Wednesday, September 4, 2019

El Paso Chihuahuas 2019 Season Recap


While I was listening to most of the Chihuahuas’ season, I mostly wasn’t chronicling it.  (I’ve even done less with the MLB this year.)  I also admit to bumping out of several out-of-hand games, especially the ones where the pups were taking it in the shorts.  For what it’s worth, I’ll offer my own somewhat ignorant summation of the team’s season.

It was a tale of two seasons.  At first, the Chihuahuas’ massive offense carried their mediocre pitching.  Tim was already talking about the PCL home run record before halfway through the season.  They padded up a good lead in their division.  Then pitching injuries to the Padres parent club drained most of the Triple-A level pitching talent away from the team.  At that point, their offense could no longer keep up with what the defense was giving up.  Their bats seemed exhausted in some games.  Then other Padre injuries called up many of the team’s best hitters when they needed them the most.  That they were still in contention at the end showed quite a bit of grit.  Critical all ups by their main rivals, the Las Vegas Aviators, also helped.     

The stats for the season were impressive, even without a trip to the playoffs.  The Chihuahuas went 80-60.  20 games over .500, but that wasn’t good enough in this division this season.  That was the team’s second best record in their six years of existence.  They set the minor league home run record at 258.  (The Twins will certainly pass that in the Majors as their season continues.)  Not to slight the batters or make excuses for the pitchers, but I’m pretty sure it’s been the new ball being used this season.  Ty France was the PCL Rookie of the Year and MVP.  He’s doing well with the Padres now. 

The team had a 12-game winning streak early in the season.  I missed covering that.  Matthew Batten had an inside-the-park home run, which I also missed covering, but did hear happen.  I totally missed a ball blasting into the press box in Sacramento, but broadcaster Tim Hagerty certainly remembered it.  Here’s the highlights of the stuff I did cover.

4-4-19 Opening Day.  The Chihuahuas played Las Vegas in their new stadium against their season-long rivals, the Aviators.  The pups’ home run barrage started here.  Ty France picked right up where he left off last year hitting the cover off the ball.

4-5-19 In an ominous sign of things to come, the Aviators came back in the second game of the season with a blowout win.

4-15-19 The Curfew game versus Reno.  Setting another poor precedent, the Chihuahuas gave up three runs in the ninth to tie the game and send it to extra innings.  Neither team scored in the tenth and the game was suspended.  It was not finished until July. 

4-17-19 Ty France hit a game-winning home run in a day game.

4-28-19 Luis Urias hit three home runs in this win at Las Vegas.

5-5-19 The most important Chihuahuas game of the season for me.  It was the game I went to.  Me and my friend Ron had a great time.  

5-6-19 The Chihuahuas won 15-0 over the Bees today, their largest margin of victory ever.

5-20-19 The Chihuahuas beat the Isotopes 21-10 in a great football game.  The pups had five home runs in the game.  Holy cats, that wasn’t even the high score of the night in the PCL.  The Reno Aces scored 25 runs in their game, including four home runs by Yasmany Tomas. 

5-27-19 The Chihuahuas swept a double header on Memorial Day.

7-8-19 Triple-A Home Run Derbbbbbbbbby!  All of the Chihuahuas’ season had been looking forward to hosting the Triple-A All-Star game in El Paso.  Tonight’s event was the warmup.  Even with Ty France’s impressive performance, the highlight was Tim Hagerty catching a fly ball live on the air.

Our old friend, Cody Decker, was on the pregame.  He had just retired after hitting a walkoff home run to end his career.  He’s been on the radio a couple of times since then.  Cody’s opening a baseball clinic in El Paso and will hopefully be a regular fixture in the local media (calling a couple of innings sometime perhaps).

7-10-19 El Paso put on a show for the Triple-A All-Star game.  I watched on the MLB Network and was kicking myself that I didn’t try to take a day off to see this in person.  (Actually, it was 100-degrees at game time.  I probably made the right choice.)  The PCL won with Ty France taking the league MVP honors.  Chico stole the show.  He earned a restraining order for molesting attractive field reporter, Kelly Nash, but who could blame him? 

7-16-19 The Chihuahuas won the suspended game from April, but lost the regularly scheduled game.  This was the infamous M&M’s Game, where Tim was denied his snack food from an overly officious Reno vendor. 

7-17-19 Karmic payback.  The Chihuahuas scored seven runs in the ninth for a comeback win over Reno.  This also snapped a bad losing streak. 

7-26-19 In retrospect, this game was the turning point for the worse for the Chihuahuas.  Right after taking two of three from the Aviators in Las Vegas, the team played them in El Paso.  After building an 11-4 lead after three innings, the pups’ pitching completely detonated.  They gave up 11 home runs, for a PCL record, and lost the game 20-11.  They were swept at home for this series in the next two games, giving up 20 home runs.

8-7-19 The Chihuahuas returned to El Paso after the tragic Wal-Mart shooting.  The pup batters put on an amazing performance as they scored 12 runs.  Their pitching was also memorable as they gave up 20 runs.  This game was where the team finally lost first place to the Aviators.  All Las Vegas needed to do was change their name and mascot to be a successful team.  (A new stadium and changing MLB affiliation might have also had something to do with it.)

8-9-19 The game that will likely ensure that fans of the Chihuahuas will think twice before leaving early in a blowout.  How about a 10-run comeback in the bottom of ninth while trailing by seven?  Esteban Quiroz walked it off with a grand slam.  This game may have had greater significance because of the tragedy as it rallied the community at large.

8-19-19 All due respect to the various Chico’s Kids Club members, Tim’s best guest of the season was a visiting Englishman, the Baseball Brit.  I think this guy is doing what all baseball fans would like to the do: travel around the country watching games.

8-21-19 I basically ended my recaps on the ugliest game of the year.  At least it was a win.

8-27-19 to 9-2-19 I only took a few quick notes on the remaining games, as a team comeback to make it into the playoffs seemed unlikely and I was busy with some other writing efforts.  I held out some hope, but the Chihuahuas were finally eliminated right before their final game of the regular season.

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