Johnny started and ended for the homers, pitching 10 strong. Satch and Tony combined for the visitors, the game was a real high scoring affair. Sean, nursing a tender shoulder, got to be on the same team as me, which never happens. The really amazing thing is that by the end of the 3rd inning, I hadn't thrown 20 pitches yet. The wind being as strong as it was, was not going to let the fastball be of any use, so I kept to the knuckle balls and changeups. It worked well.
The same could not be said for Johnny, my own personal opinion was that the wind was flattening out Johnny's natural movement, and that combined with the visitors strong lineup, made for some long balls. But no one can deny that he gave it his all, and anyone that can throw 10 innings is a champ in my book.
The visitors took an early lead, and before we knew what was happening, the score started to get out of control. Something in the neighborhood of 7-0? No one likes a lop sided affair, so I took it upon myself to fall on the sword and end the bleeding so as to restart everyone's clocks. Sure enough, as soon as we started to talk about switching up the teams, the homers got into the scoring business and put 4 runs on the board. From there, the game stayed close until another explosion of runs carried the visitors into the double digits.
The first home run of the game came from Sean, who first hit a foul ball that ricocheted off the right field fence, and then on the next swing, tattooed one into the trees. The second home run came from the personally designated DH hitter, Loren, who gave the homers a light up in the last part of the game. With the score in the region of 14-9, Loren sent one high and deep, almost to the exact same place that Sean had hit his.
And I cannot in good faith, leave my own personal blast off the record, even though it was to left field, where there is no fence. I challenge anyone to say that ball would not have been out of any MLB park. I think the secret with my hit was I got it above the gusting wind, allowing it to not get hung up in the air or blow into center field where Mitch would have caught it. I really wanted to trot around the bases, but I settled for a languorous triple.
And speaking of triples, the other big hitting news of the day was Duane, who appears to have cured his back problems to the tune of three triples! Never seen that before....
Tony took over for the visitors in the 8th, and threw the 9th and bonus 10th, with only a few hiccups. The homers made a valiant effort in the final gasps of the game, but the divide was too much, and the visitors were victorious, in a 14-11 win.
Highlights:
* Mike Gaspar made an amazing foul ball catch, after the wind blew a pop up from the stadium seats, all the way back to the third base line
* The entire squad had a case of the dropsies, we saw more balls in gloves and then out of gloves than ever.
* Bob and I both narrowly missed getting clocked in the face by hard hit balls.
* Mitch made his usual array of dynamic catches
* Elvin had some strong hits on balls in the strike zone and played a good second base
* Stoner made his monthly appearance and made two outs in one inning, one regular, one slide style
* Tim and Loren crawled in a bag with Jeremiah Weed Hard Lemonade somewhere in the 3rd.
* I managed to hit a line drive that tumbled perfectly as it went through Gaspar's legs, hit the back of his shoe and into left field
* A hearty thanks to the homers for being reasonable enough not to insist that we enforce Tony's balk, a tough thing to do with men in scoring position and needing the runs
* The wind seemed to be more of a problem for the infield than the outfield
* Loren did make a nice grab at second base....the inning that he played there.
* John McG had a triple of his own
* Bob was our lead off batter and used the cheater stick again to no avail
* Gaspar beat the Gaspar shift, only because we felt foolish playing the 2nd baseman in the SS position, we now know better
* I think Ed caught the whole game for the homers, and had at least one extra base hit
* The new guy who came out looked like he knew what he was doing
* We successfully got a man out at home on a corners-in play!
* But then we tried to get the double play, and ended up throwing a triple to the batter.
* After my sacrificial bunt to end our mega-rally, I later tried to bunt for a base hit and pretty much bunted it back to the same place.
* With a full day of hitting for both sides, the flip side of the coin was Greg, who really stunk up the joint by going 0-6 or something, and never got the ball out of the infield
Alright, keep your fingers crossed for dry skies this weekend, if it keeps up like this maybe it will only rain in the morning and dry by the afternoon.
S. Paige
3 comments:
A missed highlight, Duane Hit three triples that day as well.
Elvin, you must read the blog, not just scan it as you might a Plessy v. Ferguson document. I clearly stated....
"And speaking of triples, the other big hitting news of the day was Duane, who appears to have cured his back problems to the tune of three triples! Never seen that before...."
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