Baseball Journal April 21-22, 2018

4-21-18

The Yankees were playing the Blue Jays on Mexican station this Saturday morning.  Lacrosse, Supercross, and Hockey were on as well.  But I was going to a movie in the afternoon, so I didn't get too attached to anything.  I did see the Yankees win 9-1.  Aggie Baseball against the Northern Colorado Bears should have started before I left, but it didn’t come on.  The campus radio station was instead running a vinyl record marathon.   

Without any in-person Aggie sports going on this weekend, I asked Ron if he wanted to see Ready Player One.  So, we decided on Saturday afternoon.  I’d turned him on to the book a couple of years ago without having read it myself.  He loved it.  I ended up hearing the audiobook version read by Wil Wheaton.  I liked it, kind of.  Maybe it was Wil’s reading, but the female heroine, Artemis, came off as a total bitch later in the book.  You had to wonder why Wade was trying so hard with her.  Thankfully, she was a lot more likable in the movie. 

I enjoyed it, probably mostly because my expectations were so low to begin with that it didn’t have to do much to make me happy.  It had some wonky movie “logic,” and the characters and their relationships weren’t well developed, but it was fun.  Mecha-Godzilla was my surprise star of the movie.  I called a Godzilla-loving friend immediately afterward to tell him to go see the movie.  He’ll love it.  My main question about the film was, “How could you do a Buckaroo Banzai reference and not do the line from the movie?”  (You know, “No matter where you go; there you are.”)  I was a bit disturbed by the funeral scene with the Star Trek “casket” with my initials out in front of it.

Before the movie we sat through the commercials and the trailers.  I loved the little PAX East report/commercial featuring Jessica Chobot, whom I adore watching on the Internet.  I got vertigo watching the totally-not-a-Die Hard-remake.  The totally awesome Avengers Infinity War trailer came up.  Ron was completely unmoved and instead wants to see Solo: A Star Wars Story, in spite of how lame the last three Star Wars movies have been (less one enjoyable half-hour at the end of Rogue One).  I think we’re going to be seeing separate movies this spring.                 

Aggie Baseball must have been delayed by weather as it was on when I got home after the movie.  It was 9-9 in the eleventh.  The Aggies had a 9-5 lead in the eighth and blew it.  Kinda glad I wasn’t listening to that.  Coach Green had been ejected from the game in the ninth for arguing balls and strikes.  Once again, without lights at the stadium and a late game, darkness came into play.  Adam Young and Matt McHugh calling the game were sure the umps would call it after 10.  In the top of the eleventh, Joey Ortiz drove in a run.  He should play with a sore hand all the time.  His hit one to the outfield that was likely darkness aided as the fielder never saw it.  The Aggie dugout went crazy yelling.  Trey Stine drove in two more for a 12-9 Aggie win.

I picked up the end of the Rockies beating the Cubs 5-2.  I flipped over to the Chihuahuas versus the 51’s.  It was 4-3 Chihuahuas there.  When I tuned in, Travis Jankowski dropped a flyball for a double.  On the next play, a groundout to first turned into a double play, as Brett Nicholas at first threw to third to get the runner advancing there. 

Tim Hagerty was excited again.  Another no-hitter was in progress.  It was certainly an unlikely one.  The pathetic A’s were playing the Red Sox, who have the best record in baseball. But tonight, Sean Manaea had it working, and the Sox had to come back down to earth with their 17-2 record.  Manaea finished it off.  Fourth time’s the charm for me.  Unfortunately, I had no way of watching this one.

I was able to pick up my after dark Rangers affiliate at this point.  The Rangers were up 6-4 over the Mariners after six.  Regrettably, I decided to listen to the seventh.  Within minutes, the M’s rattled off five hits in a row, including two home runs.  It was 9-6 Mariners when the dust settled.  The Rangers had a long bottom of the inning without scoring.  Eric Nadel took over the mic in the eighth.  He thought that Matt Hicks’ call of the seventh may have lasted an hour. 

Back in Las Vegas, it was 6-4 Chihuahuas.  I’d only missed their starter, Walter Lockett, hitting a three-run homer.  I found myself fighting poor reception on both stations and kept flipping back and forth.  In the bottom of the ninth in Arlington, the Rangers loaded the bases.  The M’s closer threw 9 balls in a row as he couldn’t find the strike zone.  Unfortunately, it ended on a flyout and a 9-7 Mariner win.  Everyone and myself were disappointed.  Even Eric was disappointed.  “What a heartbreak!” he exclaimed.  In Las Vegas, the Chihuahuas in the ninth dropped 7 runs on the 51’s and sent 11 batters to the plate and won 13-4, to close out my baseball for the day. 

4-22-18

Wow, did I wake up without any energy today.  All I did was sit around, watch TV, and listen to baseball on the radio, completely exhausted.  I did get up and exercise right after waking anyway.  I turned on the radio, and oh my goodness!  ESPN Radio was talking about baseball!  They were discussing Sean Manaea’s no-hitter.  There was some sort of controversy with it (what a surprise).  A hit earlier in the game was later changed to an error.  Manaea didn’t know about the scoring change until later.  He was able to relax, thinking he didn’t have a no-hitter going.  When he found out later in the game, then he got nervous.  The ex-football player commentator said a baseball no-hitter wasn’t as good as getting a shutout in the NFL.  Then they switched to draft talk.  It was priceless entertainment.

Thankfully, the Aggies were playing the Northern Colorado Bears a little later in the morning, so I had something intelligent to listen to.  It was 40 degrees to start the game there in Greeley, Colorado, but at least the sun was out and an encroaching sunset wouldn’t be an issue.  The Aggies scratched out a run early.  By the third inning, the Aggies had their third hit batter against a Bears’ pitcher, who hadn’t hit anybody all year.  Apparently, it’s a strategy.  (There ended up being at least four hit Aggies in the game.)  Oh, and this disappointing news was reported.  Joey Ortiz’s three-run inside-the-park homer from Friday had been rescored a single and a three-base error.

There was some good defense in the game by Marcus Still.  In the bottom of the third, he threw out a runner at third, who had just knocked in the tying run, and had a diving catch in the bottom of the fourth.  In the eighth, the score was tied at 2, after Alex Pinedo came out after pitching 7 2/3, probably his longest outing this year. 

By the ninth, two other games on the radio had started, but I kept with this one.  A bases loaded walk gave the Aggies back the lead in the top.  Tristen Carranza then drove in two.  The crowd went wild with these developments.  The Aggies must have brought some fans with them.  It was 6-2 going into the bottom.  Brock Whittlesey, who’d thrown one pitch in the eighth and 53 pitches yesterday, came in to finish it.  A run scored and the bases were loaded, but Whit got all three outs for the win.  6-3 Aggies, final.  The Bears aren’t a good team.  Losing one of these three games and winning the other two with great difficulty, isn’t making me believe in the Aggies this year.

Though the game went a bit more than three hours, those last two innings went about an hour and a half.  It was already the fifth in both of the other games on.  The Rangers were beating the Mariners 4-2, and the Chihuahuas were beating the 51’s 2-1.  I decided to mostly listen to the Rangers, since I’d be listening to the pups during the week.  Shin-Soo Choo drove in a run to make it 5-2.  He’s on fire lately.  In Las Vegas, Brett Nicholas drove in two.  He’s also on fire. 

Back from injury, Delino DeShields looked good in center field as he robbed a wind-driven home run ball at the wall in the sixth.  Jake Diekman came in for the seventh.  The bases were loaded, but he got out of it with a pair of strikeouts.  Meanwhile, the Chihuahuas were winning 6-1 in the seventh, though Nicholas got thrown out at the plate trying to score on a sacrifice.  Base running might not be his best skill.

            

Isiah Kiner-Falefa drove in two runs in the eighth to make it 7-4 Rangers.  Who?  I’d heard this guy mentioned several times over the last couple of Rangers games I’ve heard.  The announcers like his game, though I don’t think they’ve settled on how to say his name.  I got the name from my baseball preview (which I still haven’t finished), otherwise I’d never have been able to spell it from hearing it.  He’s on their 40-man roster, but not a top 10 prospect.  Keone Kela worked the ninth.  He let on two, but got a pair of strikeouts before Jurickson Profar made a great catch at second to end the game.  7-4 Rangers was the final.    

I picked up the Chihuahuas game in the bottom of the ninth.  Las Vegas scored four runs, three off a home run.  But, the pups safely won it anyway 9-6.  It was their sixth win in a row.  They have a 13-5 record this season.

A half-hour later on the same station, the ESPN Sunday pre-game came on.  The big news was Brandon Belt having a 21-pitch at bat at the beginning of a game that lasted 13 minutes.  It ended in an out, but he homered later and the Giants beat the Angels.  I may have been baseball’ed out today by this point.  (Though I was still disappointed that the scheduled college baseball game that was supposed to be on Stadium this afternoon never came on.  That’s about the third time they’ve disappointed me on this.)  I had the game on this evening, but wasn’t really listening because it was the Dodgers and the Nationals and don’t like either team.  This was too bad, because it was a good game.  The Dodgers beat the Nationals with a comeback in a close game.