The Yahoo free game was Cubs vs Pirates. I saw Anthony Rizzo hit a two-run homer to right field in the 1st, but didn’t catch much else of the action. It’s almost boring watching the Cubs win this season (though last night’s 13-inning game was apparently pretty exciting). They’re making it look too easy. The stadium was packed there, as it’s been all season. The fans in Chicago can almost taste it. I feel bad for the Pirates. Their window of opportunity may have closed for this group. I’m sure their fans are dreading the possibility of enduring another couple of decades of losing baseball. I almost want to suggest that they deal McCutchen for a crop of really good prospects in the off season and reload for another run in a few years. The final was 3-0 Cubs.
I switched over to listening to the Chihuahuas vs the 51’s. Admittedly, I had a hard time concentrating on the game at work. Tim seemed very serious in calling the game tonight. It was a pretty tight affair. The dogs went down by a couple of runs early, but came back with three in the 2nd to take the lead. Austin Hedges hit what seemed like a back-breaking two-run homer in the 7th for a 6-2 lead. But, the 51’s are a good team. Michael Conforto, who was on Mets’ World Series team last year, hit a two-run home run to bring the score to 6-5 in the 9th. But, a new reliever for the pups came in after that and shut the door for the win. Moments after this win, the Isotopes lost their game tonight. The Chihuahuas’ magic number is two with six games left.
I think I saw on the website that Carlos Asuaje was named PCL Rookie of the Year. I went back to my scorecard from earlier in the year to get the spelling on that. I saw him go 4 for 4, with 2 runs and 2 RBI’s that night. Ah ha! I knew I’d heard Stephen Cardullo’s name before when I heard it on the Rockies broadcast yesterday. He was on the Isotopes that night and he’d hit a home run.
The Rockies were rained out tonight, but baseball goes on in Arlington between the Rangers and the Mariners. Cole Hamels had a bad outing, giving up six runs, but the Ranger offense never gave up. I kept checking in on score before finally putting on Gameday for the 9th. Down a run, Adrian Beltre (who else?) gets it started with a single. Roughned Odor then steps to the plate. Even just watching the pitching tracking and reading the play descriptions, what happened next was special: two-run walk-off home run. Rouggie! Your happy totals are Rangers 8, Mariners 6. If this team wins the World Series, I highly suspect these two will be the carrying the team to the trophy.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Baseball Notebook for August 29, 2016
Texas Rangers vs. Seattle Mariners. What a treat this is. The MLB.tv free game is the one I wanted to see. Not only am watching the video, I figured out I can switch the audio feed, and I’m able to listen to Eric Nadel and Matt Hicks call the game. I felt bad about that last post, since I’d clearly not sufficiently detailed a lot of the action. This isn’t a play-by-play blog and, owing to some bad reception, it’s hard to tell to what’s going on. Well for this post and with clear audio and visual, let’s do a little better today. Thankfully, it’s a quiet night at work.
I’m already happy with being able to watch. The broadcast starts off showing an attractive blonde woman with a scorebook behind the Rangers’ dugout. Where are these women, who obviously love the game, when I’m at the ballpark? (Mostly, the good-looking women are groupies. And where do you get those professional scorebooks?)
Our starting pitching matchup has an Oriental flavor with Yu Darvish vs Hisashi Iwakuma, a pair of World Baseball Classic teammates for the Japanese team. Carlos Beltran breaks the seal in the bottom of the 1st with a no doubter into the upper home run porch. 1-0 Rangers. There’s a short conversation about Roughned Odor, wondering what he’s really like in the clubhouse. The report is generally that he’s a good guy with his teammates and well-liked. There was a “ding” sound effect as Eric used the word, “Excoriate.” The guys on the broadcast are into using cool, obscure words.
Okay, pay attention here, this is where it gets interesting. Nomar Mazara triples to drive in Elvis Andrus, who was on base. Ian Desmond then doubled in Maz. With Adrian Beltre on deck, doing his usual video-bombing in the centerfield camera frame, Beltran doubles in Desmond, and this is all before the first out. Jonathan Lucroy then begats another run, driving in Beltran. Jared Sandler chimes in with an update and uses the word, “Bumfuzzled.” Ding!
There’s a giant red Ranger hat sitting with a couple of fans behind home plate. It’s confusing the hell out of me. Is it a cut-out? An image on a blanket? The most awesome sports novelty item ever? A giant hat! I never figured out what it was before it disappeared. With Iwakuma getting knocked around, Pat Venditte starts warming up in the Mariner bullpen. This guy is the fabled “switch-pitcher,” that we heard about a couple of years ago. They had to make a new rule to deal with unbelievable phenomena. The broadcast guys are fascinated. They’re wondering how he warms up both arms.
Meanwhile, we’re still in the 3rd, Carlos Gomez is at bat. After a home run in his Rangers debut and some sterling defense, he’s hasn’t hit since. Watching his swing, I can see why. Gomez is flailing so hard, he’s almost falling down with every swing. He works a long at bat against Iwakuma. Eric: “(Venditte’s) got time to warm up a third arm.” Gomez makes an out. Our score is 5-0 Rangers.
Adam Lind doubles in a run in the 4th to bring the score to 5-1 Rangers. Then Venditte enters the game. Indeed, he pitches righty to Elvis and lefty to Maz. It’s amazing. The TV view shows a young mom and her adorable daughter taking a selfie in the stands. TV directors, always do cute kids and happy family shots during a game. Fan cam should be mandatory on baseball broadcasts.
In the 5th, Darvish’s curve is working as he strikes out the side. (Crap! I forgot to get his total strikeouts. It was about eight. Edit: It was nine.) In the bottom, Venditte is back out. Eric has broken out some baseball encyclopedia research on ambidextrous pitchers. This guy is only the second one in the “modern” era. There were three others before that in the “old-timey” era, including some guy nicknamed, “Icebox.” Before Venditte came into a game in Boston, the organist played Joni Mitchell’s “I’ve looked at life from both sides now.” Talk about opposition research.
The afore mentioned new rule states that the pitcher must declare what arm they’re going to use before the batter chooses a box. Beltre comes to bat and flips his helmet around like he’s going to bat from the other side. That gets a laugh out of everybody. He then hits a double and makes it to third on a passed ball. Yesterday, there were 11 total hits. All of them singles. It was the first time that had happened at the ballpark in Arlington. Today, the ball’s getting slapped around harder. Ruggie sacrifices him in. The crowd goes into an “Ole” chant. I hadn’t heard that before in a baseball game. I don’t know if it’s a tradition or new. 6-1 Rangers.
Yu is out after 7 2/3 innings and leaves with two on. Matt uses the word, “Felicitous.” Ding! Jake Diekman comes in and gives up a double, scoring two, and a walk. The guys lamented the loss of Jeremy Jeffress here, who’s still on restriction. Keone Kela comes in and strikes out Nelson Cruz (who is either getting boo’ed or “Cruuuzz’ed” when he comes to bat, it’s hard to tell). 6-3 Rangers.
In the 7th, we get the defensive play of the game as former Ranger, Leonys Martin, fully goes over the wall to rob Desmond of a home run. The new Seattle pitcher is Arquimedes Caminero. He throws 100+ mph and doesn’t allow any further dramatics. Kela shuts down the 8th, and Sam Dyson finishes it off in the 9th. Our final is 6-3. Yea! There were a few hiccups in the video and audio feeds during the game, but I overall enjoyed the show.
Back at home, I tune into the Chihuahuas game. I’m in time for the post-game. The dogs have lost 6-3 to the Las Vegas 51’s. I flip over to the Rockies and it’s the bottom of the 8th versus the Dodgers. I missed the fireworks as the Rockies easily won 8-1. I get to hear a rookie named Stephen Cardullo get his first major league hit. The broadcast was really happy for him as he apparently was an extreme longshot to make it to the bigs. They also mentioned Albuquerque won tonight. They’re 4 ½ back with seven to go.
I’m already happy with being able to watch. The broadcast starts off showing an attractive blonde woman with a scorebook behind the Rangers’ dugout. Where are these women, who obviously love the game, when I’m at the ballpark? (Mostly, the good-looking women are groupies. And where do you get those professional scorebooks?)
Our starting pitching matchup has an Oriental flavor with Yu Darvish vs Hisashi Iwakuma, a pair of World Baseball Classic teammates for the Japanese team. Carlos Beltran breaks the seal in the bottom of the 1st with a no doubter into the upper home run porch. 1-0 Rangers. There’s a short conversation about Roughned Odor, wondering what he’s really like in the clubhouse. The report is generally that he’s a good guy with his teammates and well-liked. There was a “ding” sound effect as Eric used the word, “Excoriate.” The guys on the broadcast are into using cool, obscure words.
Okay, pay attention here, this is where it gets interesting. Nomar Mazara triples to drive in Elvis Andrus, who was on base. Ian Desmond then doubled in Maz. With Adrian Beltre on deck, doing his usual video-bombing in the centerfield camera frame, Beltran doubles in Desmond, and this is all before the first out. Jonathan Lucroy then begats another run, driving in Beltran. Jared Sandler chimes in with an update and uses the word, “Bumfuzzled.” Ding!
There’s a giant red Ranger hat sitting with a couple of fans behind home plate. It’s confusing the hell out of me. Is it a cut-out? An image on a blanket? The most awesome sports novelty item ever? A giant hat! I never figured out what it was before it disappeared. With Iwakuma getting knocked around, Pat Venditte starts warming up in the Mariner bullpen. This guy is the fabled “switch-pitcher,” that we heard about a couple of years ago. They had to make a new rule to deal with unbelievable phenomena. The broadcast guys are fascinated. They’re wondering how he warms up both arms.
Meanwhile, we’re still in the 3rd, Carlos Gomez is at bat. After a home run in his Rangers debut and some sterling defense, he’s hasn’t hit since. Watching his swing, I can see why. Gomez is flailing so hard, he’s almost falling down with every swing. He works a long at bat against Iwakuma. Eric: “(Venditte’s) got time to warm up a third arm.” Gomez makes an out. Our score is 5-0 Rangers.
Adam Lind doubles in a run in the 4th to bring the score to 5-1 Rangers. Then Venditte enters the game. Indeed, he pitches righty to Elvis and lefty to Maz. It’s amazing. The TV view shows a young mom and her adorable daughter taking a selfie in the stands. TV directors, always do cute kids and happy family shots during a game. Fan cam should be mandatory on baseball broadcasts.
In the 5th, Darvish’s curve is working as he strikes out the side. (Crap! I forgot to get his total strikeouts. It was about eight. Edit: It was nine.) In the bottom, Venditte is back out. Eric has broken out some baseball encyclopedia research on ambidextrous pitchers. This guy is only the second one in the “modern” era. There were three others before that in the “old-timey” era, including some guy nicknamed, “Icebox.” Before Venditte came into a game in Boston, the organist played Joni Mitchell’s “I’ve looked at life from both sides now.” Talk about opposition research.
The afore mentioned new rule states that the pitcher must declare what arm they’re going to use before the batter chooses a box. Beltre comes to bat and flips his helmet around like he’s going to bat from the other side. That gets a laugh out of everybody. He then hits a double and makes it to third on a passed ball. Yesterday, there were 11 total hits. All of them singles. It was the first time that had happened at the ballpark in Arlington. Today, the ball’s getting slapped around harder. Ruggie sacrifices him in. The crowd goes into an “Ole” chant. I hadn’t heard that before in a baseball game. I don’t know if it’s a tradition or new. 6-1 Rangers.
Yu is out after 7 2/3 innings and leaves with two on. Matt uses the word, “Felicitous.” Ding! Jake Diekman comes in and gives up a double, scoring two, and a walk. The guys lamented the loss of Jeremy Jeffress here, who’s still on restriction. Keone Kela comes in and strikes out Nelson Cruz (who is either getting boo’ed or “Cruuuzz’ed” when he comes to bat, it’s hard to tell). 6-3 Rangers.
In the 7th, we get the defensive play of the game as former Ranger, Leonys Martin, fully goes over the wall to rob Desmond of a home run. The new Seattle pitcher is Arquimedes Caminero. He throws 100+ mph and doesn’t allow any further dramatics. Kela shuts down the 8th, and Sam Dyson finishes it off in the 9th. Our final is 6-3. Yea! There were a few hiccups in the video and audio feeds during the game, but I overall enjoyed the show.
Back at home, I tune into the Chihuahuas game. I’m in time for the post-game. The dogs have lost 6-3 to the Las Vegas 51’s. I flip over to the Rockies and it’s the bottom of the 8th versus the Dodgers. I missed the fireworks as the Rockies easily won 8-1. I get to hear a rookie named Stephen Cardullo get his first major league hit. The broadcast was really happy for him as he apparently was an extreme longshot to make it to the bigs. They also mentioned Albuquerque won tonight. They’re 4 ½ back with seven to go.
Monday, August 29, 2016
Baseball Notebook for August 26, 27, 28 2016
August 26, 2016
For our third, pivotal game between the El Paso Chihuahuas and the Albuquerque Isotopes, I’m watching the Gameday tracking. No radio. The Internet feed was pre-empted for High School football coverage. I got really depressed when I realized that next Friday, when my co-workers are at the game, I won’t even be able to listen.
The worst of it was that this looked like a heck of game. The Isotopes went up 3 runs in the 1st. The Chihuahuas answered in the 2nd with 3 runs of their own. No tight pitching battle for 5 innings this time. Watching Gameday is hard, especially when you’re at work, working. The dogs managed to pull away later in the game and won 10-4. Austin Hedges came up big with 3 RBI’s and a home run. It’s also hard to write up Gameday viewing and have any hope of making it interesting.
The MLB.tv free game, that I found myself turning to, was the Mariners vs the White Sox. It was Elvis night on the South side of Chicago. The camera kept picking out the people with the big sideburns and wigs and sequined jumpsuits to the amusement of the audience. In spite of 13 strikeouts by Chris Sale, it was a 3-1 Mariners win. Where’s Hawk Harrelson? I thought he was still doing games. It just wasn’t the same without a “ducks on the pond” or a “He gone.” At least those phrases will live on with other broadcasters.
Let’s look at the scoreboard. Kansas City beat Boston 6-3, but they don’t gain any ground as Cleveland rocked all over Texas, 12-1. Corey Kluber versus Martin Perez was not going to be a good match up for the Rangers. I didn’t mention it last weekend, but Perez was pretty much blamed for the bad loss to Tampa. He’s not looking good for the rotation. On the back end, Jeremy Jeffress was picked up for DWI. His future is uncertain. We have pitching issues.
8-27-16
With nothing better to do or watch on Saturday afternoon, I watched the Little League World Series. Sigh. Am I really doing this? I understand most people like this event. I used to. I’m not sure what happened. We likely start with this being an ESPN production. “Let’s see if we can turn a 7 inning game with kids into a 3-hour, highly sponsor-friendly, well-padded typical ESPN sports showcase.” The announcing doesn’t help. The guys doing MLB games are typically more light-hearted and having more fun. It all feels a little too serious. Maybe I’m not taking it seriously enough. Who can say?
The International championship lost me immediately. First, the South Korean coaches were complaining to the ump about the Panamanian pitcher. Then, there was a catcher’s equipment failure. When a pitch was finally thrown, the ump blew the call and it had to go replay. I gave up for the morning on it. South Korea won big. I tuned back in for the consolation game, also called the American championship. This might be another reason why I dread the LLWS: my team doesn’t win it often enough for me to get excited for it.
The game was more involving this time, but hugely more disappointing. This was entirely because of the ESPN news ticker running below the action. In between international soccer scores (how does an American go about choosing a favorite English, Spanish, Mexican, or German soccer team?), the lead story was that Tony Romo is out basically out for the season with a broken back. My Cowboys season is at least ended before it had a chance to hurt me worse later on. Don’t hold your breath waiting for me to do weekly NFL posts. Anyway, the story for game was New York pitcher, Michael Mancini. His line was 11 K’s, 1 hit, 1 walk before being taken out for his pitch count. Tennessee mounted a comeback in the 7th, but New York prevailed 4-2, and will go on to the championship tomorrow.
I got to hear a couple of innings of the Rangers vs the Indians, owing to bad reception, possibly weather-related (it rained all evening here). But, I got to hear the best of it. Through the static, Matt Hicks in the 1st (where’s Eric?) called Mitch Moreland hitting a grand slam. The Rangers lead 5-0 after one. (Annoyingly, I didn’t get a final score that night. It was 7-0.)
Good thing the Chihuahuas were playing in Albuquerque tonight. They wouldn’t have gotten the game in here with the rain. Up north, they only had a half-hour rain delay. 12,000 fans were crammed into the Lab tonight, including a small, but noisy contingent of pup fans. A lead-off homer gave them something to cheer about. Unfortunately after the 1st, the Chihuahuas didn’t get another hit for 7 innings. In the meantime, the Isotopes tied it and then went ahead by a run. They then put up 3 runs in 8th to make the score 5-1. The top of the 9th started with a single. That runner scored on a triple went off the center field wall and then rolled down the hill. Another run scored on an infield single, and all of this was before an out was recorded. Another runner scored with two out, but the game ended on a diving catch going into the gap. Final score, 5-4 Isotopes. Ever since the team has been on their winning streak, the Isotopes throw a party in their clubhouse with a disco ball and smoke machine. Well, get the DJ ready, they’re coming to party tonight.
8-28-16
I’ll kill the suspense right here. The Texas Rangers and the US New York Little League teams both managed to win their games 2-1. It was an interesting experience having these two games on at the same time, namely my notes interleave both games together. Let’s see if I can separate this.
Obviously the kids somehow knew what I wrote yesterday and were determined to make me eat my words. You’re welcome. Proper motivation is so important. The action is pretty easy to sum up. The US scored twice in the 4th. One of those runs came on a dropped third strike that got away from the South Korean catcher. There was a solo home run in the 5th, but the US starter went the distance for the win. (I didn’t get his name. I was listening to Ranger game on the radio, so the sound was off on the TV.) There was also a great play in the outfield to rob South Korea of a home run. Of course the best play was in the pressbox, as the play-by-play guy (again, didn’t get the name) caught a foul ball that ricocheted inside.
I enjoyed the game more with the sound off. Granted, this caused problems, such as not understanding why they only played six innings. I thought they played seven in Little League? Unfortunately, I was still getting visuals didn’t want. I don’t want to see the crying parents and kids in the stands. Then there’s the one bad thing about a US team this event: watching the Asian team stand on the foul line and begin ritual crying. You feel bad for them, not to mention, “There’s no . . .” I am not doing that movie quote. It’s not even correct. I’ve never even the movie. Okay, U-S-A, U-S-A!
In Arlington with 35,000 in attendance this afternoon, we’re mentioning newly acquired Carlos Gomez again. He made two great catches in the left field today for the Rangers. Given how close the score was, that was important. I may have to give Jon Daniels a lot of credit here. He’s been plugging in pieces from the minors and other teams all year, making up for injuries. The team has been getting these little jolts all year.
Derek Holland looked good out on the mound (figuratively speaking, since I was only listening), going six innings, allowing one run. Danny Salazar for the Indians also looked good with 10 K’s over 5 1/3 innings. I like to say the pitching was great all the way through, but the Rangers relievers provided way more drama without even giving up anything. In the 7th, Jake Diekman came in and issued seven straight balls, before getting a double play and out of trouble. In the 9th, Sam Dyson said, “I can do better than that,” and threw nine straight balls and loaded the bases. He got a strikeout and a fly out to end the game. Whew! Pitching coach, Doug Brocail, earned his pay today and got a workout going back and forth to mound.
That’s three of four from the second best team in the league. Strangely, the other three games were blowouts. The Rangers somehow have the best record in the American League (remember, they’re -2 in Run Differential). They’re also up 8 ½ on the Astros and Mariners, who both lost today. After the game, Jonathan Lucroy, Rangers catcher, was asked what he said to the struggling relievers when he went out to the mound. Basically, he doesn’t tell these guys how to pitch. He just tells them to relax and focus on hitting his mitt. Don’t you wish we all had someone like that in our lives? My favorite call of the game came from Matt Hicks (again without Eric Nadel), “The scoring goes 6-5-3. It’s complicated, but it’s a double play.” No updates on the Little League World Series or any games other than the Mariners and the Astros during or after the game.
The last out of the game was Abraham Almonte, former El Paso Chihuahua. Speaking of which, game five of the dogs versus the ‘Topes was tonight. There was a 20 minute delay for a few ceremonies before the Isotopes’ last scheduled home game of the season. The team won an award for best groundskeeping. If they’re doing a better job than in El Paso, it must be special. They also welcomed their 8 millionth fan this evening since the opening of the ballpark. Jessica Pacheco gave a stirring rendition of the National anthem. And with that, we were underway.
Tim Hagerty’s call of the game was pretty serious, but informative, as he chatted about the various players. I noticed that the PA there was doing an ad spot when there was a strikeout. Another reason to like the Chihuahuas, they have so far resisted such annoyances. Nick Torres got the scoring started in the 2nd with a home run to the deepest part of the park. Nick would tack on another homer later and the Chihuahuas would keep scoring. With the score 5-2 in the 8th, the centerfielder fell down on the hill in the outfield trying to catch a flyball, which would later lead to two runs scoring for the Isotopes. But, 5-4 was as close as they got with a four run top of the 9th by the pups. 9-4 Chihuahuas was our final. The Chihuahuas take three of five from the Isotopes and go up 5 ½ games with only eight remaining. Sal, the board op, breaks his eight game losing streak and is allowed back in the broadcast booth if the Chihuahuas make it to the playoffs.
Time to be honest. High school football started on Friday. College football kicks off this week. The NFL returns the week after. (I’m not even sure I have a local radio affiliate to listen to their games now, since that station went to an Oldies format. Not sure I even want to, since Colin Kapernick just became the official league spokesman. Thank God, he's not on my team. I'll take Tony Romo and his broken back, instead of this clown.) The Chihuahuas season is also about to end, though it may continue through October, if they win the important games coming up. My baseball listening over the radio is about to get chopped, probably along with the near daily blogging.
For our third, pivotal game between the El Paso Chihuahuas and the Albuquerque Isotopes, I’m watching the Gameday tracking. No radio. The Internet feed was pre-empted for High School football coverage. I got really depressed when I realized that next Friday, when my co-workers are at the game, I won’t even be able to listen.
The worst of it was that this looked like a heck of game. The Isotopes went up 3 runs in the 1st. The Chihuahuas answered in the 2nd with 3 runs of their own. No tight pitching battle for 5 innings this time. Watching Gameday is hard, especially when you’re at work, working. The dogs managed to pull away later in the game and won 10-4. Austin Hedges came up big with 3 RBI’s and a home run. It’s also hard to write up Gameday viewing and have any hope of making it interesting.
The MLB.tv free game, that I found myself turning to, was the Mariners vs the White Sox. It was Elvis night on the South side of Chicago. The camera kept picking out the people with the big sideburns and wigs and sequined jumpsuits to the amusement of the audience. In spite of 13 strikeouts by Chris Sale, it was a 3-1 Mariners win. Where’s Hawk Harrelson? I thought he was still doing games. It just wasn’t the same without a “ducks on the pond” or a “He gone.” At least those phrases will live on with other broadcasters.
Let’s look at the scoreboard. Kansas City beat Boston 6-3, but they don’t gain any ground as Cleveland rocked all over Texas, 12-1. Corey Kluber versus Martin Perez was not going to be a good match up for the Rangers. I didn’t mention it last weekend, but Perez was pretty much blamed for the bad loss to Tampa. He’s not looking good for the rotation. On the back end, Jeremy Jeffress was picked up for DWI. His future is uncertain. We have pitching issues.
8-27-16
With nothing better to do or watch on Saturday afternoon, I watched the Little League World Series. Sigh. Am I really doing this? I understand most people like this event. I used to. I’m not sure what happened. We likely start with this being an ESPN production. “Let’s see if we can turn a 7 inning game with kids into a 3-hour, highly sponsor-friendly, well-padded typical ESPN sports showcase.” The announcing doesn’t help. The guys doing MLB games are typically more light-hearted and having more fun. It all feels a little too serious. Maybe I’m not taking it seriously enough. Who can say?
The International championship lost me immediately. First, the South Korean coaches were complaining to the ump about the Panamanian pitcher. Then, there was a catcher’s equipment failure. When a pitch was finally thrown, the ump blew the call and it had to go replay. I gave up for the morning on it. South Korea won big. I tuned back in for the consolation game, also called the American championship. This might be another reason why I dread the LLWS: my team doesn’t win it often enough for me to get excited for it.
The game was more involving this time, but hugely more disappointing. This was entirely because of the ESPN news ticker running below the action. In between international soccer scores (how does an American go about choosing a favorite English, Spanish, Mexican, or German soccer team?), the lead story was that Tony Romo is out basically out for the season with a broken back. My Cowboys season is at least ended before it had a chance to hurt me worse later on. Don’t hold your breath waiting for me to do weekly NFL posts. Anyway, the story for game was New York pitcher, Michael Mancini. His line was 11 K’s, 1 hit, 1 walk before being taken out for his pitch count. Tennessee mounted a comeback in the 7th, but New York prevailed 4-2, and will go on to the championship tomorrow.
I got to hear a couple of innings of the Rangers vs the Indians, owing to bad reception, possibly weather-related (it rained all evening here). But, I got to hear the best of it. Through the static, Matt Hicks in the 1st (where’s Eric?) called Mitch Moreland hitting a grand slam. The Rangers lead 5-0 after one. (Annoyingly, I didn’t get a final score that night. It was 7-0.)
Good thing the Chihuahuas were playing in Albuquerque tonight. They wouldn’t have gotten the game in here with the rain. Up north, they only had a half-hour rain delay. 12,000 fans were crammed into the Lab tonight, including a small, but noisy contingent of pup fans. A lead-off homer gave them something to cheer about. Unfortunately after the 1st, the Chihuahuas didn’t get another hit for 7 innings. In the meantime, the Isotopes tied it and then went ahead by a run. They then put up 3 runs in 8th to make the score 5-1. The top of the 9th started with a single. That runner scored on a triple went off the center field wall and then rolled down the hill. Another run scored on an infield single, and all of this was before an out was recorded. Another runner scored with two out, but the game ended on a diving catch going into the gap. Final score, 5-4 Isotopes. Ever since the team has been on their winning streak, the Isotopes throw a party in their clubhouse with a disco ball and smoke machine. Well, get the DJ ready, they’re coming to party tonight.
8-28-16
I’ll kill the suspense right here. The Texas Rangers and the US New York Little League teams both managed to win their games 2-1. It was an interesting experience having these two games on at the same time, namely my notes interleave both games together. Let’s see if I can separate this.
Obviously the kids somehow knew what I wrote yesterday and were determined to make me eat my words. You’re welcome. Proper motivation is so important. The action is pretty easy to sum up. The US scored twice in the 4th. One of those runs came on a dropped third strike that got away from the South Korean catcher. There was a solo home run in the 5th, but the US starter went the distance for the win. (I didn’t get his name. I was listening to Ranger game on the radio, so the sound was off on the TV.) There was also a great play in the outfield to rob South Korea of a home run. Of course the best play was in the pressbox, as the play-by-play guy (again, didn’t get the name) caught a foul ball that ricocheted inside.
I enjoyed the game more with the sound off. Granted, this caused problems, such as not understanding why they only played six innings. I thought they played seven in Little League? Unfortunately, I was still getting visuals didn’t want. I don’t want to see the crying parents and kids in the stands. Then there’s the one bad thing about a US team this event: watching the Asian team stand on the foul line and begin ritual crying. You feel bad for them, not to mention, “There’s no . . .” I am not doing that movie quote. It’s not even correct. I’ve never even the movie. Okay, U-S-A, U-S-A!
In Arlington with 35,000 in attendance this afternoon, we’re mentioning newly acquired Carlos Gomez again. He made two great catches in the left field today for the Rangers. Given how close the score was, that was important. I may have to give Jon Daniels a lot of credit here. He’s been plugging in pieces from the minors and other teams all year, making up for injuries. The team has been getting these little jolts all year.
Derek Holland looked good out on the mound (figuratively speaking, since I was only listening), going six innings, allowing one run. Danny Salazar for the Indians also looked good with 10 K’s over 5 1/3 innings. I like to say the pitching was great all the way through, but the Rangers relievers provided way more drama without even giving up anything. In the 7th, Jake Diekman came in and issued seven straight balls, before getting a double play and out of trouble. In the 9th, Sam Dyson said, “I can do better than that,” and threw nine straight balls and loaded the bases. He got a strikeout and a fly out to end the game. Whew! Pitching coach, Doug Brocail, earned his pay today and got a workout going back and forth to mound.
That’s three of four from the second best team in the league. Strangely, the other three games were blowouts. The Rangers somehow have the best record in the American League (remember, they’re -2 in Run Differential). They’re also up 8 ½ on the Astros and Mariners, who both lost today. After the game, Jonathan Lucroy, Rangers catcher, was asked what he said to the struggling relievers when he went out to the mound. Basically, he doesn’t tell these guys how to pitch. He just tells them to relax and focus on hitting his mitt. Don’t you wish we all had someone like that in our lives? My favorite call of the game came from Matt Hicks (again without Eric Nadel), “The scoring goes 6-5-3. It’s complicated, but it’s a double play.” No updates on the Little League World Series or any games other than the Mariners and the Astros during or after the game.
The last out of the game was Abraham Almonte, former El Paso Chihuahua. Speaking of which, game five of the dogs versus the ‘Topes was tonight. There was a 20 minute delay for a few ceremonies before the Isotopes’ last scheduled home game of the season. The team won an award for best groundskeeping. If they’re doing a better job than in El Paso, it must be special. They also welcomed their 8 millionth fan this evening since the opening of the ballpark. Jessica Pacheco gave a stirring rendition of the National anthem. And with that, we were underway.
Tim Hagerty’s call of the game was pretty serious, but informative, as he chatted about the various players. I noticed that the PA there was doing an ad spot when there was a strikeout. Another reason to like the Chihuahuas, they have so far resisted such annoyances. Nick Torres got the scoring started in the 2nd with a home run to the deepest part of the park. Nick would tack on another homer later and the Chihuahuas would keep scoring. With the score 5-2 in the 8th, the centerfielder fell down on the hill in the outfield trying to catch a flyball, which would later lead to two runs scoring for the Isotopes. But, 5-4 was as close as they got with a four run top of the 9th by the pups. 9-4 Chihuahuas was our final. The Chihuahuas take three of five from the Isotopes and go up 5 ½ games with only eight remaining. Sal, the board op, breaks his eight game losing streak and is allowed back in the broadcast booth if the Chihuahuas make it to the playoffs.
Time to be honest. High school football started on Friday. College football kicks off this week. The NFL returns the week after. (I’m not even sure I have a local radio affiliate to listen to their games now, since that station went to an Oldies format. Not sure I even want to, since Colin Kapernick just became the official league spokesman. Thank God, he's not on my team. I'll take Tony Romo and his broken back, instead of this clown.) The Chihuahuas season is also about to end, though it may continue through October, if they win the important games coming up. My baseball listening over the radio is about to get chopped, probably along with the near daily blogging.
Friday, August 26, 2016
Baseball Notebook for August 25, 2016
Game 2 at the Lab in Albuquerque between the Chihuahuas and the Isotopes. A barbershop quartet singing the anthem got the proceedings started. (Some interesting anthem singers lately.) The crowd was again large and loud. Much like yesterday, both teams were playing tight, and there was no scoring for the first half of the game.
Tim Hagerty was a lot looser today calling the game. After one break, he came back on chuckling. “If you get caught laughing on the radio, you should explain why.” Unfortunately, game action was going fast and he’d already told this story earlier on an El Paso sportstalk show, so I was having trouble following the thread. The PA at the stadium was playing the Gin Blossoms between innings. Earlier in the season, I think the Albuquerque’s radio announcer had bet Tim that Isotopes would catch the Chihuahuas in the standings. Like 17 games back, that was a pretty safe bet at the time. Tim likes the Gin Blossoms (me too, they’re one of my favorites), so I think the other guy, who hates them, has to sing one of their songs in public (I think). The PA apparently found out about this and was having a good time with it. The other announcer was in an uproar in his booth. Tim’s end of the deal was that he’d have catch a bullpen session with a pitcher who throws 99 mph. He has a definite personal stake in the Chihuahuas winning.
Meanwhile, the MLB.tv free game was the Royals vs the Marlins. I would have liked to have watched more, but being at the same time as the all-important Chihuahuas game and other distractions, I was only catching bits of it. I did see Jeff “Frenchy” Francoeur on his new team after a trade, the Marlins, beat out an infield single pinch hitting. His teammates were amazed and amused. I wonder if there’s a chance he’ll end up back playing with the Chihuahuas at some point in his career. The Royals won 5-2. They’ve won 10 of 11. Can they catch the Indians?
Well, the Rangers helped them out with a 9-0 win over the Indians in Arlington. Cole Hamels, no doubt wishing they were in the National League so he could hit one out like Yu Darvish, had to settle for pitching 8 shutout innings. Carlos Gomez, recently let go by the Astros and picked up by the Rangers, made a good impression on his new team, hitting a home run and driving in 3 runs. There’s been some real animus towards Gomez from the fans and within baseball. Honestly, I don’t know what the problem is. I haven’t followed his story at all. As long as he hits and doesn’t cause any problems, I’m good with him.
Back in Albuquerque, Tim has threatened the board op, Sal, with being barred from future broadcasts for being a jinx. The team has lost 7 in a row when he’s been working the studio and Tim can’t afford any more losses. He was just kidding. However, after an error, the Isotopes opened up the scoring in the 5th with an unearned run. They’d score twice more and win the game 3-0. Rockies pitcher, Christian Bergman, pitching tonight went 7 scoreless innings and drove in two runs. He may be back in the majors soon. The Isotopes are now 4 ½ back of the Chihuahuas with 7 more head-to-head games left. (Cue the Jaws theme.)
Tim Hagerty was a lot looser today calling the game. After one break, he came back on chuckling. “If you get caught laughing on the radio, you should explain why.” Unfortunately, game action was going fast and he’d already told this story earlier on an El Paso sportstalk show, so I was having trouble following the thread. The PA at the stadium was playing the Gin Blossoms between innings. Earlier in the season, I think the Albuquerque’s radio announcer had bet Tim that Isotopes would catch the Chihuahuas in the standings. Like 17 games back, that was a pretty safe bet at the time. Tim likes the Gin Blossoms (me too, they’re one of my favorites), so I think the other guy, who hates them, has to sing one of their songs in public (I think). The PA apparently found out about this and was having a good time with it. The other announcer was in an uproar in his booth. Tim’s end of the deal was that he’d have catch a bullpen session with a pitcher who throws 99 mph. He has a definite personal stake in the Chihuahuas winning.
Meanwhile, the MLB.tv free game was the Royals vs the Marlins. I would have liked to have watched more, but being at the same time as the all-important Chihuahuas game and other distractions, I was only catching bits of it. I did see Jeff “Frenchy” Francoeur on his new team after a trade, the Marlins, beat out an infield single pinch hitting. His teammates were amazed and amused. I wonder if there’s a chance he’ll end up back playing with the Chihuahuas at some point in his career. The Royals won 5-2. They’ve won 10 of 11. Can they catch the Indians?
Well, the Rangers helped them out with a 9-0 win over the Indians in Arlington. Cole Hamels, no doubt wishing they were in the National League so he could hit one out like Yu Darvish, had to settle for pitching 8 shutout innings. Carlos Gomez, recently let go by the Astros and picked up by the Rangers, made a good impression on his new team, hitting a home run and driving in 3 runs. There’s been some real animus towards Gomez from the fans and within baseball. Honestly, I don’t know what the problem is. I haven’t followed his story at all. As long as he hits and doesn’t cause any problems, I’m good with him.
Back in Albuquerque, Tim has threatened the board op, Sal, with being barred from future broadcasts for being a jinx. The team has lost 7 in a row when he’s been working the studio and Tim can’t afford any more losses. He was just kidding. However, after an error, the Isotopes opened up the scoring in the 5th with an unearned run. They’d score twice more and win the game 3-0. Rockies pitcher, Christian Bergman, pitching tonight went 7 scoreless innings and drove in two runs. He may be back in the majors soon. The Isotopes are now 4 ½ back of the Chihuahuas with 7 more head-to-head games left. (Cue the Jaws theme.)
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Baseball Notebook for August 24, 2016
Looking back on my notes, I see why didn’t bother writing for the last two days. The Chihuahuas lost twice. They had an over an hour rain delay on Tuesday, which is newsworthy in El Paso. Steve Kaplowitz was also a guest for a couple of innings. Unfortunately, it was too brief and on field action was actually interfering with an interesting conversation he was having with Tim. The Rockies dropped two to the Brewers. The Rangers lost 3-0 to the Reds, which is so bad, it’s like losing two in a row. Derek Holland at least had a good comeback start.
Today would be different. The Yahoo free game was the Rockies vs the Brewers, which was again blocked due to broadcast restrictions. (Again, the most rest of the state of New Mexico probably gets Rockies games on their cable, we do not here in Las Cruces. We get Diamondbacks games.) The TV was also blocked on MLB.tv, but bless them, they allowed the Brewers’ radio feed.
And there he was. It was the ghostly, disembodied voice of Bob Uecker, calling Brewers games from beyond the grave. And at this point, I have to explain. My co-worker, Mike, keeps insisting that Bob Uecker has passed away (and this is actually just part of an even larger running gag). Unfortunately, he was out to lunch, so I had to explain this to my boss, Ron, and another co-worker, Eric, who then asked, “Who’s Bob Uecker?” Feeling a little older, me and Ron explained Uecker’s fame. Eric seemed amused by the story about Bob reading his mail over the air during a game.
In any case, Uecker sounded great and gave an enthusiastic call of the game. It was great to hear him. Owing to a light work load, I was able to listen to several of innings. The game was tied at 1 when I started listening in the 5th. The Brewers managed to scratch out a couple of runs, before they sent 9 to the plate in 7th inning and scored 4. I eventually I had to leave, but I left the game running. When I got back, the game had just ended, 7-1 Brewers. Mike was back and when he saw me, the first thing he said was, “I thought I heard Bob Uecker’s voice doing the ball game. Dear old departed Bob. It must have been a replay of an old broadcast of his.” Mike also enjoyed the local Milwaukee sponsors for the game, Badger Insurance and Pop's Drive in and Tavern.
I later took a minute to check the MLB standings. (I really didn’t have much to do at work this afternoon.) Kansas City has won 9 in a row, but they’re still 7.5 games back. I looked at the Run Differential stat that the Sabermetricians love. The Cubs are unsurprisingly the leaders at +214, about 50 better than anybody else. The Braves are last at -151. The Rockies are at +14.
The Rangers are at -2.
Ahem.
I don’t know how they’re leading their division either.
Regardless, there can be only one story concerning the Rangers today. Yu Darvish went yard. It was in Cincinnati, well known as a band box, but his homer went to the deepest part of the park, about 406 ft. Almost needless to say, it was his first career home run. I literally coughed (if I’d been drinking something, I would have done a spit take) when I was looking over the box score on Gameday as the final inning played out.
I immediately went to the video when the game was over. (The Rangers winning, 6-5, with Adrian Beltre knocking in the go-ahead run, is almost inconsequential.) There he was, Yu Darvish smacking a home run. His batting helmet didn’t even fit his head. He had to hold on to it while he was rounding the bases. I’m sure the Reds pitcher must have immediately been taken out of the game and sent down to Double-A. I couldn’t resist checking out the game thread on Lonestar Ball, a Rangers fansite. The early posts are convinced that Yu is not just embarrassing himself at the plate, but he’s going to end up injuring himself. They’re telling him to flat out stop swinging. Then in the 5th, there’s a long series of inarticulate posts where no one can believe what they just saw. Oh, baseball is great!
Things got more serious later with the Chihuahuas visiting the Albuquerque Isotopes, their nearest rival in the division (both geographically and in the standings). The Isotopes were, at one point, 17 ½ games out of first. Now, they’re 4 1/2 games out with 9 games against the dogs remaining. Tim Hagerty credited the ‘Topes resurgence to a great crop of reinforcements from Double-A, the Hartford Yard Goats. No doubt players on that team are playing their hearts out to get a ticket out of that mess. (Their new stadium still isn’t finished. They’ve been playing their entire schedule on the road this season. I don’t even how that would work in scheduling or how the team is making money without any gate receipts.)
I joined the game during the National Anthem. It was a great rendition done by a saxophone player. Tim seemed seriously intense during the broadcast. He was into every play on the field. The crowd there was big and equally involved. The crowd mic had no trouble picking up their every reaction. The whole town was even interested in the series. Tim mentioned a Chihuahuas player in town had gotten the business from an Uber driver coming to the park.
It certainly played out like a playoff game. The game was scoreless for 5 ½ innings. Given the high-scoring teams involved and the high altitude of the park, that’s nothing short of amazing. In the bottom of the 6th, an Isotopes’ home run gave them the lead. It was short-lived. In the top of the 7th, the pups got two runs, one off an error and the other from a wild pitch. In the bottom of the 8th, the Isotopes tied it up again. The 9th would not produce a winner, so on to extras. The Isotopes threatened in the 10th and 11th, but couldn’t get a run across. In the 12th, the Chihuahuas finally broke out with a pair of runs and would win 4-2. We can only hope the next 8 games are this intense between these two teams.
Today would be different. The Yahoo free game was the Rockies vs the Brewers, which was again blocked due to broadcast restrictions. (Again, the most rest of the state of New Mexico probably gets Rockies games on their cable, we do not here in Las Cruces. We get Diamondbacks games.) The TV was also blocked on MLB.tv, but bless them, they allowed the Brewers’ radio feed.
And there he was. It was the ghostly, disembodied voice of Bob Uecker, calling Brewers games from beyond the grave. And at this point, I have to explain. My co-worker, Mike, keeps insisting that Bob Uecker has passed away (and this is actually just part of an even larger running gag). Unfortunately, he was out to lunch, so I had to explain this to my boss, Ron, and another co-worker, Eric, who then asked, “Who’s Bob Uecker?” Feeling a little older, me and Ron explained Uecker’s fame. Eric seemed amused by the story about Bob reading his mail over the air during a game.
In any case, Uecker sounded great and gave an enthusiastic call of the game. It was great to hear him. Owing to a light work load, I was able to listen to several of innings. The game was tied at 1 when I started listening in the 5th. The Brewers managed to scratch out a couple of runs, before they sent 9 to the plate in 7th inning and scored 4. I eventually I had to leave, but I left the game running. When I got back, the game had just ended, 7-1 Brewers. Mike was back and when he saw me, the first thing he said was, “I thought I heard Bob Uecker’s voice doing the ball game. Dear old departed Bob. It must have been a replay of an old broadcast of his.” Mike also enjoyed the local Milwaukee sponsors for the game, Badger Insurance and Pop's Drive in and Tavern.
I later took a minute to check the MLB standings. (I really didn’t have much to do at work this afternoon.) Kansas City has won 9 in a row, but they’re still 7.5 games back. I looked at the Run Differential stat that the Sabermetricians love. The Cubs are unsurprisingly the leaders at +214, about 50 better than anybody else. The Braves are last at -151. The Rockies are at +14.
The Rangers are at -2.
Ahem.
I don’t know how they’re leading their division either.
Regardless, there can be only one story concerning the Rangers today. Yu Darvish went yard. It was in Cincinnati, well known as a band box, but his homer went to the deepest part of the park, about 406 ft. Almost needless to say, it was his first career home run. I literally coughed (if I’d been drinking something, I would have done a spit take) when I was looking over the box score on Gameday as the final inning played out.
I immediately went to the video when the game was over. (The Rangers winning, 6-5, with Adrian Beltre knocking in the go-ahead run, is almost inconsequential.) There he was, Yu Darvish smacking a home run. His batting helmet didn’t even fit his head. He had to hold on to it while he was rounding the bases. I’m sure the Reds pitcher must have immediately been taken out of the game and sent down to Double-A. I couldn’t resist checking out the game thread on Lonestar Ball, a Rangers fansite. The early posts are convinced that Yu is not just embarrassing himself at the plate, but he’s going to end up injuring himself. They’re telling him to flat out stop swinging. Then in the 5th, there’s a long series of inarticulate posts where no one can believe what they just saw. Oh, baseball is great!
Things got more serious later with the Chihuahuas visiting the Albuquerque Isotopes, their nearest rival in the division (both geographically and in the standings). The Isotopes were, at one point, 17 ½ games out of first. Now, they’re 4 1/2 games out with 9 games against the dogs remaining. Tim Hagerty credited the ‘Topes resurgence to a great crop of reinforcements from Double-A, the Hartford Yard Goats. No doubt players on that team are playing their hearts out to get a ticket out of that mess. (Their new stadium still isn’t finished. They’ve been playing their entire schedule on the road this season. I don’t even how that would work in scheduling or how the team is making money without any gate receipts.)
I joined the game during the National Anthem. It was a great rendition done by a saxophone player. Tim seemed seriously intense during the broadcast. He was into every play on the field. The crowd there was big and equally involved. The crowd mic had no trouble picking up their every reaction. The whole town was even interested in the series. Tim mentioned a Chihuahuas player in town had gotten the business from an Uber driver coming to the park.
It certainly played out like a playoff game. The game was scoreless for 5 ½ innings. Given the high-scoring teams involved and the high altitude of the park, that’s nothing short of amazing. In the bottom of the 6th, an Isotopes’ home run gave them the lead. It was short-lived. In the top of the 7th, the pups got two runs, one off an error and the other from a wild pitch. In the bottom of the 8th, the Isotopes tied it up again. The 9th would not produce a winner, so on to extras. The Isotopes threatened in the 10th and 11th, but couldn’t get a run across. In the 12th, the Chihuahuas finally broke out with a pair of runs and would win 4-2. We can only hope the next 8 games are this intense between these two teams.
Monday, August 22, 2016
Baseball Notebook for August 19, 20, 21, 2016
8-19-16
The MLB Network was showing the Red Sox at the Tigers, and it was the Tigers team broadcast. I wanted to hear more of Kirk Gibson, so I was watching. Him and Rod Allen had an interesting discussion about whether a batter should be given a green light to swing in a 3-0 count. Depends on the hitter, and if they’ve practiced that situation or not.
I didn’t have a lot of time to watch. One thing’s for sure, the starting pitchers, Fulmer and Porcello, desperately needed new hats. Those were hardcore nasty-looking pieces of headgear. The Tigers’ fielders had some good coordination. On a popup, I saw the shortstop call off the 3rd baseman, who was in turn called off by the left fielder. And then later, the shortstop was again called off by the left fielder on a short fly ball. I appreciated how effortlessly they gave way to each other, since, when that doesn’t happen, comedy often ensues. I had to walk away to do some work for 15 minutes. When I got back, the Red Sox had doubled their score. The painful final was 10-2 Red Sox.
They didn’t listen to me at MLB.com. They were putting up the no-hitter alert for Cole Hammels in the 6th inning against the Rays. Of course that jinxed it. That’s okay though. It was a 6-2 win for the Rangers anyway.
Rain canceled the Chihuahuas game versus the Colorado Sky Sox. Given the way the pups are playing, this might have been the best thing for them. At this point I don’t know if or how they’d make up this game given the tight Triple-A schedule and that there’s only a couple of weeks left in the season. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to hear Tim calling the game off, only that they were in a delay. Unsurprisingly, the Rockies in Denver are also in a rain delay. Given that they’re playing the Cubs, a visiting team that draws really well, I’m sure they’re going to make more of an effort to get the game in.
Since I have a minute, let’s see what else is going on. The Indians won on a walk-off, or rather run-off, inside the park home run against the Blue Jays. The O’s started off their game with four home runs before making an out. Didn’t help. They lost 15-8 to the Astros. The Giants win two in a row for the first time since the All Star break.
Okay, they are playing tonight in Denver after a two-hour rain delay. I check out Game Day at work (I noticed David Dahl hit a lead-off home run) and then pick up the game on the radio when I get home. The announced attendance was 43,000, though many chased away by the delay. They’ve had over 2 million visitors so far this year. Hey, I was one of them! In with the temperature in the high 40’s, it still sounded like there were a lot of people there, and they were rooting on both teams.
The Rockies fell behind in the middle of the game, but kept the Cubs from piling on and slowly chipped away. They managed to tie it on a successful sac fly by Arenado. (Well, after a successful challenge after a bad call by the ump.) The score remained tied after 9.
In the 10th, the rain came back as a steady drizzle, no doubt to comfort of the remaining “real” fans. Being after midnight and tired, I felt like one of them. With extra innings and unfamiliar players entering the game, Jack and Jerry on the broadcast had some trouble pronouncing the names of new Cubs players. The Cubs media guide gave helpful advice on some names, “it sounds just like its spelled.” Right. (AR-enado.) Both teams had runners in scoring position in the 9th and 10th, but it wasn’t until the 11th that the Cubs managed to push across a run to take the lead.
Bottom of the 11th, there’s momentary delay with a bird on the infield. Not sure if he had a ticket, but this late they should be letting anyone in, but not on the field. Aroldis Chapman came in to close for the Cubs. Nick Hundley gets on with an opposite field hit. Ryan Rayburn knocks him in thanks to a misplay in the outfield to tie the score. Rayburn ends up scoring the winning run as an errant throw goes into the dugout and he’s awarded home. Rockies win, 7-6, on the old walk-off error! It’s like the Rockies say at home, “Whatever happens in the game, we get the last at bat.” That was worth staying up past 12:45am for.
8-20-16
Rangers vs Rays. Eric was commenting on the small crowd in Tampa of 16,000. Later, Matt was talking about Roogie’s two-strike troubles and how likely he is to strikeout. Odor proceeds to hit a home run. Matt says afterward, “I hope that since there are so few people in here that Roogie didn’t hear me. ‘I’ll show you a two-strike approach.’”
It was a good game for the Rays, but not anyone else. Even the umps had a bad game with two overturned calls in one inning. It was close, but the Rangers self-destructed in the 7th inning. Bad play, bad decisions, and bad pitching all showed up. In the 9th, Mazara hit a contested home run, caught by a Rangers fan in a jersey, accused of interference. When the call was upheld, the fan then taunted the crowd. That was about the only thing to cheer for as the Rangers lost, 8-2.
The Chihuahuas are back in town to play the Salt Lake City Bees. (Their washed out game in Colorado Springs won’t be made up.) It’s a Saturday night, there’s fireworks after the game, and Tim Lincecum is pitching for the opposing team. Little wonder it was standing room only at the stadium. There was even a helicopter flyover before the start of the game. Let’s run down Timmy’s resume: two Cy Young awards, two no-hitters, four time All-Star, three rings. Little wonder fans were watching him like a hawk in the bullpen.
Not to say it was all serious. There was a dog delay in the 2nd for a wiener dog race on field. That got a smile out of Timmy. His first batter right after that was Hector Sanchez, catcher of one of his no-hitters. Hector got a hit. Rod Barajas, Chihuahuas manager, actually got two hits off Tim when he was playing. He let everybody know about it. Timmy’s line was 6 innings and 1 run. Pretty good.
Unfortunately, the rest of the Bees suck. They couldn’t score more than an unearned run themselves. As for their relievers, well, in the 7th, the pups scored a run off a wild pitch during an intentional walk. That tells you all you need to know. 5-1 dogs win finally!
8-21-16
Rangers vs Rays. Once again, the crowd size in Tampa was an issue. Frankly, were it not for three trips a year by the Yankees and the Red Sox, I’m not sure they’d even have a viable franchise. Of course, this just makes it more aggravating when the Rangers lose to the Rays again. These two losses have really stung for me, since I was here at home, not doing anything else, and was able to listen to the games without any distractions.
So, it was an 8-4 loss. In the 4th, the Rays sent balls flying everywhere for five runs. They even sent a bat flying through the netting, which hit a cameraman with a camera on a stick. “They sell those at the State Fair?” quipped Eric. The Rangers made an effort to get back in it, but a couple of tack-on runs by the Rays ended that.
Later, the Chihuahuas played the Bees in El Paso. Brandon Johnson (ha, I caught the name for a change) did a stirring rendition of the national anthem on electric guitar to start the game. Tim Hagerty had a couple of guests in the 3rd inning. Freddie and Jonathan (I caught a couple more names, I was really on the ball until the radio signal started fading) from Chico’s Kids Club each sat in for a half inning. Freddie got a pleasant grilling from Tim for a long top of the 3rd. The bottom went in about two minutes, so Jonathan got cheated. Tim was clearly having a good time at least. This interlude did delay an explanation of the play that ended the 2nd. Batter Nick Torres (I’m on fire with the names) grabbed what he thought was a dead ball at the plate and was called out for Batter’s Interference.
It was a tight game. There was the usual premature talk of a no-hitter and even winning without getting a hit, after the Chihuahuas scored an unearned run. In the end, the dogs held on for a 2-1 win. (You can guess I was getting bad reception in the later innings.) It’s good to see that the team is able to win these close ones.
Last week, there was a story that Commissioner Manfred was thinking about implementing some more changes to the game next season. I’ll take them one at a time. First, he wants to put in pitch clocks in the majors. Seems like a good idea to me. From listening to Chihuahuas games for a couple of seasons with it, I think it’s improved the pace of play. Unfortunately, the Players’ Union may be standing in the way of this one, but if the NL were to put in the DH in exchange, maybe.
Second, he wants to eliminate defensive shifts. For all of the work that goes into setting up a shift, I don’t think the numbers actually bear out how useful they are. The Sabermetricians will bring up numbers to justify shifts, but teams are still able to score on them about the same as they were before. There’s no point in putting in a rule against them. I think the trend will be towards getting more athletic players.
Lastly, Manfred wants to limit the number of relief pitchers in an inning. Common sense says that this is a bad idea. The reason why this is such a time waster is because of the commercial break every time pitchers are changed. We can bet those commercials won’t be going away for any reason. However, right now a pitcher coming into a game is required to pitch to at least one batter. What if a pitcher was required to pitch to at least two batters, or until the inning ends, whichever comes first? To make it a bit more fair, the batter in the on deck circle when the previous batter’s at bat ends, has to come to the plate, unless the inning ends.
The MLB Network was showing the Red Sox at the Tigers, and it was the Tigers team broadcast. I wanted to hear more of Kirk Gibson, so I was watching. Him and Rod Allen had an interesting discussion about whether a batter should be given a green light to swing in a 3-0 count. Depends on the hitter, and if they’ve practiced that situation or not.
I didn’t have a lot of time to watch. One thing’s for sure, the starting pitchers, Fulmer and Porcello, desperately needed new hats. Those were hardcore nasty-looking pieces of headgear. The Tigers’ fielders had some good coordination. On a popup, I saw the shortstop call off the 3rd baseman, who was in turn called off by the left fielder. And then later, the shortstop was again called off by the left fielder on a short fly ball. I appreciated how effortlessly they gave way to each other, since, when that doesn’t happen, comedy often ensues. I had to walk away to do some work for 15 minutes. When I got back, the Red Sox had doubled their score. The painful final was 10-2 Red Sox.
They didn’t listen to me at MLB.com. They were putting up the no-hitter alert for Cole Hammels in the 6th inning against the Rays. Of course that jinxed it. That’s okay though. It was a 6-2 win for the Rangers anyway.
Rain canceled the Chihuahuas game versus the Colorado Sky Sox. Given the way the pups are playing, this might have been the best thing for them. At this point I don’t know if or how they’d make up this game given the tight Triple-A schedule and that there’s only a couple of weeks left in the season. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to hear Tim calling the game off, only that they were in a delay. Unsurprisingly, the Rockies in Denver are also in a rain delay. Given that they’re playing the Cubs, a visiting team that draws really well, I’m sure they’re going to make more of an effort to get the game in.
Since I have a minute, let’s see what else is going on. The Indians won on a walk-off, or rather run-off, inside the park home run against the Blue Jays. The O’s started off their game with four home runs before making an out. Didn’t help. They lost 15-8 to the Astros. The Giants win two in a row for the first time since the All Star break.
Okay, they are playing tonight in Denver after a two-hour rain delay. I check out Game Day at work (I noticed David Dahl hit a lead-off home run) and then pick up the game on the radio when I get home. The announced attendance was 43,000, though many chased away by the delay. They’ve had over 2 million visitors so far this year. Hey, I was one of them! In with the temperature in the high 40’s, it still sounded like there were a lot of people there, and they were rooting on both teams.
The Rockies fell behind in the middle of the game, but kept the Cubs from piling on and slowly chipped away. They managed to tie it on a successful sac fly by Arenado. (Well, after a successful challenge after a bad call by the ump.) The score remained tied after 9.
In the 10th, the rain came back as a steady drizzle, no doubt to comfort of the remaining “real” fans. Being after midnight and tired, I felt like one of them. With extra innings and unfamiliar players entering the game, Jack and Jerry on the broadcast had some trouble pronouncing the names of new Cubs players. The Cubs media guide gave helpful advice on some names, “it sounds just like its spelled.” Right. (AR-enado.) Both teams had runners in scoring position in the 9th and 10th, but it wasn’t until the 11th that the Cubs managed to push across a run to take the lead.
Bottom of the 11th, there’s momentary delay with a bird on the infield. Not sure if he had a ticket, but this late they should be letting anyone in, but not on the field. Aroldis Chapman came in to close for the Cubs. Nick Hundley gets on with an opposite field hit. Ryan Rayburn knocks him in thanks to a misplay in the outfield to tie the score. Rayburn ends up scoring the winning run as an errant throw goes into the dugout and he’s awarded home. Rockies win, 7-6, on the old walk-off error! It’s like the Rockies say at home, “Whatever happens in the game, we get the last at bat.” That was worth staying up past 12:45am for.
8-20-16
Rangers vs Rays. Eric was commenting on the small crowd in Tampa of 16,000. Later, Matt was talking about Roogie’s two-strike troubles and how likely he is to strikeout. Odor proceeds to hit a home run. Matt says afterward, “I hope that since there are so few people in here that Roogie didn’t hear me. ‘I’ll show you a two-strike approach.’”
It was a good game for the Rays, but not anyone else. Even the umps had a bad game with two overturned calls in one inning. It was close, but the Rangers self-destructed in the 7th inning. Bad play, bad decisions, and bad pitching all showed up. In the 9th, Mazara hit a contested home run, caught by a Rangers fan in a jersey, accused of interference. When the call was upheld, the fan then taunted the crowd. That was about the only thing to cheer for as the Rangers lost, 8-2.
The Chihuahuas are back in town to play the Salt Lake City Bees. (Their washed out game in Colorado Springs won’t be made up.) It’s a Saturday night, there’s fireworks after the game, and Tim Lincecum is pitching for the opposing team. Little wonder it was standing room only at the stadium. There was even a helicopter flyover before the start of the game. Let’s run down Timmy’s resume: two Cy Young awards, two no-hitters, four time All-Star, three rings. Little wonder fans were watching him like a hawk in the bullpen.
Not to say it was all serious. There was a dog delay in the 2nd for a wiener dog race on field. That got a smile out of Timmy. His first batter right after that was Hector Sanchez, catcher of one of his no-hitters. Hector got a hit. Rod Barajas, Chihuahuas manager, actually got two hits off Tim when he was playing. He let everybody know about it. Timmy’s line was 6 innings and 1 run. Pretty good.
Unfortunately, the rest of the Bees suck. They couldn’t score more than an unearned run themselves. As for their relievers, well, in the 7th, the pups scored a run off a wild pitch during an intentional walk. That tells you all you need to know. 5-1 dogs win finally!
8-21-16
Rangers vs Rays. Once again, the crowd size in Tampa was an issue. Frankly, were it not for three trips a year by the Yankees and the Red Sox, I’m not sure they’d even have a viable franchise. Of course, this just makes it more aggravating when the Rangers lose to the Rays again. These two losses have really stung for me, since I was here at home, not doing anything else, and was able to listen to the games without any distractions.
So, it was an 8-4 loss. In the 4th, the Rays sent balls flying everywhere for five runs. They even sent a bat flying through the netting, which hit a cameraman with a camera on a stick. “They sell those at the State Fair?” quipped Eric. The Rangers made an effort to get back in it, but a couple of tack-on runs by the Rays ended that.
Later, the Chihuahuas played the Bees in El Paso. Brandon Johnson (ha, I caught the name for a change) did a stirring rendition of the national anthem on electric guitar to start the game. Tim Hagerty had a couple of guests in the 3rd inning. Freddie and Jonathan (I caught a couple more names, I was really on the ball until the radio signal started fading) from Chico’s Kids Club each sat in for a half inning. Freddie got a pleasant grilling from Tim for a long top of the 3rd. The bottom went in about two minutes, so Jonathan got cheated. Tim was clearly having a good time at least. This interlude did delay an explanation of the play that ended the 2nd. Batter Nick Torres (I’m on fire with the names) grabbed what he thought was a dead ball at the plate and was called out for Batter’s Interference.
It was a tight game. There was the usual premature talk of a no-hitter and even winning without getting a hit, after the Chihuahuas scored an unearned run. In the end, the dogs held on for a 2-1 win. (You can guess I was getting bad reception in the later innings.) It’s good to see that the team is able to win these close ones.
Last week, there was a story that Commissioner Manfred was thinking about implementing some more changes to the game next season. I’ll take them one at a time. First, he wants to put in pitch clocks in the majors. Seems like a good idea to me. From listening to Chihuahuas games for a couple of seasons with it, I think it’s improved the pace of play. Unfortunately, the Players’ Union may be standing in the way of this one, but if the NL were to put in the DH in exchange, maybe.
Second, he wants to eliminate defensive shifts. For all of the work that goes into setting up a shift, I don’t think the numbers actually bear out how useful they are. The Sabermetricians will bring up numbers to justify shifts, but teams are still able to score on them about the same as they were before. There’s no point in putting in a rule against them. I think the trend will be towards getting more athletic players.
Lastly, Manfred wants to limit the number of relief pitchers in an inning. Common sense says that this is a bad idea. The reason why this is such a time waster is because of the commercial break every time pitchers are changed. We can bet those commercials won’t be going away for any reason. However, right now a pitcher coming into a game is required to pitch to at least one batter. What if a pitcher was required to pitch to at least two batters, or until the inning ends, whichever comes first? To make it a bit more fair, the batter in the on deck circle when the previous batter’s at bat ends, has to come to the plate, unless the inning ends.
Friday, August 19, 2016
Baseball Notebook for August 18, 2016
I keep missing the big story. When you watch games on TV you miss so much, for example, Orbit doing a rhythmic gymnastics routine during the Cards/Astros game Wednesday. I tell you, as much as I like Chico and Pistol Pete, Orbit is da bomb. He ends up on the MLB video roll all the time for a good reason.
The MLB Network game was the Cleveland Indians vs. the Chicago White Sox. I’d been wanting to see the Indians ever since I said something about them being the anointed ones. I can almost see it happening for them, if the plane carrying the Cubs crashes into Lake Erie.
“I love you, Jason!” some guy yelled out during Kipnis’ 6th inning at bat. While there may have only been 13,000 for the game (it looked reasonably full, except for the upper deck), they were quite vocal at times. (And the guy with the drum was there.) Properly inspired, Kipnis whacked a unique double. The ball wedged into the space above the left field wall cushions and the video board. I’d say it was the most improbable shot ever at the Jake (the team’s misfortunes started when they sponsored the stadium), but I think I saw another ball in there and the announcers didn’t seem too fazed by it.
Oh my God, is that Mike Napoli! I couldn’t believe that was him at first base. The man’s dropped like 30 pounds. Not sure about the beard though. It’s so thick, it looks like there’s a fake, plastic beard glued to his face. Then there's Tyler Saladino on the Sox with the worst mustache ever. It's what a handlebar mustache looks like if its not waxed. Messy as hell. Regardless, the Indians did not disappoint. Though they went down 3-0 early, the Tribe managed to claw back into the game and won it on a sac fly in the 9th, 5-4.
While all this was going on, I was missing the finale of the Chihuahuas and the Sky Sox in Colorado Springs. After the 1st inning, it was 5-4 Sky Sox, and there were three pass balls. In the 3rd, it was 9-4 Sky Sox. In the 8th, it was 13-5 Sky Sox, at which point I decided I didn’t want to know what the final score was going to be. (That was the final.) Right now, the only thing in the dogs’ favor is that there’s only a bit more than two weeks left in the season and their opponents are going to have to win for a week straight to beat them out of the division lead.
The Rangers and Rockies were off today. They deserved it.
The MLB Network game was the Cleveland Indians vs. the Chicago White Sox. I’d been wanting to see the Indians ever since I said something about them being the anointed ones. I can almost see it happening for them, if the plane carrying the Cubs crashes into Lake Erie.
“I love you, Jason!” some guy yelled out during Kipnis’ 6th inning at bat. While there may have only been 13,000 for the game (it looked reasonably full, except for the upper deck), they were quite vocal at times. (And the guy with the drum was there.) Properly inspired, Kipnis whacked a unique double. The ball wedged into the space above the left field wall cushions and the video board. I’d say it was the most improbable shot ever at the Jake (the team’s misfortunes started when they sponsored the stadium), but I think I saw another ball in there and the announcers didn’t seem too fazed by it.
Oh my God, is that Mike Napoli! I couldn’t believe that was him at first base. The man’s dropped like 30 pounds. Not sure about the beard though. It’s so thick, it looks like there’s a fake, plastic beard glued to his face. Then there's Tyler Saladino on the Sox with the worst mustache ever. It's what a handlebar mustache looks like if its not waxed. Messy as hell. Regardless, the Indians did not disappoint. Though they went down 3-0 early, the Tribe managed to claw back into the game and won it on a sac fly in the 9th, 5-4.
While all this was going on, I was missing the finale of the Chihuahuas and the Sky Sox in Colorado Springs. After the 1st inning, it was 5-4 Sky Sox, and there were three pass balls. In the 3rd, it was 9-4 Sky Sox. In the 8th, it was 13-5 Sky Sox, at which point I decided I didn’t want to know what the final score was going to be. (That was the final.) Right now, the only thing in the dogs’ favor is that there’s only a bit more than two weeks left in the season and their opponents are going to have to win for a week straight to beat them out of the division lead.
The Rangers and Rockies were off today. They deserved it.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Baseball Notebook for August 18, 2016
I came
into work and brought up the Cardinals vs the Astros as the MLB.TV free
game. There was a potential no-hitter in
progress for the Cards. Please stop
doing “No-hitter” alerts in the 6th inning MLB.com. Don’t even bother until the 8th. The birds won handily, but I doubt they’re
going to the playoffs since I don’t think the Cubs are going to lose again
until the World Series (against the Rangers).
The Astros are falling off again.
Look for management to start blaming the manager. Meanwhile the Giants are swept by
Pirates. Who knew that all the Dodgers
really needed in order to win was for them to lose their two best pitchers
(Kershaw and Greinke), send down Yasiel Puig, get rid of some other cancerous
elements on the team, and for the Giants to collapse?
I again
missed the story from Tuesday’s Ranger game.
Lucas Harrell came out of his start early and injured. I don’t think they can afford to lose any
more starting players. Jon Daniels is
likely looking for a waiver trade a lot more seriously than he was a week
ago. I was almost afraid to look in on
Wednesday’s game versus the A’s, but leading 6-2 to in the 9th, I
thought I’d chance it. Matt Bush struck
out the side to end it. That’s a
three-game sweep. I’d be tempted to
anoint Bush the new closer, but it’s probably really more a matter of the
bullpen guys getting overused and being constantly put into pressure situations
that’s burning them out. Yu Darvish
pitching 7 innings and Ian Desmond and Jonathan Lucroy driving in all 6 runs (3
apiece) to provide a cushion had to help.
Tim
Hagerty was in much better spirits for the Chihuahuas game in Colorado Springs
tonight. Strangely, it seemed like the
conditions at the stadium were what changed his attitude. First, he had bad encounter with the
concessions people. Tim took time to
praise the El Paso vendors for their friendliness. (He’s right.
They’re been very nice when I’ve been there.) Then, there were only a bit more than a 1000
people there for the game on a fairly pleasant night. There were people enjoying the hot tub in the
outfield. I didn’t know there was a hot
tub there. Now, I’m really sorry I
didn’t get to see a game when I was there in May. And then, he needed to buy a light so he
could see inside the dark pressbox. In
short, Tim may have come to the conclusion that since the Chihuahuas had a
superior baseball organization, they will prevail. And indeed they did tonight, 5-3, breaking
their losing streak. OKC even helped out
by coming back in the 9th to beat the Isotopes.
Tim had
a great story about a minor league player during the game. The pitcher had been informed that he was
going to be released after the game. He
ended up coming in as a reliever. When
the manager started out of the dugout to take him out of the game, the pitcher
tossed his glove and the ball, took off his shirt, walked off mound, left the
stadium, and drove away. But I’m sure he
really loved his job.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Baseball Notebook for August 17, 2016
Okay,
another day and another loss by the Chihuahuas.
This time it was an 11-3 loss to Colorado Springs. (I didn’t get to see them when I was in
Colorado in May. I wonder how they’re
doing with the fans there, since the Sky Sox aren’t an affiliate of the Rockies
anymore.) Tim Hagerty is trying to be
brave, but he’s getting worried and depressed.
That’s pretty easy to get when the team gets clobbered, stops hitting,
and commits three errors in the game.
Worse, the game seemed to take forever to play out, even with the
outcome not in doubt. They’re up like 7
games on the Isotopes, but have 9 games with them remaining, 5 of them in
Albuquerque.
I missed
the big story with the Rangers on Monday.
Shin-Soo Choo’s arm was broken and he’s out for the season. Choo and Prince being out so much this season
has at least gotten several other players significant major league playing
time. Let’s hope they’re up to it. Joey Gallo still lurks in the shadows. If he’s capable of getting hits without
striking out ¾ of the time, now’s a good time to start showing it.
This was
one time when watching the game playing out on Gameday, without TV or radio,
was still really exciting. In the 9th,
the Rangers had a 1 run lead over the friggin’ A’s. (Yes, I’ve decided to tag these guys like I
have the “hated” Angels.) Another blown
save. The Rangers really need to explore
the concept of the insurance run. In the
10th, the A’s knock in two runs to take the lead. In the bottom of the frame, with the bases
loaded and one out, Beltran singles to drive in two and tie the game. Nice game for Carlos, 4 for 5, 3 RBI’s. Adrian Beltre, who’d burned the A’s so badly
yesterday, was given a free pass to reload the bases. And the first pitch to Roogie hits him. I’m sure he didn’t even feel it. Rangers win 5-4.
Thanks
to a two-hour rain delay, I was able to catch half of the Rockies/Nationals
game on the radio when I got home, and I had good signal. The rain had chased off the four-legged fans,
who had come for Bark at the Park. Wet
dog smell and thunder and lightning doesn’t work well with a bunch of dogs in
attendance.
The game
was tied at 2 in the 5th. I
arrived just in time. DJ LeMahieu hit a
triple and was driven in by Nolan Arenado on a grounder. DJ had a heck of a game. In the post-game, I heard the dramatic call
from earlier, as he hit a monster home run into the wind, rain, and
lightning. David Dahl came in as a pinch
hitter in the 7th and drove in two runs on a double. Dahl’s consecutive game hitting streak was
broken, but he’s still gotten a hit in 21 of 22 games he’s been in. Rockies win 6-2. Two notes.
Nolan drove in two runs making outs while I was listening. That’s a professional team player who wants
to win. The new higher fence at Coors
Field kept in two potential homers for the Rockies. I don’t know if this is good or bad. If they just had some pitching (and Trevor
Story hadn’t gotten hurt), they’d be winning the division. Sigh.
Yeah, that news came in during the game.
The Giants lost and are a ½ game out of first to the Dodgers. They’re 9-20 since the break; the worst in
the MLB.
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Baseball Notebook for August 2016 Part 4
The Yahoo game was Royals vs Tigers. While I like this service, I don’t think I can take that Katie Couric promo much longer. It’s about the same with any baseball coverage on any media. If you’re listening to a local minor league radio broadcast, you’re going to hearing the same commercials every inning for the whole season. The best you can hope for is that none of them are too annoying. I remember once on a mid-season Diablos broadcast with Matt Hicks and his co-host, the station wasn’t able play the commercials. During a break, they started to do the spots word-for-word as a joke. The station manager likely immediately stepped in and told them to knock it off. TV isn’t much better. Viagra anyone?
Anyway, I was happy to see the Royals, even if the Sabermetricians are going to be right about their record this season being lousy. Of course, they were only totally wrong about them the last two seasons, and the only reason they aren’t contending now is because of a season-long series of injuries to key players. This was the Tigers’ team broadcast. I was surprised to hear Kirk Gibson as the color commentator. I wonder if this means he’s been totally bounced out of managing? He doesn’t have the best voice for a speaking gig, but his knowledge and resume always make Gibby worth listening to. Rod Allen is still with the broadcast as field reporter. I used to listen to him and Greg Schulte everyday doing Diamondbacks games on the radio. They were pure “homers,” but Rod had definitely toned it down when he went over to the Tigers.
KC wins 3-1, but the story was the praying mantis on their dugout. The cameras were watching it like a hawk. Like a bunch of little kids, the players were trying to catch it. I think I missed the story behind why they were doing this. Something about a “rally mantis.” The players managed to corral it into a cage and kept it under close guard. Only in baseball.
Here’s how you break out of a 24-inning scoreless streak: Adrian Beltre hitting a grand slam. (Actually, Elvis Andrus drove in a run the inning before, but that wasn’t dramatic enough for the lead of this paragraph.) Even over the drought, Beltre’s been getting his hits. It was just a matter of somebody getting on in front of him or driving him in. The Rangers beat the friggin’ A’s 5-2. Though they’ve been beating them on paper, the A’s have been giving the Rangers fits this season.
The Chihuahuas were still in Oklahoma City and clearly wished they weren’t. The final was 8-1. It wasn’t even that close, as that one run came in the 9th. The opposing pitcher had a complete game and a no-hitter into the 7th. That’s a four-game sweep for the OKC Dodgers. No wonder Tim sounded so down during the broadcast.
Things got too quiet at work without a game on, so I impulsively found the Albuquerque Isotopes’ broadcast on the MiLB site. I might be visiting them later this month, so I wanted to check in, and they’ve been in the news lately. Tim had surprisingly mentioned that the ‘Topes were tied in second place in the division behind the Chihuahuas (apparently the Las Vegas 51’s have also faded). Albuquerque was so bad earlier this year with a double-digit losing streak that the Chihuahuas broadcast was actually doing updates on their games and pulling for them to end it. Now, the pups have gone 3-11 in the month of August (it’s finally happening, they’ve had too many good players called up to the Padres), while the Isotopes have had an 8 game winning streak. They’ve picked up 6 games in the standings. However, they lost tonight to end the streak, and they’re still well below .500. I’m not worried yet.
Anyway, I was happy to see the Royals, even if the Sabermetricians are going to be right about their record this season being lousy. Of course, they were only totally wrong about them the last two seasons, and the only reason they aren’t contending now is because of a season-long series of injuries to key players. This was the Tigers’ team broadcast. I was surprised to hear Kirk Gibson as the color commentator. I wonder if this means he’s been totally bounced out of managing? He doesn’t have the best voice for a speaking gig, but his knowledge and resume always make Gibby worth listening to. Rod Allen is still with the broadcast as field reporter. I used to listen to him and Greg Schulte everyday doing Diamondbacks games on the radio. They were pure “homers,” but Rod had definitely toned it down when he went over to the Tigers.
KC wins 3-1, but the story was the praying mantis on their dugout. The cameras were watching it like a hawk. Like a bunch of little kids, the players were trying to catch it. I think I missed the story behind why they were doing this. Something about a “rally mantis.” The players managed to corral it into a cage and kept it under close guard. Only in baseball.
Here’s how you break out of a 24-inning scoreless streak: Adrian Beltre hitting a grand slam. (Actually, Elvis Andrus drove in a run the inning before, but that wasn’t dramatic enough for the lead of this paragraph.) Even over the drought, Beltre’s been getting his hits. It was just a matter of somebody getting on in front of him or driving him in. The Rangers beat the friggin’ A’s 5-2. Though they’ve been beating them on paper, the A’s have been giving the Rangers fits this season.
The Chihuahuas were still in Oklahoma City and clearly wished they weren’t. The final was 8-1. It wasn’t even that close, as that one run came in the 9th. The opposing pitcher had a complete game and a no-hitter into the 7th. That’s a four-game sweep for the OKC Dodgers. No wonder Tim sounded so down during the broadcast.
Things got too quiet at work without a game on, so I impulsively found the Albuquerque Isotopes’ broadcast on the MiLB site. I might be visiting them later this month, so I wanted to check in, and they’ve been in the news lately. Tim had surprisingly mentioned that the ‘Topes were tied in second place in the division behind the Chihuahuas (apparently the Las Vegas 51’s have also faded). Albuquerque was so bad earlier this year with a double-digit losing streak that the Chihuahuas broadcast was actually doing updates on their games and pulling for them to end it. Now, the pups have gone 3-11 in the month of August (it’s finally happening, they’ve had too many good players called up to the Padres), while the Isotopes have had an 8 game winning streak. They’ve picked up 6 games in the standings. However, they lost tonight to end the streak, and they’re still well below .500. I’m not worried yet.
Monday, August 15, 2016
Baseball Notebook for August 2016 Part 3
8-8-16
This is out of order, and I missed this when it
happened. Brandon Crawford got 7 hits in
a 14-inning Giants win. We’re going to
have to polish these little bright spots, because it hasn’t been good for the
Giants after the All-Star break.
8-9-16
Steve Kaplowitz joined Tim Hagerty in the Chihuahuas ’
booth for the game versus Fresno . This is always a good time as Kappy loves
talking baseball, but isn’t able to do it on his own local afternoon sports
talk show very often. Two topics that
stood out for me were the discussions of ERA of infinity (a pitcher comes into
a game and gives up runs without recording an out) and that Shea Stadium was a
dump. Tim kind of stood up for the
place, but he’d never been there. Kappy
had. The pups win 5-1 and are up 8 in
the standings.
The Rockies host the Rangers for a day game in Denver . Again, the Rangers come from behind
late. It was 5-2 in the 8th
when the Rangers scored 4 to win 7-5.
For the Rockies , Arenado had two RBI’s
and David Dahl extended his rookie hitting streak with two runs scored.
8-10-16
The Rangers do it again to the Rockies, this time in Arlington . Down by a run in the 8th, they
come back and win 5-4. Lucroy gets
another RBI for the Rangers. David Dahl
gets another hit and two RBI’s. Of
course, the big Ranger news was the injury retirement of Prince Fielder. For a fan, he’s been good and he’s been
frustrating. For the team, he was a good
guy that was well-liked in the clubhouse.
For management, his contract was insured and the Tigers are still paying
part of his enormous salary. If he
wasn’t able to play at a high-level, this was probably the only possible good
outcome for the team. For Prince, his
and his kids’ press conference tears obviously meant he still really wanted to
play. He’s only in his early 30’s after
all. The one good thing about just being
a fan, we always get another season. The
players don’t. And, Brandon Crawford
hits a walk-off homer to win for the Giants.
BC for MVP!
8-11-16
It was 100+ degrees in Arlington
and I presume with high humidity. What a
better time to play a four-hour day game for the Rangers. Their new retractable roof stadium cannot be
built soon enough. I got to hear a
couple of static-filled innings before I went to work. After three come-from-behind wins against the
Rockies , the Rangers kind of had today
coming. While they had a big 7th
to take the lead, the Rox had a bigger one in the 8th and won
12-9. Beltre, Odor, and Blackmon had
great offensive games. David Dahl’s
rookie hitting streak goes to 17 games in a row.
The Chihuahuas
had a rare night off. (Triple-A teams
get like one day off a month.) The game
of the day was the Brewers vs the Braves.
Not that it was particularly significant, or even close as it was 11-3
Brewers. More rare than a perfect game,
the Brewers managed to score in every inning they had an at-bat. This was only the 16th time this
had ever happened in MLB history.
There’s a lot of 1 run innings, and they got some help off of errors, and
they only had to bat for 8 innings, but yikes!
Apparently, everything has to go your way for this kind of event to
happen.
It took awhile, but I finally remembered an oddly
reminiscent incident to Chris Sale’s attack on the White Sox throwback
uniforms. Somewhere in the late 90’s or
even early 2000’s, the Dodgers briefly experimented with a solid blue top. Yes, I know.
Hersey! It’s like when the
Yankees tried out a sliver-billed hat.
(Yes, it was in the regular season, not a Spring Training game.) Don’t mess with a classic. In the Dodgers case, I think they lost every
time they wore the alternate top. You
know how superstitious ball players are.
The whole thing ended with high-priced, low-performance free agent Kevin
Brown making his only contribution to the team.
Him and some others took the tops behind the bullpen and set them on
fire before a game.
8-12-16
I watched a Yankee game.
The Chihuahuas
were on, but they were getting blasted in OKC.
The Rangers/Tigers game was in a delay.
Okay, I had to see A-Rod’s last game.
The Yankee announcers were fans, but deeply ambiguous about this
event. The fans in New York weren’t. They stood and cheered for him for every
appearance. Alex Rodriguez goes 1 for 4
with a double and an RBI. His last AB
was a groundout to Short. In the 9th,
with the Yankees up 6-3, Alex was put out at third for one batter and then taken
out, so he could get a send-off coming off the field from the crowd. After the game, he got a big ovation and
grabbed a handful of infield dirt to take with him. Afterward, he thanked the fans and apologized
in general for his scandals. So ends the
A-Rod saga.
Thanks to a two hour, 40 minute rain delay, I was able to
catch about half of the Rangers game when I got home. (Strangely, it was also raining here.) I joined the game with Rangers up big. By the 6th, after a Carlos Beltran
home run, it was 8-1 with bases loaded and no outs. However, they didn’t score any runs. In the 7th, Rangers’ starter, Yu
Darvish, ran out of gas, or alternately ran out of the patience after a bad
error, and got run out of the game. The
team’s defense unfortunately didn’t improve and the Tigers scored 4 runs to
make it interesting. Thankfully, Sam
Dyson came in in the 9th and locked it down. Rangers win 8-5. Awkwardly during the game, Sean Tolleson and
Prince Fielder are still doing commercials for the team, though they are not
with the club anymore.
8-13-16
This was a poor Saturday.
Unfortunately, the baseball didn’t help.
The Chihuahuas were still in Oklahoma City playing the
Dodgers. I’d missed last night’s
game. Apparently, Yasiel Puig went 3 for
4. He’s hitting well, but still has
baseball acumen issues, such as getting thrown out at home in the 1st.
Annoyingly as usual, the Rangers were on at the same
time. I flipped over to listen to the
first half of the game. Cole Hammels
didn’t have his best stuff and kept getting into trouble. Unlike last night, the defense behind him was
stellar. In the 4th, Profar
got his first outfield assist and then Choo threw out a runner at home to end
the inning. Around the 6th, I
lost signal on the El Paso
station as the sun went down. I heard the
Tigers score, breaking the 0-0 tie, but not how many runs they scored.
Back to the Chihuahuas . In the 7th, OKC takes the
lead. Puig gets thrown out trying to
steal home. The Chihuahuas lose 4-2. By this time, I was able to pick up another Texas station, and I’m
in time to listen to the Rangers lose 2-0.
The Tigers get two runs on 14 hits.
I completely forget about the Rockies
game this evening, but it was likely just about over by the time I’d be able to
get KOA anyway. Ironically, I had just
bought a Rockies pennant today at Hastings . (They’re going out of business. It’s pretty sad going there.)
While flipping radio stations, I got a Dallas station and was able to amazingly hear
the end of the post-game, loud and clear.
I even got to hear Jared Sandler doing his post-game call-in show
finally. A Cowboys pre-season game had
knocked the Rangers off FM and onto AM.
I could have heard the game on a much clearer signal. Sigh.
I also wish I could have heard the call-in show after a win where
presumably there might have been callers.
Once again, no recap of the day’s other games. It’s just weird that they won’t give out all
of the scores after a game, just division opponents. I hope tomorrow is better all the way around.
8-14-16
I should have appreciated Beltran’s home run Friday night
more. I didn’t realize it was going to
be the last time I was going to hear the Rangers score this weekend. After three day games and no days off last
week, the team may be fatigued. Their
defense certainly showed signs of a lack of mental and physical sharpness again
today.
Given a 21-inning scoreless streak, you might infer that the
Rangers lost today. The Tigers won 7-0
as their pitcher, Michael Fullmer, threw a complete game shutout. The Rangers didn’t show up at all, but at
least the game went quickly. Come out to
the ballpark later this week for the Elvis Lan-drus-rissan Star Wars bobblehead
giveaway. It’s sure to be a
fan-favorite.
The Oklahoma City Dodgers manager took the blame for Yasiel
Puig getting caught trying to steal home yesterday. It was part of complex situational play that
Puig apparently didn’t understand when the manager called for it. So, Puig isn’t stupid because he tried to
steal home; he’s dumb because he didn’t understand the signs.
After a couple of close calls from foul balls, the pressbox
finally took a direct hit in the 5th. Much like a couple of years ago in Iowa , there was a sound
of crashing and then ominous silence for a few seconds. Finally, a slightly shaken Tim Hagerty
resumed calling the game. He gave a
thumbs up to the crowd, who applauded his valor. There was a knocking sound on the window that
confused him for a moment. A guy in the
suite next door was asking for the ball.
It was that kind of game in OKC today. A Dodger runner scored from second on a bad
throw to first. A ball fouled off at the
plate, bounced up and hit the Chihuahuas
batter on the top of the helmet. The Chihuahuas lose 13-2. There’s nothing to talk about. It’s been a crappy baseball weekend.
Hey, show up at the Cohan Stadium next month for
Beerfest. Bring the kids. Yes, the old Diablos stadium is still in use.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Baseball Notebook for August 2016 Part 2
I don’t why I’m suddenly so loquacious. This was just supposed to be some little
random notes, like a diary, but less girly.
8-9-16
Royals’
clubhouse fractious and divided because of Dungeons and Dragons Redux. Okay, after re-reading this article, perhaps
it is actually a gag, a very impressive analogy between D&D and how the
team plays baseball. I think. Fantasy and reality (baseball) are starting
to blur. Someone needs to do a D&D
fan film with Hosmer as that Half-Elf Ranger.
Oh, to be Eric Hosmer in Kansas City for a day. I don’t want to go looking for the link, but
there was story earlier this year where he showed up at a Justin Bieber
concert. Suffice it to say from seeing
the videos, amongst the women, there’s no contest between the two for their
affections. Hos was the rock star with
the screaming girls clamoring for him.
Rangers vs. Rockies.
I was actually seated in front of the computer, counting the minutes
until the game. It was scheduled to be
the Yahoo game and I was all over it.
6:40 MST. Click. “We’re sorry.
Due to blackout restrictions this game is not available in your
area.” Well. That was disappointing. I thought, wiping away a manly tear. Technically, I guess we’re considered to be
in the area of one, the other, or even both teams. Practically, we don’t actually get either
team’s TV broadcasts in this area, unless it’s a national game. I considered turning on the TV and checking
if it was the MLB Network game, but certainly it would also be blacked
out.
I resigned myself to listening to tonight’s Chihuahuas
game. This was one day when I really
wasn’t enthusiastic about the dogs for other reasons. My place of business announced a group outing
to a Chihuahuas game in September. I
won’t be going since it’s on Friday night.
My backup will be heading out of town for the Labor Day weekend that
night, so I’m stuck. And to make it worse,
I’d already decided that I wouldn’t want to go for inter-personal reasons
anyway (and half convinced that this event was scheduled for a week night so I
wouldn’t be able to go). And adding
further insult, a pair of party busses pulled up that evening to take some of
the officers and their favored customers to tonight’s game, at the businesses’
expense (thus alienating any of the employees who found out). (It was a 5-2 win for pups as I kept checking
in on the game.)
All was not lost though.
As I later clicked on MLB.com to check to on the game, I noticed that
the Rangers and Rockies was the MLB.TV free game. (I also noticed an upsetting story that Bruce
Bochy was back in the hospital. He seems
to not be in good health.) I’d tried
accessing this service a couple years ago and it didn’t work for me, so I
hadn’t tried it again since. Silly
me. It works fine with an unrestricted
Internet connection. There were four
options for the game (both teams’ radio and TV broadcasts). I turned off the Chihuahuas (a bit
reluctantly) and chose the Rangers’ radio broadcast. Why not watch the TV broadcast, dummy? How could I resist hearing Eric and Matt on a
strong signal without a bunch of static and fade out?
I made the right choice.
The guys gave a great broadcast tonight.
Perhaps they were happy to be a mile-high in Denver or maybe since they
weren’t together over the weekend, they were happy to be back together. In any case, Eric and Matt were interacting
and bantering a lot more than usual.
They seem to get along well. I
don’t know why this doesn’t happen on every broadcast. They’re both Hall of Famer broadcasters now
(though different halls of the fame).
What’s ironic, I actually learned more about the Rockies
from the Rangers’ broadcast than I had listening to the Rockies’ broadcasts
this season. First, I got the AR-Enado
thing cleared up. At the Denver airport
tram, various Denver sports stars greet the visitors on a video. Nolan did pronounce his name AR-Enado
there. When later questioned by the
local media, he confirmed that that’s how he pronounces it. Apparently, different members of his own
family disagree on the pronunciation, so that was the source of the confusion. This also led to a discussion of the proper
pronunciation of Colorado. Next, there
was a discussion on Rockies pitching.
They are organizationally committed to groundball pitchers, owing to the
thin air and thus value plus infield defenders.
Eric Nadel was excited about the hotel they were staying at. He met Peter Frampton in an elevator
there. Frampton is doing a show in town,
as is Demi Lovato. Eric is a big music
fan and digs the music scene in the Denver area, especially the Red Rocks
venue. This led to this exchange:
Matt Hicks: “Do you, you, feel like I do?”
Eric Nadel: “Oh, just show me the way.”
There was also a lively discussion about the clouds. I think they were worried about the weather,
but that never came into play. I kept
hearing cheering whenever the Rangers made a good play. I didn’t think there were that many fans in
the area. Actually, there were three
sections of Ranger fans in attendance as part of a travel package the team was
offering. I’m sure I heard multiple
mentions of it over the season during the team broadcasts, but didn’t retain
any details of it. I’m sure it was
pretty cool.
Oh, and there was game going on. Let’s pick it up in the top of the 9th
with the Rangers down 3-1. A
double-steal on the play before, set up Elvis Andrus driving in two with a base
hit to tie the score. Mitch Moreland
then drove him home with a double to give the Rangers the lead, 4-3, which
would be the final. Afterward, it was
discussed with the team that they had game-planned that double-steal before the
game if that situation came up in the game.
There was also an acknowledgement of the Rangers fans in
attendance. They love getting cheers on
the road.
Once again, some divided loyalties. I do like the Rockies. Arenado had a great game, driving in two
runs, including a home run. He also had
a great bare-handed play in the game.
Rookie David Dahl continues to impress.
I think he’s hit in all 14 games since his call up. His OPS is 1.004. (Superstar Arenado is like .980.) If only Trevor Story hadn’t gotten hurt.
After the game, I made a futile search for the Rangers
post-game call in show that they always mention during the post game. It’s on their flagship station in Dallas, but
they were only doing network programming.
Perhaps it’s only for home games or not available over the Internet at
all. Well, that’s fine. I’d had a good night.
Monday, August 8, 2016
Baseball Notebook for August 2016
8-1-2016
Trade deadline day, but the on-field action also continues. The Chihuahuas come from behind to lose,
10-7, to the 51’s. Jabari Blash was
called up, but the team doesn’t seem to be missing much on offense. The Rangers were idle today, awaiting their
reinforcements. The Astros won in 14
innings, 2-1, thanks to a walk-off by Carlos Correa. I was watching the Yankees vs Mets on ESPN,
but managed to completely miss the end of the game and the score. (It was 6-5, Yankees over Mets. It was a good game.)
8-2-16
The Rangers start a series in Baltimore with their new
acquisitions. Darvish allows three solo
home runs before being chased from the game.
As I read later, on all three homers, Darvish had shaken off his new
catcher Jonathan Lucroy. The real
problem in this game though was that the team again left their bats in
Arlington. Rangers lose 5-1. Fire the equipment manager. I was watching this game on Yahoo again and,
in spite of the outcome, I was so glad I did.
Ruggie’s at bat in 9th had me rolling. I saw him sniff his bat and then he hit
himself on his helmet with his bat after a bad swing.
So much for my prediction of the Rockies coming out of
nowhere to win the NL West. The day
after I posted it, Trevor Story tears a ligament on his thumb and is out for
the season. I don’t suppose they’ve got
another super-powered rookie somewhere in the minors.
8-3-16
Giants vs Phillies.
I’m watching the game on Yahoo, but you could tell where you were just
by listening. “Hey Span, we all know
Nunez should be batting leadoff!” That
is truly excellent opposition research by the Philly fans. The crowd mic kept fading in and out as the
hecklers got more vocal, and the production director had to avoid some
interesting language. Yeah, those full
houses, happy fans, and winning teams were just an aberration in
Philadelphia. (Actually, I remember a
laser pointer incident in that era.)
The Giants go up 4-0 for most of the game. Johnny Cueto goes 7 2/3 innings with 10 k’s,
but gives up 4 runs late, tying the game.
Even with some recently acquired bullpen help, Bochy seemed very
reluctant to use them and left Cueto in too long. It ends up being a 5-4 loss for the Giants in
the 12th inning. There was an
error right before the winning hit, which made it even worse. I admit I did like the Liberty Bell sound
effect on home runs and after the win.
The Rangers lose again to the O’s 3-2. The new guys, Carlos Beltran and Lucroy,
drive in both runs for Texas. That, at
least, is a good sign.
You can guess what kind of game the Chihuahuas are having
when a position player is pitching for them in the 9th. (And can you believe they were still calling
infield shifts. For the last batter,
they put four players on the right side, nobody on the left. It worked.
Nobody scored in the 9th at least.) It was a 9-2 a-kicking courtesy of the Tacoma
Rainiers. This included an
inside-the-park home run by Tacoma, because they got bored trotting around the
bases to score.
Royals’
clubhouse fractious and divided because of Dungeons and Dragons. I’m still half-convinced this is a late April
Fool’s gag. Seldom, if ever, do D&D
and baseball ever come up in the same post on this blog. These two pastimes never crossover for me . .
. until now. I’m really having a hard
time imaging this bunch of World Series winners sitting down to roll dice and
kill Orcs, with their skipper, Ned Yost, as the DM no less. But, there’s way too many details to dismiss
this as some Kansas City nerd’s fan-fiction.
I can totally believe Hosmer would roll up a Half-Elf Ranger. (On the Eight Game Master Alignments scale,
Yost seems to be an Enabler Fudge.) Oh,
for a video of these proceedings. Name
your price. I will pay.
8-4-16
The Rangers finally beat the O’s 5-3. Beltran and Lucroy again drove in runs. It took an extra inning, but the Giants
finally beat the Phillies on a walk-off by Denard Span.
At the beginning of the game, Tim speculated that tonight’s
game between the Chihuahuas and Rainiers might be high-scoring. As the dogs were down 10-4 in the 7th,
that seemed to be true. By the end of
the 7th, it was 10-10, and the final Chihuahua out was thrown out at
home with the go-ahead run. (It was a
mirror image of that game in April vs the Zephers.) In the top of the 8th, the
Rainiers bat around and scored 6 more runs.
It wasn’t over. The Chihuahuas
managed to score 5 more runs before running out of outs in the 9th. Clearly the team has not had all of their
best hitters called up. Final, 16-15
Tacoma Rainiers. The El Paso fans didn’t
get to see a win, but got their money’s worth.
8-5-16
After losing four in a row, the Chihuahuas needed a win
tonight. Unfortunately, their last two
series have been against two good teams.
There was a small amount of fratricide within the Tacoma team as a
player in the dugout got hit by a foul ball by another one of their players in
the 1st. After a brief trip
to the clubhouse, the injured player came back wearing a trash can lid. Only in baseball. The game itself was quite serious as the lead
changed hands six times over 9 innings.
The dogs would prevail 7-5.
The MLB Network game featured the Giants losing again, this
time to the Washington Nationals, 5-1.
When am I going to see these guys win again? I was surprised to see the Nationals’ closer
was Mark Melancon. He was on the Pirates
last time I looked, though the subject of trade rumors. I guess they were right, and I don’t know how
I missed that one. I didn’t realize the
Pirates had totally given up on this season.
The Rangers lose 5-0 to the Astros tonight. Looking over the Rangers’ lineup, I don’t
think they had their best guys out against Keuchel. (Yeah, I know he’s a lefty and you’re supposed
to sit your lefties, but still.) Or
could it have been Astros
Girl? I don’t even if she was there,
but I just saw this story today about her appearance at the Tuesday night game
versus the Blue Jays. Essentially, what
we have here is a hot chick in homemade team gear cheering behind home
plate. She caused an Internet sensation
as the camera just sort of gravitated towards her. She said she was hoping to distract the
opposition, but unfortunately it didn’t work as the Astros lost. Afterward, Astros Girl got a text from a
friend reporting her newfound fame, “Hey, you’re famous in Canada!”
8-6-16
I was surprised that KOA out of Denver was my strongest
radio station as the sun went down. I
picked up the Rockies vs the Marlins in the 7th with the Rockies
already up big. In spite of the score,
it took forever for the Rox to finally put the fish away, 12-6. I asked if they had any more rookies to step
in for the injured Trevor Story. His
name is David Dahl. I don’t know much
about him, but he’s hitting well, including three today. DJ LeMahieu made a great play to get the
final out, on DJ LeMahieu Ghostbuster Bobblehead night, no less. (Yes, I’m jealous, even with my Cody Decker
Bobblehead.)
The main reason I was listening was actually because of the
Marlins. Ichiro Suzuki is still two hits
shy of 3,000, which is where I left him the last time I saw him last week. They’ve been holding him out of the lineup on
their current roadtrip, but put him in to pitch hit in the 8th and
he delivered. He came up again in the 9th
to an ovation, but grounded out to the pitcher.
There was a slight delay afterward.
All of the balls for his at bats are specially marked and are taken out
of play after. Meanwhile, 65 members of
the Japanese media get to enjoy the Mile-high city for another day. Oh, and Stanton hit a 495ft home run or a
500+ft home run, depending on the contested measurement. Whatever, it was very long.
The Rangers game must have started earlier than the listed
time. It just finished as I tuned
in. At least they won 3-2 over the
Astros. Again, Beltran and Lucroy
contributed to the victory. No word on
whether Astros Girl was there.
I listened to the first part of the Chihuahuas game, but
wasn’t getting good signal. The dogs
made a game of it, but couldn’t overcome a big deficit and lost 7-5 to the
Rainiers. Every time I hear the name of
Tacoma’s manager, I keep remembering his nickname when he played with the
Diablos, “Lightning” Pat Listach.
8-7-16
Rangers vs Astros. It
was 1-0 through 7 innings. In the 5th,
Lucroy drove in Ruggie on first base on a hit and run. Meanwhile, Yu Darvish pitched 7 scoreless
innings with 8 strikeouts and no walks. You
could hear a legion of Rangers fans cheering at the park in Houston. From here, things got interesting.
The Rangers tacked on a couple of runs in the 8th,
but so did the Astros, 3-2. In the top
of the 9th, the Rangers loaded the bases with no outs, but failed to
score. In the bottom, the Astros
scratched out a run off Sam Dyson to tie it.
In the 10th, the Rangers again loaded the bases with one out
and did not score, but would score two in the 11th. On the mound, Matt Bush pitched both extra
innings. While there were two on in the
11th for the Astros, Bush ended the game with a strikeout. 5-3 Rangers.
With that loss the Astros fall to third in the division. The Rangers are up by 7 on the Mariners.
When I tried listening yesterday, I didn’t hear Matt Hicks on
the broadcast. We don’t get the
pre-game, so I didn’t the story as to why he wasn’t there for the weekend. Apparently, he was on a honeymoon in El Paso,
and entering the El Paso Sports Hall of Fame as a broadcaster. Congratulations, Matt! I just love being able to hear him again
daily, like I used to listening to Diablos games.
The Chihuahuas were not on at their scheduled time. Normally if there’s a delay, Tim comes on for
a minute to say why, but not this time.
Frankly, this screwed up my oh-so-busy evening. He came on, after about an hour, and
apologized. It was another missing
equipment delay. How does this keep
happening?
I went ahead and listened to ESPN Radio programming in the
intervening interval. We just lost our
local Fox Sports Radio affiliate to Oldies programming. This happened last year too, when they went
to the Oldies Country format, so I wonder if this will last. I’d just about stopped listening to them
anyway. One, they just about only talk
about the NFL and the NBA. They might
break down international soccer the Olympics a little bit, just to irritate
me. Two, their only other major topic
was liberal political agenda stuff. Jay
Mohr, for example, who was a middle-aged, white comedian, married to Nikki Cox
with a couple of kids, suddenly turned into a radical black activist, who took
every sports story personally as a reason to agitate for social justice. Jason Smith, who I had been really enjoying
last year since he talked about baseball a lot (okay, really just the Mets),
suddenly stopped and started breaking down the Republican and Democrat
conventions and how stupid Trump is and how great Hilary is. The other hosts weren’t any better, if not
worse. Maybe I wasn’t the only person to
stop listening.
ESPN Radio, for a change, was talking baseball. Granted, this was only because the football
Hall of Fame game was cancelled this evening, and there were a couple of
interesting baseball stories today. Alex
Rodriguez announced his retirement at the end of the week. (This right after Mark Teixeira also
announced his retirement from the Yankees last week.) Surprisingly, this didn’t come up during the
4+ hours of the Rangers game. (Or maybe
not. Perhaps they’re still sore about
his contract.)
I found about it watching the Univision sports show, Republica Deportiva. (I like one of the women hosts of the
show. I don’t care about Mexican league
soccer.) ESPN Radio had Raul Ibanez on
talk about A-Rod, who had nothing but glowing things to say about him as a
teammate. I didn’t like Raul as a player
(he was always on a team playing against a team I was rooting for), but he’s
been a very articulate commentator in retirement. Seeing Alex trying not to breakdown down
during his press conference, I admit to feeling some sympathy for him. (Tex also got choked up.) Much like Bonds, the guy easily had the
credentials to get into the Hall of Fame before he started using PED’s, and
pretty much wrecked his career and reputation from there.
Raul was also a teammate of the other ball player in the
news, Ichiro Suzuki. He got his 3,000th
hit this afternoon in Colorado. (They
did mention this on the Rangers broadcast.)
The Marlins could have held him out for a day, since they were going
back to Miami tomorrow, but started him today anyway. Maybe this getting to be a distraction for
team that’s contending and they wanted it over with. The fish win, 10-7, over the Rockies.
So eventually, the Chihuahuas game came on. Their opponents were the Fresno
Grizzlies. Tim sounded a little out of
sorts to start the game and the players were maybe a bit listless too, all
owing to the late start. You could hear
some periodic barking in background for “Bark at the Park.” At least the four-legged fans were into
it.
This was a bad night to start an hour late. After the game, the team was doing a special
showing of Pitch, a new show about a
girl pitching for the Padres. (Actually,
they could have shown it during the delay.)
I’d like to say something nice about a baseball-themed show on network
television, but it’s likely to just be a short-lived, agenda-driven piece of
drivel. Given how the Padres’ pitching
is this season, it will also illicit a lot of unwanted, obvious jokes at their
expense. No word from Tim about showing
that TV show that I heard, but they mentioned it on the TV news yesterday.
Until the 9th, the score was 1-0. My reception was again poor, so I was missing
some details. The Chihuahuas haven’t
scored on Fresno pitcher, Chapman, for like 19 straight innings. Tonight was no exception. The Grizzlies’ closer was another
matter. The dogs managed to score a
tying run in their last inning. The
bases were then loaded, but the pups weren’t able to win it there. In the 10th, a two-run homer for
the Grizzlies would turn out to be the game-winner. Fresno wins 3-1.
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