A busy week with only 1 week to go before my big baseball trip for the year to New York City. This one shouldn’t be too expensive and I have actually been to several of the parks already but I have never really done the touristy stuff in New York, so here I go. I’ve been out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island but I was 12 and don’t remember much of it. I’ve never seen the 9-11 Memorial or Grant’s Tomb or Wall Street so it’s time. With time to kill one day I might even hit the beach, Fire Island. Usually I hit a lot of sites in between the city but I’ve already seen most of the ones that I am interested in between here and New York and there are no Civil War battlefields in this part of the country though there is some Revolutionary War history there. The hotels will be the expensive part of this trip, staying in NYC is not cheap.

Game #59 Boston at Baltimore for Dylan Bundy bobblehead night. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to an Orioles game, partially because of apathy and partially because of the weather. It was nice to be back though but Camden Yards is slipping back to the “good ol days” where the Yankees and Red Sox fans took over the stadium. I can tell you from those years I liked Yankee fans much better, they were there to watch the game and cheer on their team. Sox fans were there to get drunk and be obnoxious. Former Oriole prospect Eduardo Rodriguez pitched for Boston, team #14 for the year. He’s never quite achieved success in the majors despite his record but it seemed like every time I saw him pitch for Frederick he took a no-no into the 6th inning. I can’t say that for his mound opponent David Hess, who I never thought would make it to the bigs as a starter. I was never impressed with him and figured his patch to the bigs was as a reliever. Guess that’s why I pay to watch the game.

Or maybe what he has done so far is smoke and mirrors. Hess was staked to a 1-0 lead on Joey Rickard’s leadoff homerun but it went bad and fast. Rafael Devers hit a 2-run shot in the 2nd, Andrew Benintendi hit a solo shot the next inning and in the 4th Hess was finally yanked. His replacement Miguel Castro balked in a run and gave up another but from there the Oriole bullpen shut out the Red Sox the rest of the way. It didn’t really matter. The Orioles managed one more run off of Rodriguez and got a 2 run double in the 9th from Mark Trumbo to close the gap but pinch hitter Pedro Alvarez did what he does best and struck out to end the game with the Red Sox winning 6-4. This game took almost 4 hours to play. The Red Sox pitchers were in no hurry to pitch. This is why MLB needs a pitch clock as a 4 hour game is completely unacceptable to me. On a positive note I did get to ride back on one of the new Light Rail trains, much nicer!

Game #60 Harrisburg at Reading. Got my Cole Hamels golden bobblehead. I think these were supposed to be given out 2 years ago but not enough showed up and then Reading tried again last year and I think the game was rained out, so here we go again. Third time’s the charm eh? It was a blah pitching matchup for me. Harrisburg started Wirkin Estevez, who I don’t think I have ever seen have a good start despite seeing him since he was a Hagerstown Sun. Reading started Ranger Suarez, who I am seeing for the 4th time this year. I am starting to wonder if Reading has any other starters besides him and JoJo Romero since those are the only two I have seen. Harrisburg got up early 2-0 by the end of the third inning and (shocker!?) Estevez did not give a run through six innings. He was hardly dominant, Reading hit some balls hard but they were right at people. In the 7th Harrisburg’s Kelvin Gutierrez got one just over the wall (if the outfielder would have timed his jump better he would have caught it) and Drew Ward followed with a 2-run shot seemingly putting Harrisburg up for good. But this is the Senators’ bullpen and the first reliever did his best to let Reading back in the game giving up a 3-run moon shot to Austin Bossart and then proceeded to get yanked. Jeff Ames and Roman Mendez shut the Fightins down from there. Harrisburg wins 5-3. Not a good year so far in Reading.

Game #61 Down East at Frederick. Down to Frederick to see the, as my travel companion calls them, the Mud Ducks. He got Down East and Carolina mixed up and combined the two. Not the first name he has messed up, just ask him who the Phillies’ greatest third baseman of all time is! This now leaves only Winston-Salem and Buies Creek left to see in the Carolina League and Winston-Salem is coming up. Stopped at Olde Mother Brewing for a pre-game beer. It’s a nice place with none of the hustle and bustle of Flying Dog and like Flying Dog it’s not a far drive to the stadium. Walker Weickel started for Down East against Cristian Alvarado for Frederick. Weickel dug himself a 2-0 hole before Chuck Leblanc and Alex Kowalczyk (any relation to Ed?) tied it with solo home runs. Leblanc is from Quebec and I passed someone coming down 15 with Quebec tags. I think they were sitting right behind the Down East dugout, his parents maybe? Anyway from there it was all Frederick as they teed off on Weickel. Collin Woody hit a 3 run shot and Chris Clare had a big game with 2 doubles, a triple and 3 RBIs. Not Down East’s night, Frederick wins 10-3.

Game #62 Erie at Trenton for a Gary Sanchez bobblehead. Decided to take the day and finally add pictures to Brandywine and Trenton battlefields. It was a convenient way to avoid the Turnpike tolls anyway and this time I remembered to put my memory card in the camera. Actually the card never comes out, for some reason one of my computers crashes when I put the card into it and it has never worked with the other so I just use a cable now. Works just as well and since the card stays in I won’t have a repeat of the visit to Washington’s Crossing last year. This trip was one of them days. There was no problem getting to Brandywine and I got through that with no issues. I decided to take the scenic route around Philly and take 95 up to Trenton. There was a wreck or something on 95 south which snarled traffic of 476 for at least 7 miles and then I caught the tail end of a wreck in North Philly. Fortunately I left enough time that this was not an issue and I had time to visit River Horse Brewing outside of Trenton.

In the game Dillon Tate (Yankees #9 prospect) pitched for Trenton, who played the night as the Pork Rolls. Pork roll sandwiches were on sale for $1 so that took care of dinner! It was a beautiful night for a ballgame, warm but not humid with a cool breeze. Tate was good, he’s a slow worker and was a bit wild but gave up no runs and fanned 10. Sandy Baez for Erie was not quite as good giving up 2 runs through 7. He is winless for the year but is not Wirkin Estevez bad. Trenton is having a good year and this looked like another Thunder, I’m sorry, Pork Rolls win until Justin Kamplain came in and proceeded to give up 5 runs in the 8th. Trenton scored 2 in the 9th but it was not enough. Erie wins 5-4 and Baez gets his first win of the year. Now the fun begins. I headed down US 1 to link up with the Turnpike only to find the westbound lanes closes. Knowing that roadwork was being done on 95 I decided to head down Roosevelt Road to link up with the Schuylkill and that turned into a surprisingly pleasant drive. I would have taken 202 back but there was a wreck there that shut the onramp down so to the Turnpike I went. As a bonus in a construction zone at Morgantown I got to watch a firework display while I waited for everyone to stop rubbernecking and then finally on 222 there was another wreck, but by now there were so few cars on the road I got by just fine. Whew. There was some good news, I did find a $5 bill laying on the ground!

Game #63 New Hampshire at Altoona for an Adam Hyzdu mini bobblehead. One last team left in the Eastern League now, just the Akron Rubber Ducks. Unfortunately in this one the top prospect in the game, Vlad Guerrero Jr. was injured and did not play. They still had Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio though. Hopefully I’ll catch the Fisher Cats in Reading later since I don’t think he’ll be heading to AAA just yet. Altoona may finally be getting on a roll and I know I just jinxed them. Justin Dillon pitched for New Hampshire against Pedro Vasquez for Altoona. You know, at some point I would like to see Taylor Hearn for Altoona, c’mon baseball schedule make it happen! This game had slugfest written all over it with both pitchers struggling. Both teams had lots of baserunners but going into the bottom of the fourth it was 1-0 New Hampshire on a Cavan Biggio sac fly. In the bottom of the fourth Altoona got on the board with two runs followed by four in the fifth highlighted by a Will Craig 3-run shot and 4 more in the fifth highlighted by a Jin de Jhang 3 run shot off of Dillon’s replacement. The Cats got 3 back on Biggio’s 3-run shot that just cleared the wall and looked like they could get more but Vasquez settled down and completed 6 innings. The Curve bullpen gave up only one more run so Altoona wins 9-5.

One observation after Tuesday’s debacle is that this game was played in a little over 2:30. The pitch clock works! I also see that major league attendance is down for the year to date compared to last year. Maybe the fans would like the game to move along faster and not spend so much time watching batters and pitchers try to one up each other in gamesmanship. The pitch clock worked in the Atlantic League and it can work in the majors as well.

Game #64 Miami at Baltimore. And now for some heat. Trevor Richards pitched for Miami against Dylan Bundy for the Orioles. The last time I saw Bundy he couldn’t get an out against Kansas City. He’s done quite well since that 3 start stretch. The Orioles have not won a home game since Mother’s Day. It was bound to happen at some point and it did today. Richards was not good and gave up 6 runs before being yanked in the 4th. His replacement Merandy Gonzalez ate some innings but gave up 4 more runs before running out of gas. His replacement was Brett Graves making his major league debut (#3 for the year) and getting the final out. Bundy was good and if he didn’t face Justin Bour he would have had an easy ride. Bour hit two homeruns and drove in all 4 runs for the Marlins and while the Marlins threatened after Bundy was relieved the O’s bullpen clamped down. It helps that the Marlins are not that good of a team but they were going to win at some point. Baltimore wins 10-4.

For my loyal readers (as well as that person from Peru and from China since Facebook probably sold you my information and I hope you are learning all about me. Would you like my credit card info or do you already have that?) There probably will not be a This Week in Kevin next week as I will be on my annual Big Baseball Trip so expect it in two weeks (It could be, since the Brooklyn game is a 4 PM game, I might have time to finish it sans pictures). The docket for the next two weeks is as follows:

June 18 – Road Warriors at York (maybe, I’ve seen the Road Warriors enough already)
June 19 – up in the air
June 20 – Tri Cities at Aberdeen
June 21 – Long Island at Lancaster
June 22 – Quebec at New Jersey
June 23 – Aberdeen at Staten Island
June 24 – Lowell at Brooklyn
June 25 – Pittsburgh at New York
June 26 – Pittsburgh at New York
June 27 – York at Long Island
June 28 – Seattle at Baltimore
June 29 – Winston-Salem at Frederick for a Dylan Bundy bobblehead
June 30 – State College at Williamsport for a Rhys Hoskins bobblehead
July 1 – Los Angeles at Baltimore