Tuesday, January 30, 2018

1/28/18 Golden Gate Park

I don't want to jinx anything but it seems like we are in the midst of a resurgence in attendance at the MBC.  We had 23 players for Sunday, and it was sure nice to be able to enjoy the game, rather than covering for the other teams defense.  I had lil' Satch with me, who covered left field and second base with me. 

Mitch started for the homers and Mike Lattig for the visitors.  They both were tossing good ball, and the score after the first few innings was 3-1.  Mitch wanted it highlighted that in the course of two innings, he retired 5 batters on six pitches.  Pretty damn impressive.  According to my research, Walter Johnson had the most 3-pitch innings in MLB history, with 4.

Lattig gave way to Sonny, who did what he does best, frustrate hitters.  Powell was given the mop-up duty after that.  New guy Chris took over after Mitch, and then I got the 9th inning.  By that point the score was 6-2, and I thought that the 9th inning would not be a problem.  Shows what I know. 

We had lost Greg to a knee injury and he took the momentum with him.  Powell got on, and scored, which is always sort of a given.  But the visitors were showing a lot of life, to the point that we had men on 2nd and 3rd, and the tying run at the plate.  A little more stressful than I was looking for in my inning of work.  JT gets a shout out for coming up with the big 2-out hit, when I was trying to shut it down.  Luckily, we got the fly ball that we needed and the game was ours.

Final 6-4, homers.

Highlights:

* As far as I witnessed, Elvin had 1.000 defensive game.  He made some great catches in the outfield when we needed them.

* Adam likewise had a great game at first base, made some fantastic digs

* Chris Powell made an amazing leaping play at SS, to kill our rally

* Some new guy with a wicked sidearm motion played SS and had the unfortunate luck to get 4 ground balls in a row before he could settle in.  That motion has to be touch for the first baseman to track

* It is official, Loren and Coney Island James are competing for who will break out of their slump first.  Loren's girlfriend got footage of his at-bats on Sunday.  I doubt he wants to share those with the group.

* Mitch kind of did it all on Sunday, great performance on the mound, hit and scored runs, and caught to finish the game.  5 tools.

* While I didn't get him out, I did get Powell to swing and miss at a big ol' knuckleball

* Our 8th inning rally was snuffed out by a double play by the visitors

* James threw out Dennis from center field.  It's his new move.

* Doc came out and umpired from the 4th inning on.  It was great to see him, and he was moving like a spritely man of 55.

* Gaspar defied the Gasparian odds with a single up the middle, after hitting two foul balls that were textbook Gaspar

* Tony suggested that the Hall Of Shame post was too harsh.  I would counter that hitting anyone three times in one at-bat is harsh.  Even if it was Bob.

No rain for at least a few weeks in the forecast!

San Quentin 2018 season looms.

S. Paige

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