Ahhh, October.
As the rest of the world starts down the road towards winter, we get 80+ degrees and sun. Almost too much, the outfielders might have said, but hey, who's gonna complain? We started late due to the league game before us, and Rojas was chirping from the beginning that we weren't giving him time to warm up before game time. Somehow I got there exactly the same time as Tony, and I was on the mound ready to go, so who knows.
We had a stable 11-10, that became 9-9 by the end of the middle innings. Satch for the homers, Sean for the visitors. A little warmer than usual on the diamond, but that is always nice for the arm, which was feeling good. I struck out Richie to open the game, but that seemed to be the high point, as I then gave up a couple of runs. Then a few more, interspersed with a K here and there, including the hardest fastball I have thrown in a while. The lesson for today was when you have a good defense, use it. We managed to score back on Sean to make it a game, and then we had two or three innings of good, lock it down defensive ball. At least 10 ground balls in the infield over the course of 6 innings. I'll take it!
Sean had his change up working, but he never threw it to me, I think, because I didn't give him the chance. I did break out of the slump finally, and was responsible for 2 of the 3 runs our team scored in the first few frames. The first was a ugly gork to right, but the second was a screaming laser beam over Mitch's head that could have been 3 if I wasn't out of shape and being wary of the legs.
We never could really get a rally going, and I bowed out after giving up a sizable number of runs in the 6th, although the score was 6-4, so that's a decent ERA outing, per MBC. New Greg came in and threw well, but had some trouble finding the dish, and the game slowed down a bit. He still was able to strike out a few. Phelps came in to mop it up and did what he do.
Rojas took over for Sean and was looking real good, had all of his stuff working. The sun got pretty brutal around the 5th inning, and it became a crap shoot every time the ball was hit in the outfield. If it got above the bleachers you had a chance of seeing it, but if it stayed low, never see it. The homers went into the 9th with a deficit of 9-6, but never could get it going and with a K of yours truly, the game was in the bag for the visitors.
Highlights:
* It was a great game, old style MBC, no drama, no problems, just a bunch of folks enjoying the game.
* Rich got Mitched
* I was 3-4, single, two doubles, 2 RBI's, and a swinging strikeout to end the game....oh well, at least I finally hit the ball hard
* Thanks to Bob, Adam, Greg, and new guy for catching
* New guy was McG's kid's baseball coach, but he was a kid himself, compared to the mean age of the MBC, looks like he knows what he is doing too
* Our team had two dropped pop ups in the infield, in the same inning, Elvin's new nickname is "Two Hands".
* Rich had some nice plays at SS, and some real big overthrows to second
* Adam converted some real stinker throws into outs at 1st. As usual.
* I played SS at the end, and had Richie picked off 2nd by 10 feet, but Brian didn't see me and Nick Smith hit the ball right where I would have been if I had just left it all alone....dammit!
* Mike Lattig played a great 2nd base all day
* I had Tony and Greg's number all day, but no one else
* Dennis came up big with two strikes to spark his team to rally, nice piece of hitting!
* New guy about took my foot off with a line drive
* Jay came out, had a hit, but after field testing, is looking at long term rehab for his foot. Take your time Jay, it's the only way it will heal. Don't worry, the game isn't going anywhere.
* For the record, Brian Phelps worked at Straw Hat Pizza longer than Aiden has been alive....
* The visitors stole every base they could, that might have made the difference.
* Bob got hit with an overthrow at first, which we all agree still counts. That happens at West Sunset about 400% more than anywhere else
* Rich got hit in the spine, which we all agree sucks
* Daniel had a nice 2-strike hit
* Richie had a real nice hit as well, on a pitch I was trying to bust him inside on
* I think someone hit a triple
* No broken windows, but a foul ball went into a backyard, and hit something brittle. Sounded like a dead tree branch snapping.
* New Greg beaned his buddy, always funny when that happens.
Thanks to everyone who made it out, for making it an enjoyable game!
Not sure where we are next week, thanks to all that volunteered to pony up for the windshield, if needs be. Someday, it will be needed, I am sure.
S. Paige
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