Stocking up for my annual Memorial Day BBQ, it gets more and more expensive every year. Last year I got back from Atlanta the night before so there was not a lot of prep time. Not so much this year, I’ll only be taking in Altoona at Harrisburg the day before so plenty of time to prep. Of course last year I also had a car full of exotic beer that I brought back with me from the south so Memorial Day was quite fun. If you are reading this PLCB I happened to find a stash just north of the Mason-Dixon line, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. This year it’ll mostly be beer from Peabody Heights in Baltimore, you can get a case of their beer there for $25, and it’s some good stuff. And for everyone coming there is a mystery beer that I had imported specially from out of state. You’ll have to show up to find out what it is. No, it is not Spotted Cow but I do still have 10 or so of them left over. That is for a special occasion.
Game #31 Lynchburg at Frederick. Gotta love Monday games. Sparsely attended but a beautiful night nonetheless. Tanner Tully pitched for Lynchburg against Cristian Alvarado for Frederick. This gets Lynchburg off the board for me but it was easier last year since I took in a game in Lynchburg on the way back home from Atlanta. The game was played at a pretty crisp pace to start, getting in 4 innings by 8:00. Then things slowed down a bit. Alvarado got in some trouble but wiggled out but Frederick’s bats got them on the board. First came a 2 run home run from Yojhan Quevedo in the 4th then a 2-run double from Jomar Reyes in the 5th (he will never be mistaken for a graceful runner!) and then finally a 2-run single from the rehabbing Jonathan Schoop that the outfielder completely misjudged but since Schoop was running very gingerly he was easily tagged out trying to stretch it into a double. Lynchburg got one back in the 6th but that was it. Frederick wins 6-1 in a game that came in at around 2 hours and 20 minutes. It can be done!
Game #32 Kansas City at Baltimore. Don’t think too many people thought this would be a battle of teams with a combined 19 wins at this point but here we are. The Orioles could be getting wholesale changes in the near future from the top of the organization on down (minus the owner of course!). This gets the Royals off the board for me. Danny Duffy pitched for the Royals against Dylan Bundy for Baltimore and this one is a game Bundy will want to forget. A historically bad effort. It really was, first time in modern baseball history that a pitcher game up 4 home runs and did not record an out in a game. By the time Mike Wright finished the first inning off it was 10-0. Duffy was hardly good but staked to that kind of lead it’s hard to lose. Chris Davis hit a home run but the Royals responded upping the lead to 15-1. That was the score when I left. The Orioles added 6 runs in the 8th and 9th but that was not enough.
Game #33 York at Southern Maryland, a 10:30 AM game. I make a yearly trip down to Waldoft to see the Crabs. It’s a nice park and it’s easy to just walk up and get tickets right behind the Revs’ dugout. Sat right behind the dugout for this one but arrived late. Traffic around Baltimore was terrible. It took 20 minutes to go from 795 to 70 and it was a sea of brake lights beyond 70. A fire truck passed me so there must have been a wreck. Did a little detouring taking 70 to 29 to 32 and headed down 301 and walked up to the park as the national anthem was being played. Missed the top of the first too while waiting in line to get tickets. Mitch Atkins pitched for the Revs and gave up one run through 6 and Casey Delgado had a nearly equal line for the Blue Crabs. Wellington Dotel drove in all 3 runs for the Revs, first on a sacrifice fly in the 6th and then with a 2 run triple in the 8th. Southern Maryland got one back in the 8th but Junior Rincon nailed down the save for a 3-2 win. One other Revs fan was there.
Game #34 Sugar Land at Lancaster. Made my way back to PA after the game and headed over to Lancaster. Despite a disabled vehicle on the 695 (that was on the shoulder and did not block traffic yet all 4 lanes were reduced to a crawl right around 83) I arrived in Lancaster a little after 4 and killed some time at Mad Chef brewing in East Petersburg. While there the Pirates and White Sox game was on TV and the Pirates had a huge 9th inning comeback to win the game. All because I wasn’t there. Sugar Land is the top team in the division but then they do have a pretty good home field advantage down in Texas and they did get a lot of home games to start the season. Former Pirate farmhand Barrett Barnes played for the Skeeters but he is not off to a good start. I saw him make his pro debut when he was with the State College Spikes, how time flies. Tommy Shirley pitched for the Barnstormers against Mitch Talbot for Sugar Land. Neither was sharp, though it did look like the home plate ump was not giving the pitchers the corner of the plate. Hey, I sat right behind the plate and that’s how I saw it. Those seats would cost hundreds of dollars in the majors but are $10 (with a Sheetz card) in Lancaster. Lancaster got up early, Sugar Land came back to tie it and then Lancaster put themselves up for good for an 8-3 Barnstormer win. Did walk out with quite a few coupons for stuff, don’t know if I’ll redeem them but its nice to have.
Game #35 West Virginia at Hagerstown. Skipped the Thursday game. Too many thunderstorms in the area and I didn’t feel like driving to Hagerstown only to find the game postponed. They have an old field and it does not drain well so it would not be the first time I drove down to find the game PPD. They wound up playing but the Power stayed in town for Friday so I headed down for that one. I skipped Altoona at Reading since I will see Altoona many times this year and I think they come back to Reading later in the year anyway. Stopped at the new Antietam brewing location in Hagerstown beforehand, nice place. Anyway, I have a lousy record with the Power. I’ve only seen them win one game ever and that was a suspended game that was concluded when I was in attendance with them already up by 7 or 8 runs.
I wasn’t expecting much from Power starter Sergio Cubilete and his 15+ ERA but he was pretty good. 5 innings pitched with 0 runs. His mound opponent was Nationals #15 prospect Nick Raquet who was pretty good too, one run through 7 innings. The Power got on the board in the 7th and added another in the 8th and that was enough. That’s not to say that Hagerstown never threatened, they did off of both Cubilete and reliever Ike Schlabach but they wiggled their way out. Power first baseman Kyle Watson had a great diving catch that saved a double and also allowed him to double up a runner off of first. It hasn’t been a good year for the Suns but then they’ve had some good ones recently so it was bound to happen eventually, especially with the big league club having success. Did get to see Pirates #13 prospect Oneil Cruz (He has a cannon for an arm) as well as #15 prospect Calvin Mitchell. Nationals #6 prospect Luis Garcia and #7 prospect Yasel Antuna played for the Suns. West Virginia wins 2-0 in a crisp 2 hours and 17 minutes. I like that.
Game #36 New Hampshire at Harrisburg. Considered heading down to Baltimore for the doubleheader but I want to see Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and when I see New Hampshire in Altoona in June he may be in AAA so to Harrisburg it is. New Hampshire also has Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio, not a bad group of sons of former big leaguers. Anyway I could see the clouds forming as I drove to Harrisburg and the tarp was being put on the field as I got there. I knew this one would be a longshot to begin with but I went anyway since I already had the ticket. It started raining and at times pouring but slowed down a little before 7 but with more coming the team did not remove the tarp. I left at that point and got home to find the game had been PPD. So I have a ticket to exchange for a future game. Maybe when Tim Tebow comes to town…
Game #37 New Britain at York. Stayed close for a Sunday game and thanks to the rainout the night before it would be a doubleheader. Needed to get my autograph pennant finally started. It was ugly weather to start, to the point I didn’t even know if they would open the gates. They did, I got the team autographs, minus a few players, and figuring that the game was not going to be played I went across the street to Liquid Hero to have a beer. It seems that the weather forecast changed dramatically so the games were going to get played. One nice thing for me for the Revs is that my parents live nearby so I just walked over to their house to kill time until the tarp came off of the field. Game one was a relatively well played game, New Britain scored first, York came right back with a homerun from Travis Witherspoon and later took the lead in the 5th. Could have gotten more and that turned out to be a major missed opportunity. Revs’ starter Jay Gause gave up a homer to Deibinson Romero that tied the game in the 7th and sent the game into extras and the Bees won it in the 11th 3-2. I did not stay for the second game. On a positive note I did get two foul balls! Several got hit out of the park and I walked out and left the side gate open. Scooped the balls up and walked back in like nothing happened. You can do that at a sparsely attended game like this.
On the docket for next week, a light week:
5-16 – Somerset at York for a evening doubleheader
5-17 – Myrtle Beach at Wilmington
5-18 – Road Warriors at Lancaster for a beer mug
5-19 – Portland at Altoona for a Gerrit Cole mini bobblehead
5-20 – Myrtle Beach at Frederick
