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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