8-28-18
The story of the
night was the Richmond Flying Squirrels. (Disclaimer: your baseball story of the night
might be completely different and probably is.)
Once again, it was a light baseball night for me. I tuned into the Squirrels early in the evening. Yesterday, they thought they were far away
from setting an ignominious record for scoreless innings. Well, there they were in the sixth inning,
still scoreless and now holding a new record.
The crowd there
seemed well aware of the situation. In the
bottom of the sixth, when a runner got to third, they actually cheered. In the seventh, the Squirrels got runners on
second and third with nobody out. After
a pop-up out, catcher Jeff Arnold
came to bat and ended the streak at 33 1/3 innings definitely with a three-run
homer.
Unfortunately,
the Squirrels’ losing streak continued.
The next inning there was a play at the plate with Arnold and the runner
was ruled safe. The Reading Fightin’ Phils would go on to win. The announcers doubted the call at the plate,
but there’s no replay in Double-A. “We
need cameras first,” said one of the guys.
The play and the result also ruined the storyline for the night. The announcers were too depressed to do their
usual haiku afterward.
There was a big
matchup in the MLB between the A’s
and the Astros fighting for first in
the AL West. I probably would have been
more interested in the game, except the MLB.TV
free game had me under a local blackout for video. Yes, Houston is “local” to me in Las Cruces,
New Mexico in the sense that we’re on the same continent.
I didn’t really
like the Astros’ radio call, so switched to the A’s, which was a little less
grating. They were reporting a sellout
tonight in Houston. Probably not
coincidently, it was the fourth time this season the team had offered replica
World Series rings. The other three
times were also sellouts. For their own
team, the announcers reported that there’s another city council proposal for a
new stadium. Good luck on that, unless
you guys win a World Series yourselves this year.
The A’s
announcers also promoted a “town hall” meeting between ownership and the
fans. They said that several fan
suggestions had been implemented at the park from previous meetings. Given that Oakland’s other two pro sports
teams are deserting them, this is the A’s opportunity to own the town. With enough community outreach, maybe they
can get a new stadium.
As for the game,
it was close and tense. The Astros had
loaded the bases when I started listening and then the stream suddenly stopped
like last night. Reloading the page
didn’t help; it would repeat the last minute I’d heard and stop in the same
place. I gave up after a couple of
tries, figuring I’d already missed the drama of the current situation. Between weirdness and the blackouts, this
really isn’t selling the MLB.TV service to me.
The A’s ended up beating the Astros 4-3. It’s a one-game lead for the Astros for now.
I turned over to
the Chihuahuas’ game. They were in Fresno, playing the Grizzlies, who may be their opponent
when the playoffs start. I struck by a
couple of things I was heard in the background.
On a routine flyball out by the Chihuahuas, there was the sound effect
of Apu from The Simpsons saying,
“Thank you. Come again.” The PA announced that anyone retrieving a
foul ball could bring it to the service desk and receive a prize, “And you get
to keep the ball.”
Tim Hagerty
was talking about the team’s impromptu airline arrangements to get to
Fresno. He received a phone call from airline
while he was on the air, which he couldn’t take, obviously. He hoped they were letting him know that his
bags had finally arrived, “Otherwise, I’ll need to do some shopping tomorrow.” As for the game, I’d tuned in in the middle
of an inning, but wasn’t sure which one or what the score was. After the Chihuahuas’ second error of the game
let in a run, Tim finally reported that it was 8-0 in the third. Suddenly, I had other things to do and
watch. I came back for the end. The pups did make a bit of a comeback with
the final being 9-4 Grizzlies.
8-29-18
Oh, no! Tonight’s Dizzykitten stream is her last until she comes back from
Korea. Thank
goodness, I’m off next week too. I’d
miss her if I was here at work without
her stream. Not
sure which Korea she’s going to. If it’s North Korea, Trump and the US Seventh
Fleet may have to go there to get her back from Kim Jung Un. If it’s South Korea, she obviously has
elaborate plot to kidnap K-Pop boy band BTS.
(BTS will refused to be rescued.)
Oh yeah,
baseball. The MLB.TV free game tonight was the Cardinals versus Pirates. I missed the play of the game in the fourth,
or should I say hurl. Matt Carpenter barfed at first base and
had to leave the game for nausea. The
Cardinals’ announcers mentioned that the team has had a bunch of injuries,
which has resulted in a bunch of call-ups.
If the Chihuahuas make it to the PCL Championship, this might be helpful. The Pirates
won 2-0 and the Cardinals lost their lunch.
I came into the Chihuahuas/Grizzlies’ game in the
sixth, as the pups were in the middle of sending eight-straight batters in a
row as they batted around. Ty France singled in a run, Shane Peterson hit a three-run homer,
and Raffy Lopez tripled in two runs,
which led to a 6-0 lead. Starter Colin Rea pitched five scoreless
innings.
However, the
Grizz made a comeback in the eighth.
They loaded the bases and a run was walked in. Kyle
McGrath came in and struck out the side, but gave up a double that scored
two more runs to make it 6-3. Rowan Wick came out in the ninth for a
no-drama save. Chihuahuas won 6-3. That’s a
team record 80 wins.
8-30-18
It was a little
strange to hear Aggie Football on a
Thursday at 5:00. They were playing Minnesota on the road. This was a “money game,” though not a “big
money” game for the program. The Aggies
did give them a game for about a quarter and a half. Matt
Romero’s first interception led to a 7-0 lead for MN. But after a subsequent fumble recovery by the
Aggie defense, Romero hit Izaiah Lottie
on a fade in the endzone to tie it. To
start the second quarter, the Dylan
Brown hit a career-long 45-yard field goal to give the Aggies a 10-7
lead.
The Aggie defense
came up with a big sack next, but right after, gave up a big play. That series lead to another Golden Gopher
touchdown, 14-10 MN. Romero was nearly
intercepted again, but the officials waved it off. Aggie special teams got off a tremendous fake
punt to keep a drive going. The team went
down to the MN 21 and went for it on a fourth and one and didn’t make it. I’m not going to say the Aggies would have
won this game, but that coaching decision probably took points off the
board.
The Gophers would
score another touchdown to make it 21-10.
The Aggies went three and out, which was bad, but the runback for
another touchdown was likely backbreaking.
The half closed out at 31-10. The
rest of the game, which I admittedly didn’t listen to (I was busy at work), the
Gophers pretty much ran it out. 48-10 Minnesota was the final.
The shocking
difference in the stats was the running game: Aggies 38 yards, Gophers
295. The sacks were 4 to 0 in Minnesota’s
favor. As Jack Nixon observed, the
Aggies were one-dimensional on offense, actually out-passing MN, but it made
them way too predictable. Turnovers were
even at 1. I am encouraged by that.
I did start
watching the MLB.TV free game
between the Tigers and the Yankees in the second half. It was 7-5 Yankees in the top of the ninth
with Dellin Betances in to
close. After one out, I stepped away for
a minute. When I came back Victor Martinez was getting
congratulated in the dugout. He’d just
hit a tying two-run homer. Next up, Niko Goodrum hit a solo, go-ahead homer
which would be the 8-7 Tigers
game-winner. Both shots just cleared the
short porch in right field. Heh, heh,
heh. When they were designing the new Yankee Stadium did anyone say something
like, “Hey, other teams might be able to take advantage of this design flaw.”
I listened a
little to the Chihuahuas and the Grizzlies. The Grizz led 3-0 for much of the game. They added a couple more in the eighth. The pups scratched out a run in the
ninth. Brett Nicholas struck out to end the game with a 5-1 loss. He tossed his bat and tried to argue his way
into an ejection for some reason. Tim Hagerty made an interesting statistical
observation during the game. El Paso and
Fresno probably have that best current lineups of the contending PCL
teams. However, in the baseball, the
best teams only win about 60% of the time.
8-31-18
After listening
to an Aggie Volleyball match this
morning, going to an Aggie Soccer
match this afternoon, and listening to another Aggie Volleyball match this
evening, you’ll forgive me if I’m a bit sports-ed out. Not to mention, I was running our month end
processing tonight. I wasn’t even
interested in tonight’s Chihuahuas/Rainiers
game when I saw the 6-1 Tacoma score after seven innings. I almost didn’t listen. What a mistake that would have been.
In the top of the
eighth, the umps got together and chatted.
Tim Hagerty didn’t know why
until Chihuahuas’ reliever Carter Capps
threw his first pitch and was warned about his delivery. Capps has had run-ins with the umps before
about his hop-step, but hadn’t been called on it in five previous
appearances. His catcher, Raffy Lopez, immediately turned around
started arguing, which was grounds for a quick ejection. Manager Rod
Barajas was also tossed right after.
Capps had to change his delivery and couldn’t pitch. After walking a batter, he had to be taken
out. Brad Wieck finished the inning.
In the bottom, Ty France cranked a two-run homer to
make it 6-3. How about this kid? Wieck polished off the top of the ninth and
went two shutout innings with six strikeouts.
Tim said at the time, “If the Chihuahuas come back and win this, they
should thank Wieck for these shutdown innings.”
We went to the
bottom of the ninth down three. On the
first pitch, Brett Nicholas hit a
solo home run to make it 6-4. Dusty Coleman doubled and Auston Bousfield singled and moved him
to third. Nick Shultz then hit a sacrifice to bring in Dusty and make it 6-5. Are you believing yet? Forrestt
Allday walked. Carlos Asuaje flied out. And
look who’s up next. Ty France pounded a
ball over the center fielder’s head, bringing both runners, and winning the
game 7-6! “It’s over!” yelled Tim.
The Chihuahuas had
a 4:00 am plane ride to get to El Paso this morning. Tim admitted to being exhausted even only
calling the game, much less playing. The
two ejections might have lit a fire under the dogs tonight and got them going. That’s 17 home wins in a row.
I’m off next
week. No posts, but I will hopefully
come back several reports from live events, including today’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment