Relatively light week this week which is nice. Always nice just to stay around the area for a week. Until Saturday that is.
Game #118 Somerset @ York. Took advantage of what should be the best weather of the week to cut grass in the morning. Treated myself to a beer at Gift Horse before the game then. It was Hawaiian night, if I would have known I would have dug up one of my old Hawaiian shirts to wear. Duke von Schamann started for the Revs against Vince Molesky for the Patriots. Things started well for the Revs as guess who….Telvin Nash put the Revs up early with a 2-run bomb into the playground. Carlos Franco followed in the 3rd with another 2-run shot. Then things went downhill as von Schamann gave up 3 in the 4th and 2 more in the 5th before being yanked. This is a theme for him, he seems to do well the first time through the order and then struggles. Perhaps he should be a reliever? The Revs came back to tie the game but Revs reliever Julio Perez gave up 2 more and Orleny Quiroz gave up another for a Somerset 8-5 win. This game took a long time to play as neither pitcher were sharp and there were a lot of baserunners.
Game #119 Up to Reading to pick up a Jimmy Rollins bobblehead as he was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame. Stopped at St. Boniface in Ephrata for a pregame brew. Now, first the good news. Every game I have been to here in Reading has had lousy weather and there was a chance of storms. Those storms missed and we had a gorgeous night for a ballgame. A nice breeze and cool (for August)! Julian Garcia started for the Fightins against Heath Holder for the Yard Goats. I have seen them 3 times this year and Holder has started all of them. Garcia had some struggles in the 2nd giving up a 3-run homer to Bret Boswell (who is hitting just above the Medoza Line). Garcia thought he had struck him out twice but the ump disagreed. Reading however struck back, chasing Holder with 5 in the 3rd. Bowell added another RBI in the 4th but that was it for the scoring. Both bullpens put up blanks and Reading wins this one 5-4. Good crowd too, over 7,700.
Game #120 Doubleheader in Lancaster on Wednesday night taking on New Britain, or so I thought. It was scheduled to start at 6 but at 6 it was still raining so they wound up just playing one regular game and pushing the doubleheader back to Thursday. So, so much for a bonus game for me. I did get a free comic book though, not that I read comics. John Anderson started for the Barnstormers against Akeel Morris for the Bees. This was a pitcher’s duel. Anderson gave up one run on an RBI single to former Pirate farmhand Jason Rogers and Morris made that stand. Morris was not dominant but got the Barnstormers to hit into easy outs, mostly flyouts to the outfield. New Britain wins 1-0. As a bonus Lancaster signed former Pirate Gift Ngoepe so the former Pirate farmhands keep popping up in the Atlantic League. I saw Ngoepe a week and a half ago in Altoona after he resigned with the Pirates after being released by I think the Blue Jays. That didn’t last long.
Game #121 Down to Aberdeen since I want to see the #1 overall draft pick Adley Rutchman on Friday. Stopped at Slate Farm in Whiteford and Alecraft in Bel Air before the game. When i walked up to buy tickets there was a sign that said the game was completely sold out. Sold out suckers and I was the sucker. Couldn’t do anything other than turn around and go home.
Game #122 Up to Scranton, or more accurately Moosic, to pick up an Aaron Judge bobblehead and take on the Gwinnett Stripers. The last time I saw Gwinnett they were the Braves so it’s been awhile for them. In a bit of irony current New Britain Bee Akeel Morris (who I saw pitch on Wednesday) pitched in that game. Made stops Breaker in Wilkes-Barre, Susquehanna in Pittston and my favorite place in NEPA Sabatini’s. Tucker Davidson started for the Stripers against Josh Maciejewski for the Riders. The first 6 innings were a pitcher’s duel (of which I saw only about 3 since the sun was shining in my face for the first 3 innings, didn’t bring a hat oops) with a run scoring on a sac fly and another on an RBI groundout for a 1-1 tie. Then Wes Parsons came in for Gwinnett. My time seeing Parsons has not been good, I saw him get shelled twice in the bigs and here that trend held up. He gave up two runs to put the Riders up and the Rider pen kept the Stripers off of the board for a Scranton 3-1 win.
Game #123 Down to Baltimore to get team #26 off of the board, the Houston Astros. Everything in this matchup looked lopsided as the Astros are one of the elite teams in baseball and the Orioles are, well, the Orioles. Justin Verlander started for the Astros against Asher Wojciechowski (only took me two peeks at how to spell the name this time). So coming off the 20-2 butt whoopin’ of the night before I was expecting more of the same. Not quit today. It looked good early for the Astros when Carlos Correa hit one into the Astros’ pen but the Orioles wore down Verlander. He was not his sharp self, stuggling to throw strikes and get outs. He managed to get through 5 but damage was done. Up 2 the Oriole pen (Shaun Armstrong) gave one back but Paul Fry, Miguel Castro and Mychal Givens got the game to the 9th with a 2-run lead. But Givens (labeled as the Orioles ace reliever by the radio guys) blew up in the 9th giving up 3 runs on a Michael Brantley 2-run triple with Brantley scoring on a comical fielding error by Anthony Santander. Everything as looking up for the Astros but Roberto Osuna returned the favor and imploded allowing Chris Davis to not strike out and hit a sac fly and then Rio Ruiz walked it off with a 2-run dinger. Go figure, the Orioles wins this 8-7. I was long in the car by the time that happned. This was a slow game taking almost 4 hours to play.
On the docket for next week
August 12 – Cincinnati @ Washington
August 13 – Altoona @ Harrisburg
August 14 – TBD
August 15 – Altoona @ Harrisburg
August 16 – Lancaster @ York
August 17 – Milwaukee @ Washington (Patrick Corbin bobblehead)
August 18 – Trenton @ Reading (Charlie Manuel bobblehead)
