1. Stu wondered this morning if I might like to make a trip with him to a gravel pit. His son and daughter-in-law, who live in the Osburn suburb of Sunnyslope, needed a load of gravel and Stu has a dump truck. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see Stu, ride in his dump truck, go to the Smelterville gravel pit, take a drive up Terror Gulch to the Sunnyslope Road, and then have lunch with Stu. He swung by my place around 10:30 or so, I leapt into his dump truck, and we were off. At first, Stu thought we could get the gravel at a pit in Osburn, but that wasn't the case. After he ran an errand in Osburn, we soared back through Kellogg and went out to where the drive-in and the dump used to be north of Smelterville. A loader dumped a load of gravel into Stu's truck, we rumbled back to Osburn and up to Sunnyslope, and Stu dumped the gravel right where Amanda wanted it.
We topped off our time together with lunch at the Hill Street Depot where I enjoyed a smoked French dip sandwich and a can of Rose cider. Stu and I yakked up a storm on the road and over lunch and had a great time.
2. Upon returning home from the gravel pit, Sunnyslopes, and the Hill Street Depot, I dashed into the Vizio room and flipped on the Yankees/Astros game. While eating lunch, I had seen out of the corner of my eye that the wee and mighty Jose Altuve had blasted a home run in the top of the first inning (his twelfth postseason home run in his career!) and when I eased into my Vizio chair, the Astros still held that 1-0 lead. Just as Charly joined me and I stretched out my legs a bit on the folding chair I use as a stool, Josh Reddick blasted a second inning round tripper.
Things did not look good for the Bronx Bombers. The Astro's Gerrit Cole, who hasn't lost a start since May 22, was on the hill for the Astros, but he was not quite as sharp as usual. He walked five batters. He struck out seven, ending a streak of eleven straight games of striking out 10 or more batters (that, by the way is sick). He got into some testy situations today, but, if you know anything about baseball, the test of greatness in a pitcher is whether he can get batters out even though he doesn't have his best stuff -- or, to put it another way, doesn't have his A game. Tonight, Cole had his B game and he pitched masterfully with lesser stuff, shutting out the Yankees for seven innings before leaving the game. The Astros scored a couple more runs in the 7th thanks to a Zach Britton wild pitch and on a sacrifice fly. Astro reliever, Joe Smith, surrendered an 8th home run to rising pinstripe star Gleyber Torres, but Will Harris and Roberto Osuna got the game's last five outs and the Astros now lead this series 2-1.
Rain storms are forecast in the Gotham City for Wednesday. It's possible Game 4 will be rained out.
3. If you were in Washington, D.C. today and if you were to go to the Howard University Hospital, you would arrive at the former site of Griffith Stadium, the former home of the Washington Senators. In 1933, with three games played at Griffith Stadium, the Washington Senators played the NY Giants in the World Series. No World Series game has been played in D.C. since.
That will change next week.
Tonight, the Washington Nationals jumped all over the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning, scoring seven runs. The Cardinals aided the Nationals' cause with a couple of boneheaded flubs on defense. For all intents and purposes, it looked like a) this game was over and b) I'd be getting out the latest crossword puzzle I've been working on.
In the early innings, the Nationals' starting pitcher, Patrick Corbin, dominated the Cardinals. In the fifth inning, though, he faltered. The Cards scored three runs and crept within three runs of the Nats, 7-4. But, manager Dave Martinez stuck with Corbin and Corbin struck out Paul Goldschmidt and Marcell Ozuna to end the inning. The Cardinals put more runners on base in the ensuing innings, but the much-maligned Nationals' bullpen kept them from scoring and secured the win, sweeping this series. Now the Nationals advance to the World Series.
When I lived in the DC area, I always had this sense of Washington, D. C. being an underdog city. Maybe another time I'll sort this out. I do know this: the people of D. C. hunger for their teams to succeed. The Caps won the 2018 Stanley Cup. The Mystics won the 2019 WNBA title. Can the Nationals add a World Series to these successes?
I'd love to go to D. C. during this series. I wouldn't even bother to dream of getting a ticket to the ball park, but there are any number of places I'd love to go to and watch the games with other fans of the Nationals. But, I'll watch it all from either the comfort of the Vizio room or on a stool at the Inland Lounge.
I enjoy the Astros a lot, too. I hope they defeat the Yankees. I'd love to see the Astros and Nationals square off for all kinds of reasons. I'm eager to see how that AL series plays out.
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