1. Having moved back to Kellogg, talking with Cas regularly, meeting Seth and yakkin' with him at the bar, and playing a season of fantasy baseball all have combined to bring me back into the world of being an involved fan of Major League Baseball again. For me, being a baseball fan is social. When I was a youngster and played a lot of baseball, I talked a ton of baseball with Rog, Byrdman, Abby, Don K, Pos, Stu, the King Street Hitters, and many others and this carried over into college, especially with Rocket the Badger. I also had two great baseball friends in graduate school, Mike (RIP) and Michael (RIP) and my whole experience as a grad student in the 1980s was greatly enhanced by talking baseball with these guys when we weren't talking about how to teach English composition and life in the English department.
But I fell away from paying close, daily attention to baseball over the last 15 years or so. I paid enough attention to know who played in the World Series and I enjoyed the times PF and I and Russell and I and the Troxstar and I watched World Series games together.
Ah, that's enough history. It's been fun, though, to think about how much I've enjoyed getting back into the baseball groove.
Well, almost enough history.
I wrote yesterday about Dad teaching our Little League team members to hit the cutoff man and about setting up relays from the outfield to whatever base a runner was going to. After I wrote that, I remembered another thing Dad taught us. If a throw were coming from the outfield to home plate, the cutoff man was the first baseman -- because he didn't have a base to cover. He taught us that the pitcher was not a cutoff man. His job was to back up home plate -- and, if we really did things perfectly, the shortstop would cover second base and, in case an eager hitter decided to backtrack on his way to second, the second baseman would cover first base in case a throw were cut off and the runner could be picked off going back to first.
I don't know if Dad's instructions prevail in today's game of baseball, but they sure made sense and worked well for the mighty IOOF Oddfellows in 1965-66!
2. About 1:30 this afternoon, I popped myself a bowl of popcorn, got my Fire Stick and television to work when it was stubborn again, and settled in to watch what I thought was going to be an exciting contest between the Braves and the Cardinals.
Then I watched in disbelief (and a degree of horror) as the Cardinals scored TEN runs in the top of the first inning and cruised to 13-1 victory.
It was what I would call a "crossword game". I worked crossword puzzles from the first inning on, but kept an eye on the game just in case a miracle unfolded for the Braves.
3. It was a whole different story, though, in the 5:30 game between the Dodgers and the Nationals.
When I lived in Maryland, I went to Yankee Stadium and to Camden Yards in Baltimore, but I never went to Nationals Park -- and I regret it. But, as I've written before, I started feeling hometown allegiance to the Nationals because they were on the tv a lot at both Quench and the Old Line Bistro and those feelings have carried over to the present.
So, this evening, I was emotionally involved with the Washington Nationals! I really wanted them to beat the Dodgers.
My heart sank when Max Muncy hit a two-run bomb off Steven Strasburg in the first inning and sank deeper when Kiki Hernandez slammed a solo shot in the second and Dodgers darted out to a 3-0 lead.
The Dodgers' pitcher Walker Buehler looked unhittable, combining pinpoint fastballs with a mix of off speed pitches. Had this been a baseball game taking place not that many years ago, I would have really thought the Nats were sunk. In those days, a dominating pitcher like Buehler would have likely pitched the whole game and had Buehler maintained his great stuff for nine innings, the Nats would have been sunk.
But, in recent years, pitchers are held to pitch counts. Complete games are rare. Dodgers' manager Dave Roberts had stated publicly before the game that Buehler would come out of this game at some point and Clayton Kershaw would be his first pitcher out of the bullpen.
Therefore, in the back of my anxious mind, I knew the Nationals were going to get a reprieve from the nasty pitches of Walker Buehler. The Nats dented the Dodgers lead in the sixth inning on a double by Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto's slash to right for a single. Meanwhile, Stephen Strasburg toughened up and shut the Dodgers out until he exited the game after six innings and the Nats' (much maligned) bullpen took over.
In the top of the 7th, two Nats reached base on a hit by pitch and a walk, but Buehler also retired two hitters. Adam Eaton, a left-handed hitter, came to the plate and that was it for Buehler. He left the game, having thrown 117 pitches, a full night's work. Dodgers' lefty Clayton Kershaw swooped in and struck out Adam Eaton and the Dodgers kept their two run lead.
Then, to the surprise of many observers, Kershaw returned to pitch the top of the 8th. Kershaw's pitches come to the plate about 8-10 mph slower than Walker Buehler's and both Rendon and Soto feasted on Kershaw's offerings, hitting back to back home runs on consecutive pitches. Kershaw was done.
Both bullpens held and the game went into extra innings. Joe Kelly had pitched a strong ninth inning for the Dodgers and, I guess, Dodger manager Dave Roberts believed Joe Kelly had another strong inning left in his arm.
He didn't.
The Nats loaded the bases and Howie Kendrick, a 36 year old veteran in his fifteenth major league season, playing for his fourth major league team, slammed a grand slam deep to center field and suddenly the never say die Nationals went up by four runs.
Dodger Stadium became a morgue.
Sean Doolittle retired the three Dodgers he faced in the bottom of the tenth and the Nationals, who lost 31 of their first 50 games in 2019, continued their astonishing run of success over the last four months and will now play the St. Louis Cardinals for a spot in the World Series.
In case you didn't know, the Dodgers won 106 games in 2019. The Nationals won 93. In the wild card game the Nationals had to win to advance to this series, they had been behind 3-1 to the Brewers before scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to win that game.
Can the Nationals continue this improbable run of come from behind victories and unforeseen success?
I can hardly wait to find out.
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