Labor Day come and gone. Not going to stop wearing white, it’s too stinkin’ hot still. Sheesh, the humidity just wipes you out. Days where it is in the 90s and it feels like 100 gets old. I like fall, outside of baseball season being over, but I do like the cooler days and cool nights and throw in the changing leaves and fall is great. Of course here in York the York Fair starts on Friday. I haven’t been to the fair since high school. It just doesn’t interest me and I don’t feel like dealing with the traffic and parking so I just stay home. Some people like it and even love it, I don’t. I even avoid Timonium when the Maryland State Fair is ingoing and find an alternative way to get to an Oriole game. Of course in Baltimore the Grand Prix is no more so that headache is gone at least. It is still baseball season of course so I still have a diversion but it is almost over. It’s been a long season…
This week’s games:
Game #135 Cincinnati at Pittsburgh. Not terribly excited about having to drive out to Pittsburgh for this but since I was rained out with the Reds in DC it is either this or drive to Cincy since the Pirates end their season there. Nothing against Cincy but no. Woke early and drove through heavy fog to get there, some of the views were quite scenic, especially coming over Sideling Hill and down to Breezewood. Since it was Labor Day it was a matinée game and traffic was light heading out, only six cops along the road. Ate lunch at Penn Brewing and stopped at the new Southern Tier to pick up some wares. Trevor Williams started for the Pirates against Matt Harvey for the Reds. Harvey has never fared well against the Pirates, especially in Pittsburgh, but the Pirates aren’t exactly hitting the cover off of the ball right now either. Williams though has been absolutely brilliant since the All Star Break and that continued today. Adam Frazier got the Bucs on the board in the 1st with a solo shot and that was all of the scoring until the 6th when Gregory Polanco added a 2-run shot. Frazier added a 2-run single in the 7th to cap off a huge day, his second career 4 hit game and was a triple shy of the cycle. The Reds got on the board in the 8th with Scooter Gennett hitting a solo home run. I just wanted to get a mention for Scooter there. I also had ML Debut #8 in Reds shortstop Blake Trahan, who also picked up his first big league hit. Save that ticket in case he makes his Hall of Fame induction in about say 25 years. Doubtful since he is about a .244 hitter through the minors but you never know. Pittsburgh wins 5-1 and team #26 is off the board. Four to go: Both Chicago teams, Oakland and Houston. Oh and this was played in front of less than 14,000 people, sad. Now, on the drive back there were 11 state troopers spotted, including one at the greatest moneymaker along the Turnpike at Sideling Hill. There was a good knot of cars coming, bet they nabbed one.
Game #136 Road Warriors at York, a doubleheader. Can’t resist the lure of the doubleheader and with it being only 8 blocks from my house why not? I did stay home on Tuesday, it was over 90 degrees and I was a bit bogged down from the heat. Was working on the deck of the new house and the humidity just takes something out of you. Yes, ladies I will have a deck on the new house. I stopped in at Gift Horse on the way down, the new brewery in town. Might want to check out their blog everyone. Now it was a hot one today, 98 degrees on the stadium board when I walked into the park. Hot days usually do not produce quick games and with Nate Caldwell behind the plate this was a recipe for a slow game. And it was. Joe Van Meter started for the Revs against Alberto Rodriguez for the Road Warriors. Van Meter was not sharp (could be Caldwell, he is known for having a crummy strike zone) giving up 4 runs through 5 but Rodriguez was worse (again could have been Caldwell). It appeared that Caldwell missed a fair/foul call on Jorge Fernandez-Diaz’s double in the second which appeared to be well foul. Caldwell called it fair. There was no ump at first since a runner was on second leaving Caldwell as the only guy who could make the call. Manager Mark Mason argued but there was no point and fortunately it didn’t matter. The Revs pounded Rodriguez for 11 runs before he was yanked in the 3rd. The Revs continued to add on and it got worse when the Road Warriors brought a position player to pitch leading to an easy 16-4 Revs win in game 1.
Game #137 Road Warriors at York. On to Game 2. The temperature was down to 89 at around 8:45. Mariel Checo started for the Road Warriors against Robert Carson for the Revs. The Revs jumped up early on two sacrifice flies, the Road Warrios came back to tie it but the Revs put themselves up for good in the 3rd and then put the game out of reach in the 6th, off of former Rev Julio DePaula. The Road Warriors just don’t have the horses at this point and that is no surprise since it is hard to get quality players to play for them. They have had York’s number, both with this iteration and former iterations, so it was nice to see a sweep. York wins 9-3. They were also helped by Somerset splitting a doubleheader with Lancaster and Long Island losing. Somerset needs to win their half in order for the Revs to have a chance to make the playoffs. It’s a long shot but they’re not dead yet.
Game #138 Chicago at Washington. Down to DC to take in team #27. Stephen Strasburg started for the Nationals against Kyle Hendricks for the Cubs. Strasburg never got into a rhythm. He racked up some strikeouts but I don’t know if the heat and humidity were getting to him but he just seemed really uncomfortable. The Cubs struck first plating two in the 3rd and the Nats came back plating 3 in the 4th thanks to a Mark Reynolds 2-run shot. Both teams retook the lead and gave it back until the Cubs tied the game off of the vaunted Nationals bullpen. Yep, they keep trotting out Justin Miller and he keeps not getting the job done. The Nationals just can’t seem to get a bullpen together, they might have a World Series appearance if they had. What they should do is when they deal with the Pirates if the Pirates ask for a pitcher to say no. They could have certainly used Felipe Vasquez this year much less Joel Hanrahan before. This game was a slow paced game, the Cubs hitters kept calling time and it was just boring baseball to watch. It also didn’t help a Cubs fan with a really foul mouth was sitting behind me and well, the Nationals were stupid for doing this and that (and that was the tamest thing she was saying). Fortunately she left in the second to go somewhere else. She’s giving Cubs fans a bad name. Anywhoo….the game went into extras and the Cubs plated two off of Jimmy Cordero in the 10th. I saw Cordero when he was with the Senators, I thought he was destined for the Atlantic League but yet here he is in the bigs. Maybe the Nats are just that desperate and at this point they have nothing to lose. The Cubs win 6-4.
Game #139 Southern Maryland at Lancaster. Brad Lidge bobblehead, next to last one of the year. Lidge has nothing to do with Lancaster but was making an appearance to help celebrate the Phillies’ 2008 World Series Championship. The bobblehead itself is pretty much the exact same one given away in Philly earlier in the year but with a neutral uniform. Oh well. Stopped in at Pig Iron Brewing for dinner before the game, had a burger with mac and cheese on it and it was good. Why didn’t I think of that before? Jonathan Albaladejo started for Lancaster against David Wayne Russo for the Blue Crabs. Considering that the only people who use their middle name are typically authors or assassins I wonder which one he is? Just kidding, maybe he’s a country singer. Russo was bad early, Lancaster batted around in the first scoring 4 runs. That was all they would get for the game as Russo settled down and was pretty effective for the rest of his game. Albaladejo gave up a run in the second and a 2-run bomb to Jon Griffin in the third but that was all he gave up. The first inning took 30 minutes to play and the rest of the game took 2 hours. I don’t know if the ump’s (not Nate Caldwell!) strike zone got more consistent (some of Russo’s pitch looked pretty good from where I was and were called balls) or if the pitchers just adapted. Lancaster wins 4-3.
Skipped the game in Pittsburgh. I’ll just get the bobblehead on eBay. On Friday night the forecast was for just cloudy skies during the game but that changed overnight as the remnants of Hurricane Gordon was coming through. I’ve already got the Marlins in and it will be cheaper to buy the bobblehead on eBay. Turnpike tolls and gas do add up. The Turnpike just keeps getting more expensive and there is nothing us citizens of PA can do since they have to make a huge payment to PennDOT every single year and who pays for that? Us! Why don’t people actually protest that? Sunday’s game had an even worse weather forecast and I made the difficult decision to skip it. Sorry Rob, maybe next year. Altoona and Trenton were also eliminated from the Eastern League playoffs so no more games there. Lehigh blew a late lead and was eliminated in their series in the International League. The affiliated minor league season is now over for me.
On the docket for next week:
September 10 – sit at home
September 11 – Oakland at Baltimore
September 12 – Road Warriors at York
September 13 – Oakland at Baltimore
September 14 – Somerset at York or Chicago at Baltimore
September 15 – Chicago at Baltimore
September 16 – Somerset at York, which will conclude the Atlantic League regular season
