7-4-23
Happy Independence Day.
I am living The Sandlot the
last two days. It’s all one summer
baseball game that never ends.
Unfortunately, my teams aren’t winning any of them. I blame MLB.TV
for enabling my addiction by putting all their games up for free the last two
days.
The Chihuahuas lost
20-2 on Sunday to the Isotopes. I tuned out on that game early. They lost 11-10 on Monday. They had
been up 9-5 after a six-run fourth inning, but the Isotopes came right
back. For the first time in their 10-year
existence, the pups would have a home game on the Fourth. It was a 12-6
loss to Las Vegas, but at least the
crowd got fireworks. Needless to say,
the Chihuahuas’ pitching staff has been pretty ineffective at this point.
I found myself somewhat fascinated by the Tigers vs the A’s today. It was an
exercise in complete offensive futility through 9 innings. The A’s finally won it, 1-0, in the tenth.
Oh, the Angels. Mike
Trout was injured last night with a broken hand. Anthony
Rendon had to be assisted off the field today after taking a foul ball off
his knee. (No real loss there.) And then, Shohei Ohtani developed a blister on his finger and could no longer
pitch and had to come out of the game.
But the Angels are still in it.
They could be buyers at the trade deadline. (No.
Shohei will be traded. Anything
else would be irresponsible.)
It was an awesome night for former Aggie star, Nick Gonzales,
and the Pirates against the Dodgers. Nick had a 2-RBI double in the first and went
3 for 4 in the game. Down a run in
ninth, Nick worked a walk to put tying run in scoring position. The Young Bucs scored 3 in the inning to take
a 9-7 lead for the win. 51k Dodger fans disagreed with the final two
strike calls in the bottom (they were right), but the Pirates raised the Jolly
Rodger and celebrated on field anyway.
7-5-23
My poor Aunt Judy and her favorite team. The Cardinals’
terrible season continues. After a 15-2 loss to the Marlins on the Fourth, they went down 5-0 today. However, the Cards battled back. In the ninth, rookie Jordan King homered to give them a one-run lead. In the bottom, with two runners on, a
comebacker to the pitcher was airmailed over first base and the two runners
scored giving the Marlins the 10-9
win. I had dad text Aunt to make sure
she was okay. She was stunned and
disappointed, but otherwise fine.
The Pirates led
early against the Dodgers, but the
Blue came back to win it with a big inning.
I needed the D-Backs to win
with the Dodgers winning to keep them from getting closer to first place, but
it wasn’t to be. They had the Mets down 1-0 in the ninth and down to their last out and last strike. Even more than that, a dropped foul tip
almost ended the game. But with new
life, the Mets solo homered and then scored another run to win, 2-1.
Earlier, the Rays dropped
another to the Phillies. At least the Orioles finally beat the Yankees
today after two hurtful losses to keep me from crying.
7-6-23
After 9 mutually scoreless innings Tuesday, A’s won the next day 12-3 over the Tigers. Then today, the Tigers
won, 9-0. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself and my
preseason predictions. This game is
pretty unpredictable. Former Chihuahuas star infielder, Jace Peterson, pitched a scoreless
bottom of the eighth for the A’s.
There was a lengthy rain delay in Washington in the Nationals’ game with the Reds.
When play resumed, Screech,
the Nationals’ eagle mascot, was behind home plate at one point wearing a
bright yellow rain slicker and hat. It
was a tight game. Tied in the ninth, Nick Senzel made a game-saving catch for
the Reds. He came up first in the tenth
and hit a two-run homer, which would be the winner. America’s Team just finished a four-game
sweep.
What’s going on with baseball offense? After yesterday’s 9 scoreless inning game
with the Tigers and A’s (which, admittedly, wasn’t that surprising given the
teams), the White Sox and Blue Jays went 10 scoreless
innings. The final was 6-2 Blue Jays in the 11-th, which made
it even weirder.
The worst of it was that that was Game 1 of a double
header. I’m thinking they wished they’d
kept that 7-inning double header rule. The
Jays won Game 2. The most significant
play happened late. A foul ball went
into the White Sox broadcast booth. Steve Stone ducked out of the way and
the ball busted the large flatscreen behind him. Who pays for that?
Former Aggie
pitcher, Kyle Bradish, started for
the Orioles in tonight’s game
against the Yankees. He was on.
Kyle went 6 innings and gave up no runs.
The O’s offense gave him plenty of support with a 7-run third
inning. They piled on from there. Gunnar
Henderson had 4 hits, 2 homers, and 5 RBI’s. In the ninth, you got something you never
see: a Yankee position player pitching at home.
The final was 14-1
Orioles. That one run scored in the
bottom of the ninth. The remaining fans
cheered, and I think it was an honest cheer.
The O’s entered the belly of the beast and won two of four from the Evil
Empire East.
Meanwhile, the Evil Empire West (the Dodgers) beat the Pirates, 5-3.
Another Aggie, Nick Gonzales,
had a good game. He doubled in two runs
in the second. (I was walking somebody
out at work and missed it.) His OPS was briefly
1.036 after that hit.
The Rays lost
all three home games this week to the Phillies. Tonight’s game was 1-1 until the 11-th inning
(again, what the hell?), before the Phils won 3-1. Meanwhile, the Rangers lost to the Red Sox again. The Rangers were mostly leading until the Sox
had a 6-run seventh. I almost lost it
during these last two Ranger games . . . because of the radio commercials that
played during the breaks. It was the
same spots every inning. I was enjoying
the booth banter so much, but I couldn’t take the commercials. I had to kind of tap out on listening.
Whew! That was a
lot of baseball this week. I didn’t even
list all the games I watched or looked in on.
7-8-23
Technically, I’m reporting on a game from July 5-th, but
it was new to me on Saturday morning. Stadium was showing a replay of a game
earlier in the week between the Columbus
Clippers and the Nashville Sounds. I’d seen the Sounds before on the MILB Showcase. They have a nice stadium and a bunch of
fans. They are a good candidate for MLB expansion. That night they were wearing a faux-City
Connect jersey with “Hit City” stitched on the front. Sweet.
The announcer was talking about the previous night’s game
on Independence Day. The Sounds were
short on pitching and had to have two position players pitch four innings in a 19-2 loss. Oddly, the team is still leading Triple-A in pitching, even after this
loss.
Tonight’s game, which featured the Country Legends Nesting
Doll giveaway, had the Sounds up 9-3 going into the eighth. The team was still a little short on
pitching, though, to the tune of giving up 11 runs over the next two
innings. The Sounds were down 3 runs in
the bottom of the ninth.
This game wasn’t over yet.
The Clippers had their own pitching problems with 6 walks in the
inning. The Sounds tied the score with a
couple of forced in runs. During the
inning I saw two former Chihuahuas
players and Skye Bolt, former Las Vegas Aviator. With two outs and little kids all over the
stadium jumping up and down and cheering, former pup player, Abraham Toro, popped up on the
infield. Four Clippers converged under
the ball . . . and let it drop in between them.
Oh, it wasn’t funny for them, but I laughed so hard. What a game!
15-14 Hit City.
7-9-23
Chihuahuas vs Las Vegas Aviators. The second half has been a disaster for the
pups and resetting the record hasn’t helped (they’re 2-10). Tonight, they really tried against the
Aviators. They tied the game twice after
falling behind by 5 runs and then by 4 runs, but they couldn’t get outs on
defense. The final was 13-10 Las Vegas.
This 9-inning game ran over three and a half hours. Thankfully, that’s an oddity now. There were four consecutive 9-batter half-innings late that contributed to the duration. This was the final active baseball game before the break because of the length. The MLB games I kept up on today were quick, as the players wanted to get to the ASG break.
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