Here’s to the five of you who read last week’s This Week in Kevin. I have a pretty good idea who two of you are and since some of you are related to me it is required reading after all since you have no idea what I am doing otherwise. It is nice to be ignored by the world, all except for those what I assume are spambots who appeared in the middle of the week. Couldn’t leave me any messages saying how much you enjoys my worthwhile content, haha! Don’t worry world, I am used to being ignored, probably why I am still single, yeah that’s it.
So without further ado, here are the recaps from this week’s games.
Game #24 Pittsburgh at Washington. My beloved Buccos headed down to DC to face the struggling Nationals in what may be a series that proves to be just what the Nationals need to get righted. The Nats did not exactly put out murder’s row but once again Pirates’ starter Jameson Taillon could not locate his pitches and it led to a big inning. The difference between this one and the game in Philly was that he was able to get out of it and did last 6 innings giving up 3 runs. The Pirates offense seems to be boom or bust and tonight it was bust. They did get two runs, including a monster home run from Corey Dickerson into the second deck but it was not enough to beat Tanner Roark. It’s frustrating because just like in Philly there are a large number of Pirates fans who show up even on a Monday night. On the plus side traffic getting around Baltimore and into DC in mid-afternoon was actually not too bad, so at least there was that. That was a bit of a shocker, I didn’t even have to wait too long on the BW Parkway though there was heavy traffic, it just was stacking up at the exit I use to get to the Metro garage so I managed to avoid it. The Washington Beltway was another matter but then that always has heavy traffic and I only am on that for about 3 miles or so.
Game #25 Syracuse at Lehigh Valley. I enjoy getting up to Allentown for an Iron Pigs game. It is a beautiful park to watch a game in and if it were about 30 minutes closer I might consider getting a season ticket package. One nice thing that the Iron Pigs do, or at least did, was to do their bobbleheads early in the season. Sure it was cold but I got them out of the way and there were fewer conflicts in the schedule. Not so much anymore. Anyway, for my first AAA game of the year the recently demoted Austin Voth took the hill for Syracuse and Jacob Waguespack for Lehigh. Voth has been stellar this season and while I see most of the Phillies players come through the system I have never (to my knowledge) seen Waguespack. This was a pitcher’s duel. Waguespack was good and surrendered one run over six innings and that was on a grounder just out of the reach of his shortstop. Voth was better. I don’t know how he does it, he’s not overpowering or big but he’s a strikeout machine, at least in the minors. He shut out the Pigs over five innings and the Chief’s bullpen shut them out for the rest of the game, though Austen Adams did work out of a bases-loaded no outs situation in the ninth to preserve a 3-0 shutout.
Game #26 Road Warriors at York. A bonus game. The Revs were playing a baseball in education game at 11 AM so with the offer of a free ticket I headed down to take in 5-6 innings before heading down to DC to watch the Pirates stink it up. The game actually moved fast so I made it into the 7th before leaving. It was well that I did. The Revs got up first 1-0 and then 2-0 later on a former-Pirate Jose Tabata homerun but had trouble getting anything else off of Road Warrior starter Raul Rivera-Alicea. Revs starter Zac Grotz was also good only getting into trouble in one inning and getting out by forcing the runner on third into a rundown. The Revs bullpen came in and shut down the Road Warriors until the ninth when Junior Rincon surrendered a three-run shot to A.J. Jiminez. Road Warriors win 3-2. I left as Tabata was hitting his home run so I did not have to watch the meltdown and didn’t see the result until I was in DC. Things only got worse.
Game #27 Pittsburgh at Washington. The Pirates lost on Tuesday so at least it is not just me causing the issues they are having with the NL East so I headed down for another punishment session. The Pirates got some hits and a run off of Nats starter Stephen Strasburg early. He was not his usual sharp self, at least to start and struggled through the first. That is when you want to get him but the Pirates could not capitalize. Of course the lead was short lived as Bryce Harper led off for the Nats with a shot to the centerfield upper deck. Pirates starter Ivan Nova was also not sharp but unlike Strasburg he never did click. The Nats took the lead with a Matt Adams homerun, the Pirates came back to tie it and then in the 5th all hell broke loose when Max Moroff committed a costly error. The Pirates gave up 4 runs in the 5th and with that I was out. I’m a very frustrated Pirate fan right now. Not necessarily embarrassed, that came a few years ago when they didn’t bother to show up in DC. I’m a very loyal person, I would have switched away from the Pirates years ago if I wasn’t but these past two weeks have been very frustrating for me and I need a break from them. Since I skipped the Thursday matinée I’ll see you in New York in June.
Game #28 Philadelphia at Washington. Max Scherzer Cy Young bobblehead night. Nick Pivetta pitched for the Phillies against former Phillie prospect Gio Gonzalez. I arrived plenty early, bobblehead nights tend to attract a large crowd at the $5 window and on more than one occasion I have been lucky to get one before they ran out. One time I got the last one because the guy in front of me decided to have a conversation with the ticket rep rather that just buying his ticket. Maybe he wanted a $42 ticket to begin with, I don’t know. Got into DC around 2 and had a late lunch/early dinner at the Gordon Biersch on M St. before standing in line for about an hour and a half to get the ticket. Gio Gonzalez started for the Nationals and was hardly crisp in the first wiggling out of a jam. Couldn’t say the same for Phillies’ starter Nick Pivetta. A school group from Wisconsin was in front of us and one of the kids yelled out that Bryce Harper was overrated. Harper put the next pitch in the seats. It went downhill for Pivetta from there and he was yanked after surrendering a homerun to Matt Adams and another to Harper that the radio guy said went about 470 feet putting the Nats up 7-0. The rain came in the bottom of the fourth and I left, I didn’t feel like sitting out a rain delay even if it was a short 40 minute one. The Phillies scored 3 runs later but the damage was done. Washington wins 7-3.
Game #29 Erie at Altoona. A bonus game. The game that was played the night before was suspended in the 3rd inning from the same rain storm that led to the delay in DC. Altoona was up 3-1 at that point and since Friday night was a doubleheader this game would only be 7 innings in length. Kyle Dowdy had started for Erie against Pedro Vasquez for Altoona. When the game resumed Jeff Thompson and Logan Sendlebach pitched respectively. Altoona scored 2 more runs, one of which came on a Christian Kelley bomb to left field and Erie got one more run. Sendlebach was hardly on point but wiggled out of trouble until relieved by Tate Scioneaux who pitched the last two innings to secure the 5-2 win.
Game #30 Erie at Altoona. In game 2 Erie sent Beau Burrows to the hill and he looked like the first round draft pick that he was. He limited the Curve to two hits and two walks over six innings. Curve started J.T. Brubaker was not as good surrendering 2 runs over 4 innings and wiggling out of several jams with well placed double play balls. The damage was done and Altoona’s bats never got going. Erie won 2-0.
Would have headed over to watch the Revs play in Lancaster on Sunday but rain was in the forecast so I skipped it. The decision was made easier since not only have the Revs been struggling since the opening series but I am also going to Lancaster on Wednesday as well. Nice call weather.com, didn’t see much rain! On the docket for next week (weather permitting) is a fairly low key week and probably the last week until September where there are no bobblehead giveaways outside of my June excursion to New York.
May 7 Lynchburg @ Frederick
May 8 Kansas City @ Baltimore
May 9 York @ Southern Maryland, a 10:30 AM game
May 9 Sugar Land @ Lancaster
May 10 West Virginia @ Hagerstown
May 11 Altoona @ Reading
May 12 New Hampshire @ Harrisburg
May 13 New Britain @ York
