The Memorial Day backyard BBQ is almost upon us. My freezer is full and I have to use duct tape to keep it closed but the purchasing is not done yet. I got a nice $70 gift card for the new set of tires that I got so I still need buns, sausages, drinks, more ground beef, condiments, plastic ware and other stuff like that. Good times but it looks like it might be a bit rainy. That would be a shame, it’s been pretty good weather just about every time I’ve done this. It was supposed to rain last year but didn’t so we’ll see.
I’ll have a lot of leftovers since half of the people I invited bailed. You try to do something nice and then fate intervenes. Not much that you can do, but this is why I do most things by myself. Guess I’ll be eating like a king though for the next two weeks or so…Anyway on to the baseball games.
Game #42 Salem at Frederick. 3 teams left to see now in the Carolina League. A gorgeous night in Frederick for a game. Tanner Houck was on the mound for Salem against Ofelky Peralta for the Keys. I saw Peralta throw a no-hitter for the Delmarva Shorebirds, albeit rain shortened, but he has not been good for the Keys. Between the two of them they are 2-8 with an ERA over 6. Houck, the Red Sox first rounder from last year was not bad. No strikeouts at all (the other reliever they put in didn’t strike anyone out either, don’t see that too often) but he rolled a lot of double play balls, but then the Keys are not exactly a great hitting team. Salem got on the board first and kept going highlighted by a Santiago Espinal. Frederick got one run in the 6th but that was it. Salem wins 5-1. Peralta was extremely wild and he had a lot of hard hit balls hit deep. Those might leave the park in a month or two so I’m guessing this will be the end of the road for him unless there is some major improvements.
Game #43 San Diego at DC. Team #12 in the majors now out of the way though there was a massive thunderstorm that went through a little before 5. The Nationals were nice enough to not only put the $5 seats on sale early but also to open the gates early so the handful of fans that were there would not have to get drenched. The game wound up starting only 10 minutes late so I dodged a major bullet. Rookie Eric Lauer pitched for the Padres against Jeremy Hellickson. San Diego is one of the few major league teams that I can’t see any of their minor league affiliates play so I don’t get to see any of their players coming up so a lot of them are not familiar to me. I think the closest affiliate is in Fort Wayne, Indiana and I almost made it there last year but the weather forecast as well as a travel companion that did not want to see the game made me skip it. The Padres have a very good record when I am in attendance so they should invite me more often I think though that did not help in this case. Both starters surrendered only a solo home run, granted both were bombs to Franchy Cordero and Bryce Harper and the game was 1-1 going into the 9th. Nats 19 year old phenom Juan Soto (I saw him earlier this year with Hagerstown so that’s quite a climb) walked and Michael Taylor doubled him in for a walk-off win. Nats win 2-1. Drove home on a really foggy night.
Game #44 York at Lancaster. Stopped in at Columbia Kettle Works for dinner and then the Iron Hill location near the stadium to kill time before the game. Domonic Severino pitched for the Revs against Steve Johnson for Lancaster. I saw Johnson make his major league debut many, many years ago. Severino wasn’t bad but gave up a 2 run shot to Joey Terdoslavich and another run was added on later. On one of those funny asides Steve Johnson was replaced by Stephen Johnson. Guess the Barnstormers wanted to corner the markets on guys with that name the way the Revs did with James Simmons a few years ago. The Revs had their chances, they left a lot of runners on base but did manage to crack through in the 8th to tie the game at 3. They lost in the 12th 4-3.
Game #45 Erie at Harrisburg. A beautiful day for a morning ballgame. Sandy Baez pitched for Erie against Logan Darnell for Harrisburg. Darnell was better, surrendering only one run. Baez gave up 4 and was yanked after a 2 run shot from Drew Ward. The bullpens came in and put up 0’s until Senators closer Bryan Harper (Bryce’s brother) came in and gave up an inside-the-park homerun to Jake Robson. He then got the next two outs and finished the game. Harrisburg wins 4-2. Afterwards I had to run out to Hallam to Henry’s Seafood. I took advantage of the free Sirius radio, put the windows down, opened the sunroof and blared some Springsteen. Oh, what a time to be alive!
Game #46 Altoona at Harrisburg. Stopped at Lydian Stone to pick up a sixer and at Zeroday for a happy hour beer beforehand. This game was a good old fashioned beat down. I knew this could be one of them games when Senators starter Brady Dragmire set down the top of the order in about 3 minutes. Curve starter Brandon Waddell was not so fortunate. From seeing him several times before I get the feeling he has been flirting with disaster all year and has been extremely lucky. He had a sub-2 ERA going in but not anymore. This was a night where everything went right for Harrisburg and Waddell struggled to find the strike zone. Already down 3-0 Waddell gave up a monster shot to Osvaldo Abreu that left the stadium. Former Pirates prospect Taylor Gushue added another onto the left field boardwalk in the 5th and Waddell left the game down 7-2. The Curve got their runs on a balk and a sacrifice fly. Sean Kesilica relieved Waddell and pitched 2 solid innings (about the only good thing for the Curve tonight other than maybe Logan Hill who went 2-4 with a double) before Yeudy Garcia imploded. Two hitters were then brought in to pitch, Elvis Escobar and Bralin Jackson. Senators win 14-2. To add further insult to injury the K-man tonight, Will Craig, did not strike out so I didn’t even get free Pizza Hut breadsticks!
Game #47 Altoona at Harrisburg. Stopped at Appalachian Brewing for a late lunch. What a difference a day makes, though it didn’t look like that for awhile. Jefry Rodriguez took the mound for Harrisburg fresh from his stint in the bigs against Pirates’ top prospect Mitch Keller for Altoona. Altoona struck first with Cole Tucker hitting a triple and scoring on Ke’Bryan Hayes’ sac fly. Harrisburg came back when Drew Ward tripled scoring Taylor Gushue. It was 1-1 until Keller hit a pothole on the 5th giving up a 3 run bomb to Kelvin Gutierrez and then a 2 run bomb to Adam Walker before recording an out. He recovered and completed 6 innings. Christian Kelley hit a homerun for Altoona onto the left field boardwalk to make it 6-2 and then in the 7th the Curve offense woke up. Hayes hit a 3 run bomb. Jordan George tied in in the next inning with a solo shot and the Curve took the lead on Elvis Escobar’s single later that inning. Jason Martin added a 2 run shot in the 9th followed by Bralin Jackson’s solo shot for good measure to lead to a 10-6 Altoona win.
Game #48 Road Warriors at York. Updated the autograph pennant so at this point I’m only missing one player (and he’s in Venezuela on a family issue and may never be back) so we’ll see how many new players are added by the next time I am there for a Sunday game. Mitch Adkins took the mound for the Revs and was OK. He had an 8+ ERA entering the game and gave up 2 runs in 6 innings. Former big leaguer Geovanni Soto pitched for the Road Warriors and was good, until the 6th inning when he ran out of gas. The Revs took a 3-2 lead off of Soto and reliever Luis Cruz but the Road Warriors came right back to tie the game with a solo shot by Alfredo Silverio before taking the lead in the 8th. Road Warriors win 4-3.
On the docket for next week:
May 29: Southern Maryland at York
May 30: Somerset at Lancaster
May 31: Southern Maryland at York
June 1: New York at Baltimore
June 2: No baseball, it’s time for some big boy rugby, South Africa and Wales in DC!
June 3: New York at Baltimore
