Man I'm getting to like the after-game party's almost as much as the game's themselves...
Special Thanks to Don Wixon and his kindness for the dogs and burgers yesterday following our game and while many of us stayed around to watch the next game @ New Scotland... On a gorgeous day for baseball with sun and MUCH lower humidity, it was almost as much fun being a spectator of the other games afterwards...
And after his Black Sox had been on a roll, winning 5 straight (including one over the top-ranked Giants), plus having Jerry Solomon on the mound, they were primed to give us Yankees a good fight... But well, the best laid plans often go astray and the game was basically all about the batterymates of Yankee ace Darrin Ambridge and catcher Mike Reutter calling and pitching an excellent game. It of course didn't hurt that the Yankee bats were out in full force and got a 4 spot in each of the first 3 innings for Darrin and Reutter to work with, but still, he only walked 1 batter and gave up 5 hits... Not sure how many k's, but I'm guessing about 6 or 7... I might be a lil biased (ok, maybe a LOT, but still), he is my pick for the top pitcher in the league as he has always had raw talent, but after fine-tuning his curveball to match the blazing fastball over the last couple years, he just makes me go "wow" at SS sometimes... Also doesn't hurt him to have a stud like Mikey behind the plate calling for him either!
Bottom line is that we won 14-4 and were hitting on all cylinders except for one horrible inning when Darrin had to suffer through us making 3 errors and giving up 2 unearned runs... That was ugly, but when the big bats are working and give you a little wiggle room it doesn't hurt quite as badly...
And on the offensive side, guess what? Just in case you haven't already heard, there was a certain SS to go unnamed who went 3-3 w/4RBI's, 3 R's, and most importantly, a DINGER baby!!! Which for the record was not only at New Scotland and thus not a cheapie, but to LC and into the wind! Only a triple shy of the cycle (walked in 1 AB as well), it was my first HR other than a couple "inside-the-parker's" since I was like 10, maybe 12 years old... Talk about feeling like a kid again, whoa, I wanna do that more often as once every 40 years or so is a little too long it seems... And oh yeah, don't wanna forget, it might just be the Rake bat ~ R074 model! Just gotta swing it right ~ they're in there!
Plus Jack Griffin (unquestionably one of the BEST all-around players in the league), went 3 for 4 with a double and 2 or 3 RBI's, Mikey Reutter had a couple hits, including a gapper... Kevin Jackson had at least 2 hits, including a double... GM and newly elected HOf'er Donnie Dunham continued his torrid season at the plate with the killer blow, a bases loaded, bases clearing double w/ 2 strikes and 2 outs after wasting 3 good pitches from Jerry... Lex always gets hits (I think he leads the league in hitting and has at least 1 in every game this year, would have to check) and was on base and stealing as usual... Dean Little had a hit, scored a couple runs, and made all his defensive plays at 3B... Mike Izdebski (Izzy-Pop) had a hit and RBI, plus John Sheehan played a stellar game in RF... So yeah, all around team effort with everyone contributing and doing their part to make us 8-1... Seems it's a different person rising each game, except for the constant of Darrin doing his thing on the mound and always giving us a chance behind his left arm... The brother can pitch!
Looking forward to taking on the Royals next week as that'll be another test as I think it's clear they are an up-and-coming team with a lot of new talent... Gotta commend Stevie Van Gelder and Brad Buchan for putting together a fine squad this year and we'll see you guys out there at the C Diamond next weekend in what promises to be a good one... Plus I noticed all the fans the Royals had yesterday as wow, I think they had more people there rooting them on than any other game I've seen this year... Nice... So tell 'em all to bring the and settle in for the show next week too as uh yeah, you guys aren't gonna surprise anyone this late in the season as now we know you're good... Just not sure you're as good as us!
-- Edited by Marcus Aurelius on Monday 22nd of July 2013 08:10:03 AM
-- Edited by Marcus Aurelius on Monday 22nd of July 2013 08:38:28 AM
Pitching and offense. Remarkable pitching performance by Darrin A. Kept the Sox batters off-balance all day and K'd 5 of us and only 1 free pass. Mark says 5 hits but I have only 4 in my book. The way the Yanks spanked the ball it appeared they were hitting off a batting tee. Congratulations on your 4-bagger Mark. Did I say pitching and offense?
dbwixon
-- Edited by dbwixon on Monday 22nd of July 2013 04:08:23 PM
The Giants aren't taking any prisoners on their way to a one loss regular season, and they have some serious depth on the mound to go along with a line-up where there is no where to go to get an out. It should be fun watching your two teams go at it.
-- Edited by mgirard11 on Tuesday 23rd of July 2013 07:33:41 AM
-- Edited by mgirard11 on Tuesday 23rd of July 2013 08:19:24 AM
Yeah, there's no question the Giants are "the team to beat" and have both the the line-up and depth to win it all ~ again ~ just like 2 years ago when they beat us in the Finals...
However, we are not the same team and have added depth, power, and speed since then ~ so I'm liking our chances pretty good...
Plus they can obviously be beaten and as we both have to play not just each other but the Reds again in the reg season (not to mention the equally obvious of the other teams on the remaining schedule), the seedings are far from decided...
I'm not sure it matter much though since the top 4 get bye's in the 45's and I'd be very surprised if the Reds, Giants, or us (Yankees) didn't remain in the top 3 spots ~ though the unbalanced schedule definitely does as it was designed to do and helps make more games competitive, it also allows the middle-of-the-road teams to get easy wins along the way and have a possibility of sneaking into the mix for a bye as well...
Any way it goes, I'm confident it'll be fun for all and nobody's overlooking you guys either as you're still the defending champs and can light up a scoreboard when you have everyone there... Plus you know how to win and are built for playoff baseball, so the reg season is just that ~ the reg season...
We know who you are, despite your record this year...
This is definitely an exciting time of the year where we start to get playoff ready baby, so let the fun begin!
Good Luck to ALL and may the baseball Gods smile down upon us with some good, decent weather these next couple months...
Which for the record was not only at New Scotland and thus not a cheapie, but to LC and into the wind! Only a triple shy of the cycle (walked in 1 AB as well), it was my first HR other than a couple "inside-the-parker's" since I was like 10, maybe 12 years old... Talk about feeling like a kid again, whoa, I wanna do that more often as once every 40 years or so is a little too long it seems... And oh yeah, don't wanna forget, it might just be the Rake bat ~ R074 model! Just gotta swing it right ~ they're in there!
and settle in for the show next week too as uh yeah, you guys aren't gonna surprise anyone this late in the season as now we know you're good...
