What a difference a week makes. Last week was perfect weather, sunny, hot. This week by comparison was cold, foggy, and windy. Thanks to Mike Lynch for making hoodie sweatshirts for all of us, I don't usually play in a hoodie, but it was a welcome change this week. The good news was 21 players were out, the field was in good condition, and we had a nice assortment of the old guard and some rando new guys that we shoulder-tapped into a game. The MBC spirit.
Sonny was on the bump for the homers, and continued his excellent streak of curveballs, keeping us relatively quiet. However, even the best curveball could not make this game anything other than a showcase of the varied talents of Sean. In addition to a fine 4 inning start that yielded one run, Sean also gathered RBIs, runs scored, spanked at least one extra base hit, and then there was the defense.
In a tight spot in the game, with Satch on the mound, I tried to sneak a fastball by New Guy Jeff, who absolutely destroyed it. There were two runners on, and the score was 4-1 at the time, so that hit would have tied it up, since Jeff appears to be the big hitter/fast runner type of player. Sean sprinted to dead center and snared the ball over his shoulder to not only kill the rally, but end the inning. It was both amazing and devastating to watch, depending on who you were. If that wasn't enough, he caught the last two innings with Gabe pitching, which is a lot like serving your body up to runaway Mack truck.
When we first had the lead, we didn't really feel like we deserved it. Sonny was making us look a little foolish (or maybe just me check swinging into a K) but it felt like we were not destined to win. Our defense really came through for us, erratic though it might have been. Tony made several ground ball plays at third, but could not catch a pop fly to save his life. Adam on the other hand, made several pop fly catches in very important spots. Sean had two other great catches in center, Greg made a nice catch of a line drive at 2nd, and even old blind pig Satch made a running over the shoulder catch on a bloop to right field. I can testify that I never saw it go in the glove, just managed to open it as wide as I could in the general direction that it was falling. So by the end of the game, we felt better about ourselves and the situation.
The homers had all the moving parts necessary to win, but never quite found their rhythm, Dave took over for Sonny, and the wheels came off soon after, when we blooped about 6 hits in a row and before we realized what had happened, we had put 6 runs up on the board. 10-2 going into the last, with Gabe on the mound is not where you want to be as a team.
We recorded the final out and made for the warmth of elsewhere.
Final, 10-3, Visitors.
Highlights:
* Sean does it all, with aplomb.
* Cap tip to Mike N who caught the whole game for the homers, and took several at bats with shin guards on
* Tony's pop fly escapade went on long enough to be sad, then funny, then sad again
* Marcos clearly knew about Sean, because he wouldn't even try for balls in left center
* Thanks to new Guys Ryan, Jeff, Gator for bringing the bats, gloves, and new blood
* Nico is on his way to becoming a regular, and destroyed by challenge fastball (which is not too challenging anymore)
* I thought it would be fun to try and lay a bunt down in no man's land in front of SS, and Jacob came off the mound to snare it like a jungle cat. Damn kids
* I think the homers had at least 2 double plays
* I was grateful to have Greg let me know where he was in right field when I was tracking down that pop fly, really didn't want to run him over
* In the same vein, I scored on a pass ball and Sonny ran into me at home with the ball nowhere close. I was more than happy to give him a little of the business, but does he have a death wish?
* Curveball was working
* Scariest moment in the game was the toddler that wandered into left field as New Guy Jeff—already a notoriously hardball hitter—was up.
* For those that want to know more, here is the write up I did for Sean that still holds up in every way, though his new catching prowess makes me think I have to update it...
https://missionbaseball.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-love-letter-to-sean-paul.html
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