Backyard BBQ went well. Lots of leftovers that’s for sure so I ate a lot of chicken this week. I’m getting tired of chicken already but that will happen. Had decent weather, mostly overcast and muggy but no rain. Didn’t do much this week but I did get another $450+ car repair bill, hooray.
Game #49 Southern Maryland at York. Outside of the humidity it was a nice night at the ballpark. Former Pirate Brandon Cumpton was pitching for Southern Maryland. I’m pretty sure I saw his best major league start when he pitched Game 2 of a doubleheader against the Cardinals a few years ago. He had some arm trouble and just never got healthy so here he is. After watching him pitch the first I think Neil Huntingdon made the right call. He was down 2-0 before he had even thrown 10 pitches. Domonic Severino pitched for the Revs and was not really much better. He was wild, only walked one guy but he was going 3-2 on a lot of hitters. Cumpton left the game down 5-4 but the Blue Crabs tied the game. Then they brought in former Pirate farmhand Jason Creasy who gave the Revs the lead right back with Zack Wilson getting a run single and the Revs took the game 8-5. Not a good day for former Pirates.
Game #50 Somerset at Lancaster. Only one team in the Atlantic League now left to see. Went with my normal baseball traveler, he was supposed to go to Myrtle Beach on Sunday but his flight was canceled and his flight was rescheduled for Thursday. This has been a big year for him, he finally figured out what the backwards K means. Until now he thought it was just to break up the monotony. Anyway Steve Johnson pitched for Lancaster and it didn’t start well. He took a line drive to the thigh but stayed in giving up 2 runs in 6 innings. His opponent, fellow former big leaguer Kyle Davies was not so good. He was yanked in the 4th after giving up 9 runs. His defense did not help him out either. Somerset’s bullpen only gave up 2 more runs but the damage was done at that point. In this battle of first place teams Lancaster wins 11-6.
Game #51 Portland at Harrisburg. Thursday’s game was rained out in York as was the game in Baltimore. For anyone interested the flight to Myrtle Beach was once again cancelled so my traveling companion has given up on his vacation there and on the airline that was going to take him down. I did drive him up to Harrisburg on Thursday and stopped at Pizza Boy for some pizza before dropping him off. He apparently couldn’t work his cellphone to call me when the flight was cancelled and called my dad instead. I went to bed expecting the same weather to happen on Friday but the weather was much nicer. I wanted to go to the Orioles game but since it was the Yankees and a fireworks night I pulled up the seatmap to check to see what seats were available. The cheap seats were few and far between so a change of plan was in order and to Harrisburg I went. Kyle McGowin pitched for Harrisburg against Kyle Hart for Portland. Until the middle of the 8th inning Portland was in control of this game thanks to two home runs, some sloppy Senators defense and poor control from Bryan Harper. Then things went wrong and admittedly I was not there to see it. I figured that the game was over and left when Portland went up 4-1. Well then Trey Ball did what Trey Ball seems to do (for a first round draft pick he sure is not panning out, could he be another overhyped Sox prospect?) and blew the lead. Harrisburg won the game in the 11th 5-4. My bad!
It takes a lot for me to want to skip a Saturday baseball game but getting a chance to watch big boy rugby about 90 minutes from my house is too much to pass up. Yes, this may not be the top tier players from Wales or South Africa and it is not going to come anywhere close to the excitement that Ireland and New Zealand brought in 2016 (and the ticket prices reflect this) but this is still two of the world’s big boys going at it. I admit I did look around the DC area for a 1:00 baseball game but none were to be found so I visited some DC breweries instead, Denizen’s in Silver Spring, 3 Stars in DC and Hellbender just down the street. 3 Stars is neatly tucked in between a whole lot of auto body repair places and was not easy to find. Did some tailgating with some other Juniata alums. Tried Flings, South African cheesy poofs which were being given out by someone, and I also tried tongue for the first time.
Sat much closer to the action for this one than in Chicago. Neither side was at full strength, this was an unsanctioned match so neither team had a reason to put its best players out. Wales’ best players are on the Lions tour anyway I believe. It was slow to get started, a lot of knock ons and scrum restarts but it got going. South Africa scored first on a penalty kick but Wales responded with two quick tries from Hallam Amos and Tomos Williams for a 14-3 lead at the half. The Springboks came out strong in the second half with Travis Ismaiel intercepting a pass and scoring. Wales’ Owen Watkin was given a yellow card and the ensuing man advantage allowed Makazole Mapimpi to score in the corner (I got that one on video!) to tie it at 17. Wales got called for a late penalty and the kick was good to put South Africa up 20-17 with only a few minutes left. The Welsh managed to get South Africa pinned deep in their territory and when they tried to clear it Ryan Elias blocked the kick, which deflected off of another Springbok and Elias fell on it for a try. Wales played stout defense for the remaining 3 minutes or so for a 22-20 win. Pictures are in the Day Trips section here.
Oh, and that doom and gloom forecast held off, a thunderstorm missed DC by about 10 miles and the rain stopped about when the match began. I got lots of rain on the way back as well as the heavy traffic that comes with it as well as a downpour and massive thunderstorm that erupted right as I got back into York.
New York and Baltimore was postponed. I got down to Baltimore and was getting ready to get on the Light Rail train when a northbound train arrived and Oriole employees were getting off. That’s never a good sign and indeed it was postponed so I just got back into my car and drove home. Well, the Yankees are back in early July.
Upcoming for next week (weather permitting as always)
June 4 – Richmond at Reading for the famous Morning Game
June 5 – Binghamton at Harrisburg (Tim Tebow here I come!)
June 7 – Long Island at York
June 8 – San Francisco at DC for a Ryan Zimmerman bobblehead
June 9 – Hartford at Altoona for a Tony Watson mini bobblehead
June 10 – Long Island at York
