The season is almost finished. In April it looked so far off and now once again we are here. The affiliated minors are over since I am not driving to Columbus for the AAA World Series. I did think about it, I have wanted to see a game there for several years. The Atlantic League regular season is over and only 2 more weeks left with the bigs so we’re down to the bigs and the Atlantic League playoffs in Lancaster and I’ll go as far with that as the Barnstormers go, which may not be far. Just about time to start settling in for a long winter of no baseball replacing it with hockey and basketball. Guess I’ll have to run up to Hershey and get my tickets for the first few games. I don’t like paying convenience fees online and with many breweries within easy driving distance it gives me another stop to make. Normally this would not be a problem but for opening night they are giving away Hersheypark passes (these games always sell out) and the second night the Stanley Cup makes an appearance.
I don’t watch the post season baseball games, mostly because I have an antenna (I’m not paying cable TV fees) and don’t get them but I can’t stand Joe Buck. When the games were on Fox I just muted it (sorry John Smoltz) but I don’t have that problem since the games are on FS1 as I don’t get that channel. I was never a fan of Tim McCarver either, his commentary just always seemed to be about how good Bob Gibson was. Don’t get me wrong, Gibson was great and today’s generation probably has no idea who he is but I need real commentary. My preseason predictions sure to go wrong have pretty much gone wrong. Thanks Nationals! There is a reason I don’t and won’t do sports betting. Only March Madness, and only for fun.
What was left of Florence hit here Monday, fortunately after I got the grass cutting rounds in that morning getting done about 30 minutes before it started raining. More rain, yay! It’s been a wet summer here to say the least. Record breaking in fact. No weather weenieing on Monday eh dad? Also only 12 bottles to go to 3,000. I bought a few variety packs lately so number 3,000 is in the house, it just hasn’t been opened yet. I’ll put a dent in that this week since I have three nights at home. I won’t get to a full 162 games but I will be close, really close. It makes you understand the grind that the players go through and while my body doesn’t take the wear and tear by watching I do have some idea about it. And without further ado this week’s games:
Game #147 Sugar Land at Lancaster. I was a bit worried that this wouldn’t get played but the rain stopped in the morning with the sun coming out in the afternoon so it’s time for some playoff baseball. I have no love of the Barnstormers but it was either this or watch the Orioles lose again and this was much more enticing and cheaper to boot. No stops at a brewery, just directly to the park. Rumspringa is about the only Lancaster-area one I need to hit this year. I still have Swashbuckler to get in but I am planning something for that for the start of hockey season for the Bears. Nate Reed started for Lancaster against Dallas Beeler for the Skeeters. Beeler got in trouble early and was hit up for 5 runs through 6. Blake Gailen hit two homeruns into the right field picinic area. I bet you’re trying to get yourself a Kevy aren’t you and heard that you fell out of the running for one. Won’t work haha! The Barnstormers were in control of this one. Nate Reed took a no-hitter into the 7th and pitched 8 scoreless. The Skeeters did get 3 off of Huascar Brazoban on a Juan Silverio 3-run homer but Brazoban was lifted and Kevin Munson finished the game off. Lancaster takes Game 1 5-3 in a crisp 2 hours and 22 minutes.
Game #148 Toronto at Baltimore. The Orioles have been advertising a special bobblehead for a bit now. It’s a WWE bobblehead. I never got into pro wrestling but since I was going to this game I figured why not? You know what is funny? Manny Machado still leads the team in home runs and RBIs and he hasn’t suited up for them since July. The bigger question for the Orioles is if they can overtake the ’03 Detroit Tigers (113 losses) or even eventually the ’62 Mets (120 losses). The Mets record is safe but the Tigers are doable at this point. They’re at 108 losses, almost there! If you’re going to be bad, why not be really bad? I mean memorably bad and the worst part is they could be just as bad next year, if not worse. Marco Estrada started for Toronto against the immortal Jimmy Yacabonis for the Orioles. I had a bad feeling that it would be him and that might have been overblown. OK, it’s not like this is one of the great Blue Jays teams of the past as Yacabonis pitched 4 scoreless, though he wiggled out of a bases loaded no-out jam in the 4th. D.J. Stewart hit his 1st career dinger off of the right field foul pole to put the Orioles up 1-0. He doubled later for his 1st career double and came around to score later. Guess I’ll have to save the ticket stub just in case he ever is inducted into Cooperstown. The Jays got on the board late off of a Billy McKinney home run but that was all they got. Baltimore wins 2-1. Know what else is funny? The Jays have dominated the Orioles this year and yet they went 0-3 when i saw them. Somehow as well I have seen the Orioles win 10 games this year, John Angelos how ’bout helping me out?
Game #149 New York at Washington. Picked up an Oktoberfest beer stein, or a voucher for it. Seems they got caught up in Hurricane Florence and won’t make it until next week. That’s nature for ya. I got the one the Nationals did last year too and I have been ridiculed mercilessly for that since I missed watching the Revs clinch the Atlantic League championship that day. Hey, the Nats were playing the Pirates so I am unrepentant! I don’t have that problem this year though. Of course the biggest thing I remember was going down to the Revs championship rally the next day and realizing I left my keys at home so I was locked out of my house until about 6 PM when my parents got back into town to let me back in. I spent the day visiting York’s breweries and walking around downtown. I plan on doing another grand brewery tour this year as soon as the season is over since we have two new additions downtown since then (and another is on the way later in the fall).
Anywhoo as a bonus for me Jacob deGrom started for the Mets against Joe Ross for the Nationals. Of the four supposed aces that the Mets were developing a few years ago deGrom has been the most impressive for me (and I’m sure plenty of others) and the Mets have wasted a historically great season from him. I saw deGrom a few years ago and he was good, very good. Much better than Noah Syndergaard who couldn’t get out of the third inning against the Nats when I saw him. You know what, Felix Hernandez won a Cy Young with the same credentials so why not? I missed Max Scherzer for the Nationals, he pitched the day before, but he should get one more home start next week so I’ll get him in next week against Miami. Ross looked like a pitcher coming back from Tommy John surgery and struggled for the first few innings giving up 4 runs. He did settle down and pitched better his final 3 innings but by then the damage was done. The Mets doubled him to death and with deGrom on the mound they didn’t need much. Outside of the second inning when the Nats plated one run deGrom mowed them down. I also saw a rare 5-4-5 double play. Can’t say I’ve ever seen one of those but the Nats had runners on 1st and 2nd. The runner on 2nd, catcher Spencer Kieboom, stopped to try to give himself up on a ground ball hit to third but Mets’ third baseman Todd Frazier threw to second and Kieboom did not get moving fast and second baseman Jeff McNeil threw back to Frazier who tagged out Kieboom. New York wins 4-2 officially eliminating the Nationals.
Game #150 New York at Washington. Back down to DC for a late afternoon start. I like these games, it gets me home at a reasonable hour so I can sit back and enjoy a beer or two before hitting the hay. The Nationals have done quite a few of them this year so it was greatly appreciated by me. Austin Voth started for Washington against Corey Oswalt for the Mets. Stopped at Jailbreak Brewing for a pregame beer with the Weenie Boy beforehand. He is heading down to Myrtle Beach on Tuesday and here’s to hoping that his flight is not canceled once again. I am taking him to the airport at about 6:30 AM on Tuesday and then picking him up at about 10:30 at night a few weeks later. I better be getting a sixer (or two) of New South beer out of this! It was the start of Oktoberfest for Jailbreak and you could get a real Oktoberfest beer mug filled with beer so I did that. Prost!
Apparently Voth was filling in for Tanner Roark. I’m sure the reason was mentioned but I didn’t hear it. I saw Voth many a time with the Senators and he was pretty good but I didn’t think his stuff would play as well in the bigs and judging by the numbers that has held true. This was his third big league game and he brought an 11+ ERA so it is a small sample size so far. Well, on this day he was good. 5 scoreless innings with only Michael Conforto getting an infield single. That was important. Why? That was the only hit the Mets got. I’ve never seen a Major League one hitter before, so getting closer to the no-no but yet oh so far. For what it’s worth the longest I have seen a no-hitter go is the Nationals Jerome Williams who took on into the 7th against the Mets back in the RFK days. The Nats got on the board with a Trea Turner 2-run shot and later added a Matt Wieters 3-run shot. Given his numbers and injury history I would not be surprised at all if Wieters is suiting up in the Atlantic League next year. The Nats tacked on another run late. I took off at stretch time and there were people arriving at the ballpark still! It wasn’t just one or two people there were quite a few. I wonder if they knew that the start time was 4:00 or they just wanted to be there for the win? There was also a post-game faith event so they may have been going to that. Maybe. Didn’t really seem like the church going type but you never know.
No game Sunday, driving down to DC back to back days was enough. With a break in the rain in the afternoon I started to move the beer bottle collection down to the new house. 26 cases moved, lots more to go. It will free up the boxes which I can then use to move other things.
On the docket for the final week of the season:
September 24 – sit at home
September 25 – Miami at Washington (or whichever game Scherzer pitches)
September 26 – Long Island at Lancaster in the Atlantic League championships should Lancaster win on Sunday night. If they don’t I’m sitting at home.
September 27 – Houston at Baltimore
September 28 – Houston at Baltimore
September 29 – Houston at Baltimore
September 30 – Houston at Baltimore, it’s last call for baseball!
