Outsidelands.
Always a fear that the park is going to be heaving with people, and always it is blissfully empty.
As Sean said, "I've never seen so much parking!"
Let's remember that sending warning emails about possible conflicts with the game may be done in the right spirit, but it is never helpful.
It was 99 degrees when I left home, and 66 degrees at GGP. The sun poked through for 10 minutes, and then the fog rolled back over, and it was 60 degrees by the end of the game.
From the beginning, the teams were lopsided. I mentioned it, but I was shamed into silence. As a rule, Aaron and Damien shouldn't be on the same team, and they certainly shouldn't also be on the same team as Lynch, Sean, and Alex. I will say that our team kept it close for a while, but eventually, the game got away from us. Satch started for the visitors, and Sean for the homers. We battled back and forth, the homers got out to an early lead, but we at least had a run.
Our defense was at times great and at times....shaky. Jack had a tough go of it in left—though he did have a great rolling dive of a catch to make a third out—and Malachi was playing in his first baseball game in right. We did have a Jacob-Mathew-Sean double play to snuff a rally, which was awesome, and Patrick made a couple of much needed catches in center. We ended up borrowing a first baseman for the game, as none of our players wanted the job.
The homers were not perfect, but the ability was there. Aaron made an amazing off-balance play from shortstop to rob a sure fire infield hit. Sean was dealing well, we had a few hits to right that landed well, and we profited from a few choice errors, and the runs came across.
By the 5th inning, it was a respectful 5-3 game, and we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. I started to shift into knuckleball mode, throwing at least one inning that was 90% knuckies. On a clear swinging 3rd strike at a changeup in the dirt, Lynch claimed he had fouled the ball. No one heard anything, including the catcher. However, we chose to believe him, and next thing you know, bases are loaded and Greg hammers the first pitch to left field for two RBIs. That broke us.
By the 9th inning, it was 9-3. Aaron had come into throw the last two innings, and that is usually the end of anything happening for the team facing him. He has a live fastball, and about 4 other pitches that he can mix in. I was excited because I knew that after pitching 8 innings, I wouldn't have to throw anymore. I didn't, though we did score another run.
Final- 9-4, Homers.
Highlights
* Thanks to everyone that had the faith to show up on a concert in the park weekend.
* Anna was hitting the ball well all day
* I had Aaron 1-2 in the first inning, and threw a changeup that stayed way too up. He hit it to left center for a no-doubter. He was running so hard he couldn't hear us telling him to slow down, it was a round tripper
* Thank you to my defense for getting the outs
* Sean threw a great game
* First at bat of the game, ground ball down the third baseline, hits the base. A classic MBC hit
* Don made it for the 8th inning, a new late record!
* Mathew handled lefty 2nd base well
* After giving up the homer, I kept Aaron to singles, which felt like a win
* A perfect pitchout call from Greg, to nab Naldony at 2nd
* Jacob had an amazing over the shoulder catch in short left
* Same with Sean, filling in at first on a foul ball
* Ed seemed to be filling in for most of the game in right field for the Homers, and made an amazing catch when we could have used a rally. Come on Ed!
* HR Track Cast
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