9-29-26
The good news was that I could watch a Wild Card series game in the afternoon before going to work. The bad news is that we were under a flood watch. It was serious enough as the TV station kept running alerts with a weatherman talking about dams breaking, rivers overflowing, and mudslides in other parts of the state. I changed my mind about going to work twice before I finally went. It didn’t seem like it rained that bad here, so I took off when it let up. The streets were totally flooded and it rained hard after I got to work.
Oh, and there was a game. It was a great game between the Braves and the Phillies. The Braves took it, 5-3, mostly off a 3-run homer by Austin Riley in the eighth. I kind of wanted to relax and not take notes and then there was the weather distraction. The only thing that really stuck out was the Atlanta organist working in Love Boat theme during an at bat.
That was the best game of the day. I did get radio coverage of the White Sox beating the Astros, 6-3. I still wasn’t taking notes. A one point, a foul ball went into the broadcast booth. The play-by-play guy tossed the ball to a kid, though I think the former player color analyst actually wanted it. The Yankees blew out the Red Sox, 9-0. That one wasn’t broadcast, which was fine by me. The next game between the Padres and the Cubs was on the radio. It was another blowout with the Padres beating the Cubs, 8-0. It was the Fernando Tatis Jr. show. He homered in the first inning and stole home. That was quite the play. He stole second and the throw went into left field. Tatis didn’t stop running until he dove across the plate.
9-30-26
Take Two with the Phillies at the Braves. In the top of the first, Bryce Harper drove in a run, but then got caught in a rundown trying to score from third. In the bottom of the first, Ronald Acuna Jr. took a walk, stole second and third, and was then driven in to tie it at 1.
The Atlanta organist worked in the Airwolf theme. I went back and looked on my blog. I said in 2025, “This guy is giving Dieter Ruehle (of the Dodgers) a run for his money on the organ.” I was enjoying the commentary. Joey Votto was really insightful analyzing hitting and pitching. He wasn’t always right, but he always interesting. Hey, the Braves have cheerleaders. That’s a throwback. They were hovering around in the background with Blooper, the mascot.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Braves loaded the bases with one out, but grounded into a 4-2-4 double play. In the bottom of the seventh, Christopher Sanchez was still in pitching for the Phillies but didn’t make it out of the inning. With a runner on first, the Braves tried executing a sac bunt, but a bad fielding choice ended up putting two on with nobody out. During a break, the crowd sang Country Roads and began doing the Tomahawk chop. Drake Baldwin doubled over Harper’s head in right field. This scored a run and a sac fly brought in another. It was 3-1 Braves and Sanchez came out. A reliever finished off the inning.
It wasn’t over. In the top of the eighth, Kyle Schwarber smashed a Schwar-bomb 447’. Harper was up next. Votto called it, “He’s going to want to make up for that misplay in the outfield.” Harper then smacked a solo home run to tie it. This sent it to extra innings, as I nervously watched the clock to go to work. I didn’t have too long to wait. In the top of the tenth, Alec Bohm hit a solo home run to give the Phillies a 4-3 lead. In the bottom, JT Realmuto stole a strike with 2 on and 2 out for the final out. 4-3 Phillies. This one will go to a third game.
The other three series finished up. I got to hear the White Sox at the Astros. The Sox went up 4-0 in first, but Astros scratched back into it, 4-3. In the fifth, the Astros loaded the bases but stranded all of them. In the sixth, Chase Meidroth hit a 3-run homer for the White Sox for a 7-3 win! This is quite the turnaround from three-straight 100-loss seasons. They set the modern record for losses in a season and were booed by their own fans when they didn’t set it on their first opportunity to do so at home.
The Yankees were all over the Red Sox, 9-2. Those were the only scored 2 runs the Red Sox scored in two games. They didn’t come to play. The Cubs were at Padres in the other series. I was able to get the radio call for this one. It sounded like there were lots of Cubs fans there in San Diego. In the second, the Padres scored 2, including an RBI sac fly by Ethan Salas. In the fourth, the Cubs scored a run and loaded the bases, but didn’t score any more. In the bottom, Gavin Sheets hit a 2-run homer to cement the win for the Padres, 4-1.
10-1-26
Winner take all! Only the Phillies and Braves were going to go the distance in this best-of-three Wild Card series. I got the radio call. Aaron Nola was starting on short rest for the Phillies. Michael Harris’ 3-run homer in the first put the Braves up. By the second inning, the Phillies went to a new pitcher. In the fourth, Ozzie Albies hit a 2-run homer off of Zack Wheeler to put the Braves up, 5-0. There was some incessant controversy afterward that Wheeler should have started the game.
In the sixth, the Phillies scored to make it, 5-1, but Matt Olsen homered in the seventh, 6-1. Chris Sale came out in the eighth after the Phillies scored a run. He’d volunteered to pitch today if needed. Sale faced Harper and struck him out. Sale did finish it off in the ninth for a 6-2 Braves win.
However, I probably made the wrong choice in what to listen to. Aggie Football was playing a weekday night game against WKU at the same time. It looked like a better game, but I was afraid to start listening. Usually, the Aggies start losing when I do so. I only listened after the baseball game. The Aggies had a convincing win, 34-13. Broadcaster MJ Newsom called it a “Weekday walloping.” James Jones ran for 157 yards and a touchdown. His longest run was 46 yards. De’Marcus Peters had an interception for a touchdown. TK King had a touchdown. The bad news was that only 5,500 were in attendance, including Zanaya, who was working security.
10-3-26
The MLB Division Series began today with four games. Three of the games, I didn’t get to see or listen to, but I got a good one with the one I did. The White Sox beat the Indians, 3-0. The dream continues. Munetaka Murakami had a 2-run homer. The Dodgers beat the Braves, 5-3. Dad invited me out to Bubba’s for lunch with Donna. (I was invited to pay for the meal, as well.) This game came on there just as we were finishing. Tarik Skubal started for Dodgers. I made a whole rant at the table about this. The Padres played the Brewers late. Jackson Chourio homered on the first pitch and William Contreras homered in the seventh for a 3-2 Brewers’ win. Fernando Tatis Jr. struck out in the eighth with the bases loaded and 2 outs. The Padres apparently lost a home run in the game off a ball that hit a roof wire and was caught on field for an out.
I happened to catch the Yankees versus the Rays on a Mexican station in the afternoon. Gerrit Cole started for the Yankees and Drew Rasmussen was pitching for the Rays. Jonathan Aranda homered in the third to give the Rays the lead. That was all Cole gave up and he came out after the fifth. In the sixth, the Yankees attempted to bunt for a hit. This is significant because Rasmussen was pitching no-hitter. That’s against the unwritten rules of baseball. (Maybe. It was a 1-run playoff game.)
The no-hitter was broken up with 2 outs in the eighth, though there still wasn’t a baserunner. Catcher Austin Wells had a double, but was thrown out trying to stretch it to triple. It wasn’t even close. Bryan Baker closed it out in the ninth with 2 strikeouts and a groundout. DJ Kitty was behind home plate for the inning and really into it. 1-0 Rays.
Meanwhile, UTEP lost to the Lobos in college football, 61-7. Snicker, snicker, snicker. The Miners’ 5 turnovers might have been a contributing factor. I suspected a blowout game, so I was listening to some of it. One of the postgame hosts began with, “I’m already over football season and waiting for basketball season to start.” (Spoilers boys, basketball isn’t going to go any better.) That 42-18 Aggie loss to the Lobos a couple of weeks ago suddenly doesn’t look so bad. UTEP’s next two games are home games. They are giving are giving away a free ticket to the second game, if you buy a ticket to the first game.
What a race at Las Vegas in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series! Corey Day and Carson Kvapil battled for the win with 4 lead changes in the final ten laps. Kvapil was running on the bottom and Day was running against the wall. They touched each other on the final lap. Day bounced off the wall twice, ala Ross Chastain at Martinsville, but still managed to win it. It was like that classic Kurt Busch/Rickey Craven Darlington race.
I had no intention of writing about the CW’s late game between Texas State Bobcats and San Diego State Aztecs (the PAC-12, such as it is), but the last two-or-so minutes of this game were unreal. Texas State was down 4 and stopped on the SDSU 1 on a fourth and goal. Then, the Aztecs’ running back was tackled in the endzone for a near safety. It was ruled he’d gotten the ball past the line. On the next play, their quarterback dropped the ball on the snap. Fortunately, this was called a safety, because otherwise, he fumbled the ball to a defender.
Now down by 2, the Bobcats got the ball back and on the first play from scrimmage, a pass was batted into the air. A defender intercepted it and ran it in for a touchdown. Now down by 9, Texas State got the ball back again. In spite of two false start penalties, the Bobcats went right down field in four or five plays to score a touchdown. Back down by 2, the Bobcats tried an on-side kick. The Aztecs recovered around midfield.
SDSU got within 3 yards of making a first down, but a false start set them back and forced a punt. Now out of timeouts, the Bobcats took over. They managed to work it to midfield. On the final play, the TS quarterback had to throw it away. However, the referees invoked the “Michigan rule.” This allows them to add an extra second on the clock after time has expired. (Football nerd: “I don’t see this rule in my rulebook.” Trust me, bro.) The second chance on the Hail Mary did not go well. The Bobcats only managed to get one receiver into the endzone and he was quadruple-covered. Finally, the game ended with the Aztecs winning, 31-29. This whole thing took like 20 minutes and held me up from going to bed, but there’s no way I could have gone to sleep without knowing who had won (or who stopped losing first).
10-4-26
The two NL series played out today. I got zero coverage and was lucky to even find out who won. (It’s hard to get baseball scores on TV these days.) The Brewers beat the Padres in the early game, 4-3. Jackson Chourio got the walkoff hit with 2 outs and 2 strikes off of Mason Miller in a comeback win. If the Brewers win the World Series, that at bat will be the defining moment. Meanwhile, the Dodgers lost to the Braves later, 3-2. I have no other information on that one. The Brewers go up 2-0 in their series and the Dodgers and Braves are at 1-1.
