The heat is back. The air conditioner is back on but last month’s power bill was not as bad as I thought it would be. We’ll see if that continues but August is here. With August that means that the minor league season (and most of my travel) is almost over. It is bittersweet but it is draining and I won’t be going to as many games next year. Monday saw me staying at home for an evening with the cats. Stopped in at Gift Horse for a beer too.
Game #111 Back to Trenton for the Aaron Judge bobblehead. Stopped at Vault Brewing in Yardley for a pregame beer and to kill some time since I didn’t feel like standing in line for an hour and a half like last time. Now this game was a resumption of a suspended game from earlier in the season with Altoona up 6-0. They resumed at 5 PM with everyone standing outside. By the time they let the people in the game was almost over. It was a 7 inning game and Altoona’s Jesus Liranzo was coming in to finish the game off. Again, I have to ask what was the GM thinking making people stand outside while the game was being played? If people cannot look to see when the game starts that is on the people coming late (or they play the makeup game on another date!). Since this was a bobblehead giveaway of a very popular player if they can’t arrive early enough to get it, that is on them. And there were not 1,500 people in line when the gates opened so they could still have gotten it arriving at 6 PM. So, thanks Thunder GM. I got to watch 3 outs of this game as Altoona wins 6-0. I don’t even care that I really didn’t miss any action, it’s the principle of the thing.
Game #112 On to Game 2, which I would get to see, but it was only a 7 inning game as well. Domingo Robles went for Altoona against the rehabbing Esteban Loaisiga. The Thunder got to Robles first plating 2 in the second but Altoona struck back. Jared Oliva hit a ball that the right fielder misplayed and he wound up scoring along with 2 other Curve on the most exciting play in sports, the inside the park homerun. But he was only given credit for a double since right fielder Isiah Gilliam was charged with an error. I couldn’t tell whether he touched it but he definitely misplayed it and Oliva has some speed, he’s second in the Eastern League in stolen bases. It looked like that might hold up but Robles surrendered two more in the 7th inning when Kyle Holder (who is already on my naughty list for getting the only hit in a one-hitter a few weeks ago) walked it off with a 2-run double. Trenton wins 4-3.
Game #113 Up to Harrisburg for a nice day game on Wednesday. I like these here but it can get hot there in the sun but today the clouds moved in so the sun was only out for about 3 innings. Heath Holder started for the Yard Goats against Jackson Tetreault for the Senators. This one was a pitcher’s duel and both starters put up blanks. Hartford finally got to reliever Andrew Lee plating one run on Tyler Nevin’s double and the Yard Goats made that hold up. Hartford wins 1-0. It figures that the one game this year where I didn’t care if it went long or into extras was played at a quick pace. As a reminder that this is the minors a Yard Goat player hit a popup just to the side of the plate and the catcher, the pitcher and the first baseman all were caught looking up in the air at the ball and none of them called it meaning it fell in foul territory for a meaningless strike.
Game #114 Then I made the 80 mile drive to State College to get in my visit to Medlar Field for the year. Dinner and a brew at Shy Bear brewing in Lewistown. Richard Morban started for the Lake Monsters against Enmanuel Solano for the Spikes. It is amazing what just getting into the mountains can do. It was muggy in Harrisburg but much less so in State College. This game was almost the opposite of the game in Harrisburg, it was not played at a quick pace. Solano struggled and two Spikes errors exacerbated that allowing the Lake Monsters to plate 5 runs off of him. Monsters’ third baseman Marty Bechina made some pretty nice plays in the hot corner I will say that, which helped out Morban, who was hardly efficient himself. About in the 3rd the sky began to darken. No rain fell until the 4th and it wasn’t much but you could see the rain coming down to the south on the mountains. There was also quite a bit of lightning around, Mother Nature put on quite a nice light show. At that point all of the excitement was over. Vermont wins 7-2. This might be the first time that I ever saw the Spikes lose as a Cardinals’ affiliate. I saw them lose enough when they were a Pirates’ affiliate.
Game #115 Back to Reading to watch the Curve play in a place that they do not do well. I think I saw Altoona lose for the first time here. I went years never seeing them lose and granted I only saw them once to twice a year but you would figure that a loss would get sprinkled in there somewhere, especially since I saw them play on the road in Harrisburg a lot. Stopped in at Black Forest Brewing in Ephrata for a pregame beer and dinner. Sean Brady was picked up off of the scrap heap and started for the Curve against Sam Howard for the Fightins’. So this was Latino Night and they were honoring Roberto Clemente. They did last year as well and even gave out a bobblehead of him and they retired his number. Clemente’s son was there, he was drafted and played for the Phillies in the minors. Didn’t know that.
As gametime approached the pitchers came out to warm up but as both were getting to the mound the groundskeeper told them to stop. I’ve never seen that before, when the pitchers start warming up we’re usually go for the game. The groundscrew unrolled the tarp but didn’t put it on the field. One storm was coming from the south and just missed us but the groundscrew stood there for about an hour waiting to either roll the tarp back up or put it on the field. Another storm rolled in from the east with lots of thunder and lightning. I didn’t feel like waiting out more of a rain delay anymore as I had already sat there for 45 minutes and left. The game did start, I had just gotten home when it did, so it was a long delay. Reading wins 5-3.
Game #116 Up to Harrisburg to pick up a Jamey Carroll bobblehead and for his induction into the Lifesized Bobblehead Hall of Fame. Stopped at Big Bottom in Dillsburg for lunch and a beer and Desperate Times and Molly Pitcher Brewing in Carlisle before the game. Of course I always pick the worst times to visit Carlisle as a car show was going on at the fairgrounds next to Desperate Times. It cleared out pretty fast when a downpour hit. 3 more stamps on my Cumberland Valley Beer Trail passport, up to 12. I do like these early starts on Saturdays. Gets me home at a reasonable hour, especially from a close by place like Harrisburg. They’ve been doing 6:00 starts on Saturdays for awhile now and I hope they keep that up. Garrett Williams started for the Flying Squirrels against Mario Sanchez for the Senators. This was a pitcher’s duel surrounded by poor defense. The Senators struggled to hit Williams but were aided by 3 walks and 4 Flying Squirrel errors surrounding one hit for most of the game. Squirrel hitters did better getting runs in the 4th (off of a delayed steal of home), 5th and 6th with the run in the 5th coming on a homerun by Gio Brusa which came right after catcher Tres Barrera dropped a popup. Just one of them games for the Senators as Richmond wins 3-1.
Game #117 Down to Baltimore to watch the Orioles lose to the Blue Jays. Light Rail is still closed so I drove in once again. You know what really irked me about this whole sinkhole thing. I heard about it on the radio here in York so I went to find some info about it on the MTA’s website. Not one alert or anything about it there. Not one. To make things worse planned work was being done so the Light Rail was closed at Falls Road. Glad I drove into town to park. I saw that those streets were reopened temporarily for the Billy Joel concert but nothing else. Even reopening the Light Rail to Lexington Market would be an improvement. It’s not that bad of a walk from there. There are some people that are really unhappy about this and I can’t blame them. This is messing with the work commute in a big way.
Anyway Sean Reid-Foley started for the Blue Jays against my buddy Jimmy Yacabonis for the Orioles. Yacabonis quickly did what he does best as he loaded the bases with no outs. Somehow he wiggled out of it thanks to a nice play by Chris Davis to get the first out and a long fly ball that should have been a sacrifice fly but the runner going from second to third ran about as fast as I do to third and was thrown out. He was out before the run coming home crossed the plate, so that runner ran about as fast as I do too. That would be huge. Reid-Foley struggled as well giving up a run in the first and 3 in the second (those coming after Bo Bichette fell down on an easy ground ball with 2 outs.). Yacabonis would be an opener as Tom Eshelman came in next and allowed the Jays back into the game, at that point relatively large thanks to getting a few more runs off of Yennsy Diaz who made his big league debut (#2 on the year for me). Dillon Tate relieved him and tried his best to give the game back to the Jays but he managed to get out of the 7th with the lead. The Oriole bullpen held, though Shawn Armstrong made it really interesting in the 9th though the Orioles win 6-5 for my 200th win all time at Camden Yards!
On the docket for next week:
August 5 – Somerset @ York
August 6 – Hartford @ Reading (Jimmy Rollins bobblehead)
August 7 – New Britain @ Lancaster
August 8 – TBD
August 9 – Staten Island @ Aberdeen
August 10 – Gwinnett @ Scranton (Aaron Judge bobblehead)
August 11 – Houston @ Baltimore