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.
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