This week is the last call for baseball until the end of next March, so it’s go now or forever hold your peace. I am ready for the season to come to an end, it’s been a long grind . Come next March I will probably be jonesing for baseball again but I don’t think there is anyway I am going to go to as many games as I did this year. About June I started to hit the wall and by mid-August I was ready for the season to end. When you start to look forward to just staying at home for a night (or looking forward to a rainout) it is time to end the season. It also does not help that any of the local teams were really that good this year. Philadelphia played above expectations but wore down at the end of the season. Washington never got going and was nothing more than mediocre this year and Baltimore was well, historically bad. Even in the minors Harrisburg was the only team with real playoff hopes and Altoona kept them at arm’s reach for the entire season. The only thing I usually get out of late season baseball for a team like that is that some of the new guys get some playing time and you would be more apt to see some of those guys tucked away in the back of the bullpen. There even might be a surprise major league debut tucked in there too.

Lancaster was eliminated from the playoffs down in Texas. They had a 4-1 lead in the 7th in the deciding game, blew the lead, took the lead in extras but the Skeeters came back and won it with a walk-off grand slam by Tony Thomas. Bet that was exciting. Not Bill Mazeroski exciting but close. Unfortunately that will free my Wednesday night right up. I’m torn because I do like watching playoff baseball but it was Lancaster on the losing end once again. The beer steins arrive down in DC and they play a 4:00 game Wednesday for the home finale so that would save me a trip down later if I would go but I made the call not to go. I’ll head down that way sometime in October to pick it up. I see that there is some parts of the Battle of Bladesnburg in Maryland that have been interpreted so I’ll hit that too. Not one of our greatest battles (in fact one can argue the worst in our nation’s history) but there is something there, as long as you know where to look.

Game #151 Miami at Washington. Final time down to DC though I will need to come back to pick up my beer stein that got caught in Hurricane Florence. I took in the Cherry Blossom Festival this year for the first time since I was in middle school and I took in a rugby match at RFK too so I did some new things in the District. Visited some new breweries too and it looks like there are more to find. I keep saying that I am going to go down a photograph all of the big equestrian statues and I haven’t done that yet. Like many baseball fans I wonder if Bryce Harper will be back. I know Juan Soto looks pretty good but losing Harper will be a major blow to the franchise, especially if he goes to Philly like many Phillies fans want or at least did want. I’ve watched him since he was with the Hagerstown Suns so I’ve followed his pro career since the beginning. It does make you feel a bit old when those kind of players come up for free agency. Granted Harper shot through the minors but most players are with an organization for a decade before leaving via free agency. I started hardcore baseball traveling in 2013 but I was at it starting in 2010, where have the years gone?

Max Scherzer started for the Nats against Jeff Brigham on an incredibly muggy night. First for everyone wondering Tanner Roark missed last Saturday’s start for the birth of his child so that clears that up. Now, I finally got Scherzer in. Cut it pretty close in this one but that is the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. I had a seat in the front row of the grandstand but some birds decided to take position on the metal grate at the lights above me. After a few drops I decided to move to a more covered location a few rows up. The Marlins are bad, they’ve lost 100 games so with Scherzer only 10 strikeouts from 300 for the season I liked my chances of seeing a major milestone. He was not quite sharp but he was his usual effective self with only a small hiccup in the 4th. Brigham gave up a 3-run shot to Anthony Rendon, who has somewhat quietly put together a great season, and nothing more. It could have been more but the Nats grounded into a few key double plays to get him out of jams. The Nats though broke the game open in the 7th off of the Marlin bullpen plating 6 runs and batting around. The Marlins did get 3 off of the Nats bullpen but by that point the game was out of reach. Washington wins 9-4.

Scherzer reached 10 strikeouts and hence 300 for the season by getting Austin Dean in the 7th after a long at bat. 300 in a season is a rare feat indeed. Only six different pitchers since 1990 have done it and 17 now since 1900. How bad would the Nationals have been without him? That’s rhetorical, don’t answer that. This team would have probably won the division if they were going against the NL East teams of the past few years but I wonder if their window has closed. Atlanta and Philly are on the way up and while the Mets and Miami are not good this is no longer the Nationals and 4 AAAA teams. I would say that the window is closed if Harper leaves. One does have to wonder if Scherzer is a Hall of Famer as well? We may never see another 300 game winner again. I thought C.C. Sabathia might be able to get there but injuries took care of that. He only has 158 wins but certainly still has gas in the tank and has rarely been injured. 200 wins is within reach and he has the hardware to go with it. We’ll see after 2021 when his contract is up. Pedro Martinez got in with only 219.

Game #152 Houston at Baltimore. How many losses will the Orioles get? They’re sitting at 112 so they will not go down as the worst team in modern baseball history but they are bottom 6 all time entering the series and if they are swept they will be the 4th most losses in modern baseball history. When you consider that there are players with higher batting averages than they have winning percentage (none on the Orioles btw unless you count the traded Manny Machado who was hitting .315) then you know it is bad. By record this final series looks to be a lopsided mismatch but since Houston has clinched a playoff berth with a 100 win season but one has to wonder just how seriously they will take this series. Of course one also has to wonder how seriously Buck Showalter will take this series too. He’s dead man walking even though the problems the team had are far bigger than him. But someone has to pay the price and if Dan Duquette is retained (no guarantee on that either though it appears that he will get an extension) Showalter will go. Worst kept secret in Baltimore I guess. He gets blamed for what has happened but he turned the Orioles from a laughingstock to World Series contenders with Andy McPhail’s help and I hope he gets a nice ovation on Sunday in his final game. Will he go out like Sam Perlozzo did by getting tossed? This game was supposed to be played on Thursday but was postponed due to rain. Only appropriate this year right? When I was looking at the weather forecast I decided to skip Thursday night and I am glad I did not waste my time and money going down.

David Hess pitched for the Orioles against Gerritt Cole for the Astros getting team #30 off of the board. The bigs are complete and yep, the same pitcher that my beloved Buccos traded away during the offseason. Now it’s not like they got nothing back. Colin Moran (despite his performance when I showed up) and Joe Musgrove (didn’t see him this year) were pretty steady and I think Jason Martin wasn’t too shabby either when he played for Altoona. No comment on Michael Feliz. Was it worth it? I don’t think Cole wanted to be in Pittsburgh anymore (nor did he ever really want to but he didn’t have much of a choice about that now did he?) and no one wanted a repeat of Aramis Ramirez who stunk his way out of Pittsburgh, allowed the Pirates to get peanuts for him and embarked upon a pretty darn good career afterwards in Chicago and Milwaukee. Cole’s had a good year but we’ll see how it goes from here. The Pirates had leverage and to get quality you have to trade quality. You can’t get Cole for a bunch of AA scrubs despite what Lorenzo in Galveston suggests. Picked up a set of Oriole coasters. They’re quite nice in a nice wooden box too. Both starters were good and this game moved fast. I think the up had a larger strike zone than normal and maybe, just maybe, both teams want to get the season over with. Adam Jones got a nice ovation before his first at bat and hit an RBI double. That was all of the scoring that the Orioles got. The Astros got on the board with a Josh Reddick solo shot and that was all Hess gave up. But, the Oriole bullpen did what it does best and gave it up. Granted it was only one run but tonight that was enough and Houston wins 2-1.

Game #153 Houston at Baltimore. Back down to Charm City for a doubleheader! Rode the Light Rail and made a day of it. Stopped at Waverly (working towards upgrading my badge on Untappd!) and the Brewer’s Art (first stop there ever and leveling up for brewery visits) for a pregame brew. The Brewers Art is right off of the Cultural Center stop so that was nice, a bit pricey though. I do need to make a stop in at Peabody Heights again, maybe when I get back down to DC in October. There’s a few new places I see as well. It looks like Baltimore is finally getting into the craft brewery scene. Picked up an Oriole puffy jacket too when I walked into the gates.

The big question was would this game be a repeat of the Orioles performance in Boston earlier this week where they gave up 19 runs. Dylan Bundy started for the Orioles against Justin Verlander for the Astros. First off, I know what you are wondering and no, I did not spy Kate Upton anywhere. This one moved to the 6th very fast. In the 6th the Astros finally broke though off of Bundy, who did have he does best and that is give up the longball. George Springer and Carlos Correa hit back to back jacks to put the Astros up 3-0. Verlander was dominant but since this was the end of the season I am guessing A.J. Hinch did not want to over exert him and pulled him after 6. D.J. Stewart proceeded to tie the game with an Earl Weaver Special off of the boringly-named Joe Smith. At this point I am thinking the last thing that I need is extra innings in game one of a doubleheader and the Oriole bullpen did not disappoint when Sean Gilmartin gave up an RBI double to Correa. When the Orioles did threaten Renato Nunez bounced into a double play to all but snuff out the threat. Houston wins 4-3.

Game #154 Houston at Baltimore. On to game 2, which has been much more friendly to the Orioles lately not that much has been friendly to them this year. The Orioles did a single admission doubleheader, much appreciated by me but then at this point the Orioles have little leverage to do anything else. I rewarded them by buying something from the concession stand. Yefry Ramirez started for the Orioles against Dallas Keuchel for Houston. Keuchel may be the best active pitcher that I have not yet seen pitch so it is nice to get him off the board. I was going to get to see him last year (or was it 2 years ago?) but the game wound up having like a 3 or 4 hour rain delay so I left. It had to get played so they waited. I didn’t. OK, I haven’t seen Madison Bumgarner either so no there will be no doubt who is the best left over.  Somewhat of a back and forth game and this is probably about as close to a Spring Training game one will see during the regular season. Keuchel was not sharp and only went 3. Ramirez had about his usual line of 6 innings and 3 runs given up (just how is that a quality start exactly?) and by that point the Oriole offense sputtered out. Mike Wright poured gas on the fire giving up a few more runs putting the game pretty much out of reach. Houston sweeps the doubleheader 5-2.

Game #155 Houston at Baltimore. I will admit this is a bittersweet day.  This is it for the baseball season.  There was the possibility that I would be able to go to Pittsburgh for a makeup game but I had no desire to do that and it wound up being canceled anyway so this is it. This season started in late March when I went down for Opening Day in Baltimore and it is only appropriate that it ends in Baltimore completing a historically bad season. It was a long season and there just comes a time when it needs to end. 2018 was not the most memorable season ever but there were some things that I will remember quite well from this season, and not all of that is good. But here we are, the end of the baseball season. As you can tell if you read this was that I went to a lot of baseball games. I am eying a trip into the Carolinas for next year since there is a lot of untapped territory down there with the big trip being to Japan for the 2019 Rugby World Cup and you can bet your sweet buns that I will work some Japanese Major League games in for that too.  The Carolinas is an easy trip and with several teams in the area including 2 new teams it makes for a inviting possibility but with the Pirates changing their South Atlantic League affiliate from West Virginia to Greensboro it gives me a bit more of a reason to make that swing. We’ll see, I still have to compile the schedule for next year.  Japan will depend on if I can get tickets to all of the matches I want to see. I’ll know more in November when the powers that be let people know if tickets are available for selected matches. It has to be all three or I’m not going.

One never quite knows what to expect from this game. It could be a quicky designed to get some playing time for some of the guys who have ridden the pine for the season or even the months of September. It could be a last hurrah for a valued member of an organization that will be moving on (Buck Showalter and Adam Jones). It could be an endless line of pitching changes with an expanded roster. Oh, and there was a big football game going on involving the local team too later that night that most people would be leaving in time to catch. Since this is the season finale it started at 3. I picked up a nice new Oriole duffle bag. I hope this is of better quality than the one I got from the Pirates a few years ago. Jimmy Yacabonis (why not right?) started for the Orioles against Charlie “Ground Chuck” Morton for the Astros. Both starters breezed through the 3rd. It looked like Houston just wanted to get the game over with and they swung at a lot of first pitches. Jose Altuve got a single in the 4th and they threatened but Yacabonis kept them off the board thanks to some lousy baserunning. The Orioles turned around and plated 4 off of Brad Peacock in an Oriole-esque inning. Well, that was basically it. I think Houston wanted to get the year over with and just played the rest of the game out not getting another hit and being mowed down at the end. My second one hitter in about a week. Baltimore ends the season with a 4-0 win. Adam Jones got a great ovation at the start of the game and every time he took the field before coming off in the 9th. I was living in Baltimore when the Orioles traded Erik Bedard to the Mariners and got Jones and Chris Tillman back. I think that trade worked out better for the Orioles. Jones was not a perfect player but he was a very good player for a very long time.

Next Week I hand out some worthless awards and we begin hockey season.