Baseball Journal: Puppy Chow

4-8-26

Day Baseball today, unfortunately both games were on at the same time.    The Chihuahuas came on first with their game against the Isotopes in El Paso.    The pups were roughed up yesterday in their home opener, 8-4.    It wasn’t that close.    They went down early in today’s game and I switched over to the other game mostly and checked back in occasionally.    It was 10-0 Isotopes in the fourth. I felt good about my early ejection from the game.   

There was a bit of a comeback.    After an RBI fielder’s choice, Mason McCoy hit a 3-run homer to make it, 10-4, in the bottom of the fourth.    That was as close as it got.    Broadcaster Tim Hagerty started talking about calling a game in Wyoming game that was delayed for a huge snake.    It was removed by a coach with a sack for running on to the field and for not paying admission.    The Chihuahuas loaded the bases in the ninth, but lost 13-5.

Meanwhile, the Rangers were facing the Mariners in home game.    The Rangers won the first two games in the series, but with really low scores. In the first inning, Ranger starter, Mackenzie Gore, had a two-true outcome inning.    M’s players either walked or struck out.    Gore threw over 20 pitches.    It was still scoreless in the third, when Rob Refsydner robbed Josh Smith of a home run.    Broadcaster Matt Hicks awarded that the Whataburger Play of the Game, though it was against the Rangers.  

   

Last week, the Angels’, Jo Adell, stole 3 home run balls against the M’s in a 1-0 win.    The last one, he caught the ball, then fell over the low outfield wall into the crowd.    It was still a catch, because he caught it before he went over.

Gore struck out the side in the fourth and didn’t give up a hit until the fifth.    In the bottom of the fifth, the Rangers loaded the bases.    Connor Joe, called up from Tacoma (where he was playing against the Chihuahuas), threw home on a grounder, but threw high and 2 runs scored. Corey Seager sac’d in a run to make it, 3-0. The Rangers won by that score.    Gore got the win with 5 scoreless innings and 9 K’s.  Smith still had 2 hits in the game, even with the stolen homer.    Oddly this game ended before the Chihuahuas’ game finished, though it started a half hour later.   

4-10-26

The Chihuahuas had lost three in a row for their home opening series against the Isotopes and were down 5-0 in the fifth tonight.    The pups finally busted out in the bottom of that inning with a 12-batter, 7-run frame to take a 7-5 lead.    Mason McCoy doubled in 3 of those runs.   

The Isotopes came back in the seventh with back-to-back homers to tie it and took a 1-run lead in the eighth.    The Chihuahuas got two on in the bottom of that inning, but didn’t score.    Broadcaster Tim Hagerty had to make a change to his scorecard after a clarification in the official scoring was made.    Even the pros don’t always get the scoring right.    In the bottom of the ninth with two on, pinch hitter, Marcus Castanon, walked it off with a 3-run homer.    The dogs win their first home game, 10-8.

Driving home from work, I was listening to Fox Sports Radio. They were actually talking about baseball.    Of course, the host was just glazing the Dodgers.    (No.    It wasn’t Ben Maller.)    The host was saying that this Dodgers team was probably the greatest baseball team ever.    “Some might argue that some older teams were better, but they won segregated championships.    I don’t even count those.”    They’ll just give anybody a microphone, won’t they, as long as they prop up The Agenda?

4-11-2

ESPN Radio is committed to broadcasting baseball, even if ESPN on TV isn’t, and was broadcasting the Diamondbacks playing the Phillies this morning.    I missed the pregame and wasn’t quite sure who was playing.    Phillies starting pitcher, Taijuan Walker, got in immediate trouble in the first inning.    The crowd started booing instantly.    I should have been able to guess just from that that they were in Philadelphia.   

The broadcast was interesting.    There was some talk about the patterns on the field.    When putting light and dark patterns down, the groundskeeper has to make sure to not put grooves in the field that would influence ground balls.    Brandon Pfaadt, one of the Diamondbacks players, was wearing pink shoelaces.    It was a gender reveal for an expected baby to family members watching the game.   

In the third, Kyle Schwarber hit a 3-run homer and Bryce Harper followed with a solo shot to make it, 4-2.    In the eighth, the D-Backs scratched out a run to make it, 4-3.    The crowd collectively grumbled.    Really.    It came right over the crowd mics.    In the bottom, pidgins visited the booth.    This prompted a discussion about pidgins.    You never know what you’re going to get on baseball radio broadcast.    Jhoan Duran closed it out for the Phillies’ 4-3 win with a 100-mph strikeout.     

Later in the evening, the Chihuahuas lost, 4-0, to the Isotopes.    At least the crowd got fireworks afterward.    I was sorry I stuck with that game when there were two other games on, which I joined in progress.    The Rockies were at the Padres with the bases loaded with 2 out and the tying run at the plate for the Rox in the ninth.    A flyout ended it with a 9-5 Padres win.    I flipped over to the Rangers at the Dodgers with 2 on and the tying run at plate for the Rangers in the ninth.    Wait.    What?    A strikeout ended it anyway.    6-3 Dodgers win.

4-12-26

I was listening to the Chihuahuas versus the Isotopes while at Aggie Softball today.    I was having issues hearing the radio over the in-person game noise.    It was 6-0 Isotopes in the second inning.    According broadcaster Tim Hagerty, there was the first “fielder’s balk” ever at the ballpark.    I had to look that term up on the Internet, because it’s not in my rule book.    If a fielder is not in the field of play before a pitch, it’s a balk.    (I think.    I can’t find that rule in the book, either.)    However, it was called on Sung-Mun Song, who is a second baseman.    In the box score, there was an enigmatic “Shift violation” listed, which might be the offending play.

   

By the bottom of the seventh, the Chihuahuas had fought back to 8-5 Isotopes, after back-to-back home runs.    One went 457’.    The wind must have been blowing out.    Song then drove in a run.    Marcus Castanon drove in two more runs with Song diving headfirst across the plate to tie it at 8. Castanon would score on a wild pitch for a 9-8 lead.    It was a 6-run inning.

The Isotopes tied it in the ninth, though Song threw out the go-ahead run at home.    I went home after the Softball game to hear the rest of this one.    The top of the tenth started off with an Isotopes’ 2-run homer that went 440’.    It only got worse from there.    There was a run scored on an error on a sac bunt and a wind-aided 3-run homer.    I stopped keeping track at that point, but they scored 10 runs in the inning.    The Isotopes nearly batted around before the first out was recorded. The Chihuahuas scored 3 in the bottom, but the final was 19-12 Isotopes.    The pups dropped 5 of 6 in their opening homestand.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers were playing the Rangers on Mexican TV.    It was Jacob deGrom versus Roki Sasaki.    Shohei Ohtani hit a leadoff homer in the game, which I heard about at the Softball game from a couple of fans chatting.    However, the Rangers didn’t allow scoring after that for most of the rest of the game.    The Rangers put up 2 in the third for the lead. They’d go on to win it, 5-2.   

I would have liked to have just watched all of it, but I’d told dad I’d come by and watch the end of the Masters with him.    (Also on TV at the same time, a new movie channel started broadcasting this weekend, Movie Sphere Gold.    They were showing Dredd, one of my favorite recent movies.)    I tried to listen to the baseball game on the radio while at dad’s apartment, but had even worse reception than I did at the ballpark.    I ended up watching Gameday for the bottom of the ninth.    

There was more baseball in the evening.    NBC was showing a Sunday night game with the Braves versus the INDIANS!    The game got out-of-hand about halfway through and the broadcast started focusing on nostalgia, though they wouldn’t even use the term “Indians” historically.

Jason Benetti led the broadcast with three color analysts and Bob Costas there.    CC Sabathia, sitting in a dugout, was keeping a scorecard.    He wouldn’t let the rest of the crew see it.    (If he had the kind of issues I had at Softball, I can understand why.)   

A couple of amusing things happened at the end of the game.    Ronald Acuna Jr. was grazed at the waist on a pitch.    It unbuckled his belt.    The game got so lopsided that catcher, Austin Hedges, pitched in the bottom of the eighth.    This was awesome!    He did get the final out.    This was his ninth MLB pitching appearance.    The Braves, keeping their great name in defiance of The Agenda, throttled the Cleveland Traitors, 13-1.