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Two battles between the Tucson Sidewinders and Sacramento River Cats have occurred since my last posting. Tucson won one and lost one. The final in the series is tonight at 7:05 - as always, you can catch this on COOL 1450AM or on the Winders official website.
Saturday, May 5. I was unable to tune into the beginning of this game and I fear I may have been the force that turned the game on its head against the Winders (baseball is a game that holds fast to superstitious thinking: I’ve seen Winder Watchers leave TEP early because they missed a rally the night before and suddenly believe they have to be out of sight before the team will win!). I tuned into the game in the bottom of the 8th inning. At that point, the Winders were up, 3 to nothing. No problem, right? Well, except that D.J. Carasco’s finely pitched game had been turned over to reliever Casey Daigle. Casey definitely did not have his good stuff going. He gave up three runs on one hit and two walks. Mike Schultz was next to be thrown into the fire: he gave up the winning run to the Cats and was quickly replaced by Bill Murphy who got out of there with only one hit and no runs. Tucson was unable to score in the top of the 9th and the game was over. Final: Tucson 3, Sacramento 4. What a downer for D.J., who ended up with a no-decision after a wonderful showing on the mound. On a positive note, the Winders were able to turn five double-plays during the game. Defensive teamwork is starting to come together!
Sunday, May 6. Ryan Radtke said the Sunday day game was absolutely lovely - except there was a fairly stiff wind that occasionally appeared to effect play. Evan MacLane pitched the start for the Winders and he had a very successful outing, eventually getting the win in a low-scoring affair. Tucson’s Alex Romero and Mark Johnson continue to be good offensive tools: Alex had two RBIs to account for 2/3 of the team’s scoring. After his second RBI (and the second run scored by the Sidewinders), Ryan said it’s “now Alex Romero 2, Sacramento 0.” Evan left after six shutout innings, to be replaced by Randy Choate. Randy gave up the only run for the Cats, a homer, and had three strikeouts. Jailen Peguero came in to finish up the eighth and close the Cats down in the ninth, for his second save of the year. River Cat pitching last night posted some interesting numbers. Between the starter and closer, they issued NO walks and had only ONE strikeout (which came against Tucson batter, Dee Brown, in the top of the ninth).
By the way, Sacramento clearly loves its River Cats. Attendance at Saturday’s game was posted as 10,963; Sunday’s was a healthy 12, 922. Here in Tucson I tend to think we’ve got a really good crowd if we get up to 6,000…
Welcome to the Bigs, Kid! Fresno’s former pitching sensation, Tim Lincecum, had his big league debut in San Francisco last night in a game against the Phillies. No matter how well you do “down on the farm,” the major leagues always look a lot different to the up-and-coming young baseball player. That seems especially true with pitchers (remember in “Bull Durham” when Nuke gets his call up and Crash Davis warns him that the guys are going to “light him up” at first?). Tim didn’t do horribly, but he certainly didn’t post those PCL numbers! He struck out five, walked five, and gave up five hits and four earned runs (two of which were homers) in his 4 1/2 inning debut. Tim’s new big league ERA is 10.38. ESPN SportsCenter showed his very first pitch of the game: a hit. That’s gotta shake unflappable Tim! Though Tim didn’t pitch long enough for a decision, the Giants still lost the game to the Phils.
Rocket’s Retirement Plan includes Yankees. By now I’m sure the whole world knows that Roger Clemens and the NY Yankees have agreed to terms on a one-year contract that will (after a quick spring training-like warm up in the minors) put the old Rocket back on the Yank’s pitching mound.
(Disclaimer - this posting not reviewed/approved by the Sidewinders, Diamondbacks, PCL, MiLB, MLB, or any other baseball official and represents the views and biases of the author alone)
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