Superstitions

We’re losing them, we Red Sox fans. I’m feeling confident enough with a 13-1 lead over the Rockies at the top of the eighth inning to type these lines. I’d never have done this in, say, 1996, for fear of jinxing something.

There are seven games, and you have to win four. But it’s looking good so far…

[Postscript: the mail guy came in today with a Red Sox shirt on, 15, Pedroia. He used to play baseball with Dustin’s dad up in Woodland…]

Sox Win The ALCS

We watched the game over at our friend Chris’s house, who managed to share the experience with her sister Sue in New England via webcam. At left is an image of Pica, Chris, and me taken early in the game.

Despite the 11-2 score, it was a close game until the end of the 7th when Boston rookie and Yolo County native Dustin Pedroia hit a two-run home run off of Cleveland reliever Rafael Betancourt who had hitherto in the series been lights out. The Red Sox picked up 6 more runs in the 8th to put the game truly out of reach.

Falling Apart

Not a good day from the sports point of view. First, some college football:

1. My alma mater team, the Cal Bears, having gone undefeated the first 5 games of the season and reaching the lofty height of being ranked number 2 in the country, a ranking they haven’t had since 1952, were upset by Oregon State 31-28.

2. The UC Davis football team were beaten at home by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 63-28.

And then baseball:

3. The Red Sox lost to the Cleveland Indians 13-6, the Indians scoring 7 runs in the 11th inning. Ouch. The Indians thus even the best-of-seven series one game to one; the series now moves to Cleveland for three games.

Sweet Caroline

Well, the Red Sox won the first game against the Indians, 10-3. A possible six more games to go, though they hope it’s only four.

(I’m hoping Sabathia shows a bit less respect for the Sox and gives them a stellar pitching performance next time, because he’s a great pitcher and you don’t like to see those ones crumble.)

Good times never seemed so good… SO GOOD! SO GOOD! SO GOOD!

Down On The Farm

We got four free tickets this evening for the River Cats’ game, courtesy of our friend Susan, who is convalescing from surgery on a broken clavicle. The River Cats were playing the Fresno Grizzlies, who are the Triple-A team for the San Francisco Giants. It’s quite interesting to watch the Grizzlies, since we get to see players who will figure in the Giants’ future, the Giants being a team seriously in need of rebuilding.

The starting pitcher for the Grizzlies was 24-year-old Jonathan Sanchez, who has been pitching middle relief for the Giants much of this season. He was decent though erratic this evening, with 7 strikeouts and 4 walks, getting a bit wild in the third, and giving up three runs total. It was also nice seeing 23-year-old Nate Schierholtz, playing in right field this evening for the Grizzlies. He went 3 for 3 with a walk and a home run. He’s played in a few games with the Giants this season and has done well there, hitting .325. I’d love to see him up with the Giants outfield for good.

The River Cats broke away with the game in the 8th inning — the three errors committed by the Grizzlies didn’t help things — and the River Cats ended up winning 6-3. A very enjoyable game. We also had good company. We never found anybody to accompany us to the game, so we were under instruction to try to give the extra tickets away to somebody with a kid, and we did just that. Pica found an eight or thereabouts year-old lad attending the game with his grandma in line to get tickets, and gave the extras to them. We think it was his first triple-A game. He had a great time, and enjoyed the action on and off the field, soaking up the minor league between-inning entertainment, and even getting his picture taken with the River Cats’ mascot Dinger!

756

Barry Bonds passed Hank Aaron tonight in the all-time home run record.

I had just finished mopping the floor and turned the washing machine off. They didn’t pitch around him, the Nationals. They went after him, and he got an inside fast ball and hit it far into the graveyard zone.

It was a choked-up moment, when Hank Aaron came on to congratulate Barry and encourage us all to chase our dreams.

Steroids or not, intentional walks or not — it’s an amazing achievement. I’m glad I heard it.

Vin Scully Avoids His Fate

The legendary Dodgers broadcaster, Vin Scully, was quite ambivalent about the prospect of calling Barry Bonds’ 755th home run to tie Hank Aaron’s record. No worries though, as Bonds managed only one hit, a single, in the three-game series against the Dodgers. The Giants’ road trip concludes this weekend against the San Diego Padres. Tomorrow’s pitching matchup should be good, the hard-luck Matt Cain for the Giants against Greg Maddux for the Padres.

Meanwhile, I have a new favorite baseball site, The Hardball Times. Insightful daily snippets of news and analysis, nothing too overwhelming.

Three-Tenths of a Percent

According to today’s simulation runs of the rest of the season over at Baseball Prospectus, the Giants’ chances of making the playoffs are 0.308 percent. The Red Sox, on the other side of the ledger, have a 98.5% of making the playoffs.

Why Flies Go One Way And Grounders Go The Other

A tale in hitting geometry.

Bats And Bats

One of the enjoyable things about baseball is that a team that is generally not very good can still have great days. This makes the games worth following, even if we know that the team statistically is not bound for overall success. Today the Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 13-0, the Giants’ rookie pitcher Tim Lincecum striking out 12 and walking nobody.

The Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate the Tucson Sidewinders didn’t fare so well either tonight. They played the Sacramento River Cats and we went to the game this evening. We saw a superb performance by River Cats pitcher Kazuhito Tadano who went eight innings, striking out five and allowing only four hits, the River Cats winning the game 5-0. It was very nice to see Tadano do so well tonight since on our last trip to the River Cats, on June 21, we saw Tadano give up eight runs in 3-plus innings as the River Cats lost 7-13.

It was a short game, lasting only 2 hours 8 minutes, and the sun was setting when we drove back to Davis. Heading over the causeway over the Yolo Bypass, we saw a flight of bats — the mammalian kind. There is a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats that lives under the causeway, and we were lucky enough to see them as they headed out for their evening foraging.