this guy in the front row in Omaha for the College World Series. How? Why?
It’s a day game in Reno for the Chihuahuas vs the Aces, game 5 of 9 in a row between these teams. The pups go down 8-0 in the first two innings. They come back and actually take the lead, but end up losing 15-12. I was sorry I was at work and only getting to hear snippets of this game. Elsewhere, the Indians have won their 11th in a row.
6-29-16
The Rangers give up six runs in the 9th to lose it for the Rangers against the Yankees, 9-6. It was a blown save to say the least for Sam Dyson. The Blue Jays beat the Rockies 14-9 in another late night game, thanks to a rain delay. I don’t know why I stayed up late to listen to this game, as the score was not as close as it looks.
6-30-16
The daylight brings no help to the Rangers. Relief pitching once again blows it in the 9th and the Rangers lose a day game in the Bronx to the Yankees, 2-1.
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