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I began this season in Phoenix to watch group games in the World Baseball Classic. Scroll down this page for individual Game Notes, and there’s a recap of highlights from the whole amazing tournament here.
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Sunday, October 1: Detroit Tigers vs Cleveland Guardians, Comerica Park, Detroit MI
At the end of a life in baseball that came straight from a scriptwriter’s pen, a final scene that you literally couldn’t make up.
Detroit came out to say farewell to Miguel Cabrera – 500 home runs, 3,000 hits, 600 doubles, .300 career average and a Triple Crown – and watched him end his career by making an unassisted put-out at first base
The whole day felt as if the baseball Gods were smiling on the first-ballot lock for the Hall of Fame, and on the last day of the season, with – of course – nothing to play for, the Tigers beat the Guardians 5-2 in front of a sold-out crowd at Comerica Park, ninety per cent of which must have been wearing ‘24’ jerseys.
To be fair, there was a significant number of ‘Thank You Tito’ shirts among the visiting fans, marking the end of another important baseball story as Terry Francona – maybe – called it a career after 10 years as a Major League player and 23 more seasons as a manager; 1,950 wins, 3 AL pennants and 2 World Series titles. It will likely irk some in the Cleveland tribe that he will go into the Hall – also a first-ballot lock – wearing a Red Sox hat, but what a decade he has had in Cleveland.
But today was all about Cabrera, and even though he went 0-for-3 in the actual game, his personality pervaded every pulsating inning, punctuated by “Miggy Memories” – highlights and tributes on the big screen from former teammates and opponents alike. The two biggest cheers of the day were probably for the spots recorded by Jim Leyland and Pudge Rodriguez.
Even the Tigers’ broadcast crew got caught up in the moment, documenting what looked likely to be Cabrera’s final at-bat as DH in the seventh inning (he walked on four straight pitches) before he entered the game alone in the following inning to play first and wrap it all up in fairytale style.
While the city of Detroit was captivated, not everyone was swept up in the Miggypalooza. I was chatting to one guy called “Joe” in a Tigers jersey on the QLine down Woodward to the stadium who said he “didn’t care about Cabrera” but it soon became clear his grievance was more with the Tigers organization and how, in his view, they didn’t do enough to mark the life of Al Kaline when he died in 2020.
That’s an opinion, I suppose, but today was never going to be anything other than a joyous celebration of the next Tiger to join Kaline in Cooperstown.
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The postseason is set. Wild Card play begins on Tuesday. Thanks to everyone I went to a game with or talked baseball with this season.
There’s – of course – a lot of baseball still to be played, but just remember; it’s only 136 days until Pitchers and Catchers report for spring training.
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Thursday September 28: Detroit Tigers vs Kansas City Royals, Comerica Park, Detroit MI
Today was one of those past and future split-screens that reinforces why baseball, in all its connectedness, is fundamentally beautiful.
Tonight, the Baltimore Orioles joyfully clinched the AL East title with the sixth 100-win season in their history – the first since 1980 – on the back of the most promising young core of players in baseball and with a community still mourning the loss of Brooks Robinson.
After watching these young O’s steadily take step after step to becoming legendary over the past couple of seasons, I wasn’t there to witness their hundred-to-hundred vindication. Rather, for non-baseball reasons I was in Detroit watching one of that city’s legends get ready to hang ‘em up.
Wednesday night’s Tigers-Royals game – on the anniversary of the final game at the old Tiger Stadium – fell victim to the heavy storms passing through the area, but not before Miguel Cabrera hit his 511th home run, helping the Tigers run out to a 4-0 lead by the time the game was suspended in the fourth inning.
With clouds still hanging ominously over the city today, we had a “game-and-a half” doubleheader, finishing last night’s remaining frames before the scheduled game. One ticket, one admission – bonus baseball, plus getting to see Miggy one last time.
He DH’d in the first game as the Tigers finished off an 8-0 win, and didn’t play in the second, where they came from behind to bat around and score 7 runs in the 7th inning and take the game 7-3. Spencer Torkelson hit his 30th home run of the season, the first time a Tiger had hit that mark since 2016, and I don’t even have to say who did it then.
Cabrera has three games left to change the numbers on display in left field at Comerica Park.
I have fond memories of Tiger Stadium, since it was where my youngest son saw his first game, in that last, 1999 season. Coincidentally that day was against the Orioles, and two years before he retired, Cal Ripken Jr stayed out signing autographs for folks at the front of the stands long after BP had ended.
My son, who was 8, was fascinated by the scene but didn’t understand the fuss over one player.
It was also a ‘kids walk the bases’ day after the game and as we were coming off the field we bumped into a couple of young Tigers in uniform heading to the outfield for some conditioning work. One of them, who kindly signed our program that day, was Kimera Bartee, who went on to be a base coach and sadly passed away two years ago at far too young an age.
He had been drafted by – of course – the Orioles in 1993 and ended up with the Tigers in 1996. Soon after we met him in 1999, he was traded to Cincinnati, where my son now lives and often goes to watch the Reds.
Bartee’s signature on that final season publication isn’t the most valuable autograph I have, but to me it’s priceless – partly because it was the first autograph my son and I got together, but also because it became a reminder to make the most of every single day, since none of us know what life has in store.
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Looking a lttle further back than the last days of the great old stadium – but also connecting them to what the Orioles achieved tonight – the last year the Tigers won 100 games was the year they won the most recent of their four WS titles.
Since then, the closest they’ve come to winning a hundred games was 98 in 1987, when they lost the ALCS to the Twins – and Sparky was Manager of the Year. They won 95 in 2006 behind ROTY Justin Verlander before losing the WS to St Louis.
Their most recent post-season appearances were in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons, but in 2019 they lost 114 games, illustrating the extent of the declining fortunes of this deeply historic franchise in the AL Central, still by some distance baseball’s weakest division.
This season, the Tigers are currently second in the Central with a record of 76-83, which tonight would tie them with Boston for last place in the division the Orioles just clinched.
So, a special night for Baltimore, and I’m sorry I couldn’t be there. But there will, assuredly, be many other celebrations for the city and its exciting young team.
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Tuesday 26 September: Baltimore Orioles vs Washington Nationals, Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
The passing of legendary Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson at the age of 86 inevitably cast a shadow over tonight’s game. It felt like a good number of fans were hearing the news for the first time when it was announced at the park, just before the national anthem.
A deeply sad loss for the Orioles, the local community and baseball as a whole. In the initial media reaction that was still unfolding as the game played out, one theme came through clearly – “Brooksie” was a great player and an even better man.
He would be particularly pleased by how the team stuck to their task tonight in difficult circumstances and now head into the rest of their final homestand full of confidence for what lies ahead – the sort of confidence he himself showed in helping bring Baltimore two World Series titles.
This was my last in-person O’s game of the season unless – sssssh – they somehow, impossibly, end up playing in the Wild Card. Either way, the team with the best record in the AL are heading for their first post-season since 2016, and it’s completely deserved, particularly after an impressive 52-49 road record. And now, hopefully, they can harness the spirit of #5 to propel them to even greater heights.
Amid something of an obviously subdued atmosphere, the Orioles recognised the season-long contribution of Austin Hays – one of the key pieces in their resilience this year – before Kyle Bradish took the mound to pitch a gem, allowing just three hits in eight shoutout innings. (Bradish now has an ERA of 2.86. The last Oriole pitcher to end a season with an ERA less than 3.0 was Mike Mussina in 1992.)
Gunnar Henderson hit a lead-off bomb to start the home half of the first and that was the end of the scoring as the O’s held on to win 1-0 and bring their magic number down to 2. The Nationals threatened for a few innings but it proved another frustrating night for their starter Josiah Gray who yet again couldn’t buy himself any run support.
After today, the O’s have five games remaining – one more against the Nats tomorrow then a four-game finale against the Red Sox (and for only the second time since 1995, neither the Sox or the Yankees will feature in the playoffs).
Two more wins will give the O’s a century of victories for just the sixth time in franchise history.
Regardless of how the rest of their season plays out, fans are rightfully excited about what’s to come next year and beyond, as the combination of a young core and some mouthwatering prospects mean the team’s competitive window looks likely to stay open for a while yet.
(Read my recent Q&A with journalist John W Miller, who thinks that the Orioles can be “the new Braves”.)
For now, though, like everyone else in the post-season, they’re going to have to get through the current Braves, who won their 100th game the other day and look to have the strongest top-to-bottom lineup in baseball right now.
You can be sure Brooks would relish that contest.
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Friday, 15 September: Baltimore Orioles vs Tampa Bay Rays, Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
Jack Flaherty was trending on Friday morning and not in a good way.
With the Orioles on Thursday night dropping the opening game of their most pivotal series of the season so far, the inconsistent Flaherty was to take the ball for the second game and O’s fans weren’t particularly happy about it.
The former Cardinal (who was almost traded to the Rays on deadline day) has an ERA over 7 and said after his previous start: “I can’t pitch any worse than I have. … It’s gonna get better. I’ll figure it out.” The question was do the Orioles really have time for him to do that?
On the strength of Friday, the jury’s still out but is definitely watching the clock after Tampa brushed the Orioles aside 7-1 to leave the teams in a tie atop the AL East.
Flaherty started well, with three efficient scoreless innings before the gears slipped. Even a trio of middle-relievers couldn’t steady the ship as the impressive Rays racked up the runs including a pinch-hit three-run homer by Harold Ramirez.
On a night to forget for O’s fans there were a couple of memorable moments, though…
Twenty-four year-old Heston Kjerstad made his first MLB start, having come into Thursday’s game as a pinch-hitter late on. The second overall pick in 2020 had been brought up in response to an apparent injury to Ryan Mountcastle and lit up the park with his first MLB home run to lead off the 6th.
But the shot marked the conclusion of the game’s scoring and ended up a lonely dot in another frustrating evening of offense for the home team as the Rays’ Zach Eflin pitched into the eighth to take the win and move to 15-8 on the year.
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As well as being Roberto Clemente Day, Friday was also a celebration to mark Adam Jones’ retirement and proved to be the emotional occasion you’d expect for such a well-loved former player and the sort of event the Orioles do well.
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Dan Connolly wrote this curtain-raiser before Thursday’s game:
It’s now a two-game series, and if Rodriguez and Kremer can help the O’s split, or at least avoid the sweep, then normal service can be resumed. But Brandon Hyde and his team badly need an injection of their earlier self-confidence heading into the final weeks of the schedule (See the previous Game Note here from Sept 11). They’ve now lost four in a row – their longest skid of the season – at exactly the wrong time.
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Monday, 11 September: Baltimore Orioles vs St Louis Cardinals, Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
On this day of all days, I always try to go to a ballgame for everyone who can’t, and we picked a good one today as the Orioles continued their best season since 2014 with a convincing 11-5 win over the Cardinals, powered by a Cedric Mullins Grand Slam.
The O’s have scored double-digit runs in 4 of their last 5 games and, because of the restructured schedules this year, became the first American team to beat every other team at least once in a single season.
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As a former citizen of New York, remembering September 11 and all those whose lives were forever altered that day will always be important to me, and baseball has been how I’ve tried to do that – a way of reaching beyond complexity for things that are simple and represent what America’s pastime is supposed to mean to us as people.
When I lived there, I used to alternate between Shea and Yankee Stadiums each weekend, depending on who was playing at home, before going into the newspaper’s office in midtown Manhattan for the nightshift. I’ll have to count tickets, but I’m pretty sure I’ve still seen more games at Shea/Citifield than any other ballpark.
I was working on the newsdesk the night Mike Piazza hit that famous home run against the Braves in the first game back after 9/11 that let the entire city exhale; and I was at Yankee Stadium for one of the first two games – I’ll have to check the ticket to remember exactly which one – of the ALDS when the Yankees fell behind to the A’s before winning the next three to further push the “team of destiny” notion that, by then, New Yorkers were all too keen to embrace.
I was also at Shea for a Sunday afternoon game in October between the Mets and the Expos when the bombing campaign in Afghanistan began. I had to leave early to go into the office as an already chaotic world took another dramatic turn.
The unifying effect of baseball in the aftermath of the attacks has been documented often, perhaps most effectively in the 2004 HBO film Nine Innings From Ground Zero.
Beyond showing the importance of baseball to the city, watching it now the most jarring takeaway is the sheer extent of the fall of Rudy Giuliani from “America’s Mayor” – and undoubtedly the leader we needed at that precise moment – to a figure of widespread ridicule and self-destroyed integrity. It’s really desperately sad.
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One thing has always bugged me – in this era of increasingly ubiquitous interleague play, why can’t MLB schedulers make sure the Mets and Yankees always play a series over Sept 11, including some kind of fundraising event benefitting first-responders and alternating between Queens and The Bronx with each season?
That seems like the most obvious of no-brainers.
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Tuesday, 5 September: Cincinnati Reds vs Seattle Mariners, Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, OH.
The man with the longest name in baseball came through to give the Reds their 10th walk-off victory of the season behind a debut outing for pitcher Connor Philiips.
The win – their major league-leading 44th comeback victory of the season – gave the Reds the three-game series.
The teams combined to hit five batters, including Cincinnati’s Jake Fraley twice. Seattle’s Ty France was hit for the 30th time, extending his single-season franchise record.
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Monday, 4 September: Cincinnati Reds vs Seattle Mariners, Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, OH.
The Reds welcomed back Eugenio Suarez and Luis Castillo, traded to the Mariners in last season’s rebuilding swap meet. On the basis of today, it’s hard to say who got the better deal as a big 6-3 win for the Reds behind a bullpen performance on the mound – including two perfect innings to start the game by Tejay Antone – keeps Cincinnati in the hunt for a NL Wild Card spot.
This season the Reds are 12-1 against AL West teams, while Seattle have now lost consecutive games by three runs after going 40 straight games without a defeat by that margin.
On Labor Day, there was a picket outside GABP by protesters lobbying for the unionization of an Amazon Air depot nearby.
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Sunday, 3 September: Cincinnati Reds vs Chicago Cubs, Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, OH.
Since I’ve been coming to this ballpark regularly for the past five or six years, this is probably the most full I’ve ever seen it for a game not on Opening Day. And it’s totally understandable – Labor Day weekend, a lunchtime game before the big annual downtown fireworks display and the Cubs, a reasonably local rival, are in town.
But it’s a great thing to see the crowds turn out for a team that lost exactly 100 games last year and – even if their bump in the wake of calling up Elly De La Cruz has evened out by now – are again entertaining to watch, with both of today’s teams competitive in the NL Wild Card race.
The Cubs bats broke out to take today’s game 15-7 and split the series, scoring more runs in the eighth inning than they had in any of the team’s last six games. Seven Cubs had a multi-hit day, while Jameson Taillon struck out seven with no walks.
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Saturday, 2 September: Cincinnati Reds vs Chicago Cubs, Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, OH.
Special guests at tonight’s Reds-Cubs game were the ball team from the Covenant School in Nashville, honoring their teammate William Kinney. His dad and grandad were here too. Such an awful loss can never be fixed but maybe baseball can help heal, even a little.
Despite making two errors, Elly De La Cruz hit a game-tying run to help the Reds secure their ninth walk-off win of the year, 2-1. With the defeat, the Cubs slip to 4.5 games back of the Brewers, who won yet again.
And it was a night of late comebacks for both Ohio teams, as the Guardians pulled out an extra-inning win over the Rays to leave the Baltimore Orioles 2.5 games ahead in the AL East.
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Sunday, 20 August: Chicago Cubs vs Kansas City Royals, Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL.
Today was the 40th anniversary of my first visit to Wrigley Field.
A lot has happened in between – and I’ll write about that separately – but thankfully today’s Cubs were able to reverse the karma of that first game, when a home team still somehow managed by Lee Elia despite his infamous outburst a few months previously, fell to Joe Torre’s Braves.
On Sunday, behind a quality start from Kyle Hendricks and two solo HRs by Seiya Suzuki and Miguel Amaya, the Cubs took a 4-1 lead into the final frame before the Royals scored two off Adbert Alzolay to make the outcome closer than it should have been, with KC leaving the tying run in scoring position.
The Cubs took the series and moved to a season-high five games over .500.
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Friday, 18 August: Chicago Cubs vs Kansas City Royals, Wrigley Field. Chicago, IL.
“Score Card?” the woman at the Cubs Team Shop asked, as I stopped on my way to the right-field seats on what was my first visit to Wrigley in far too long.
“Yes, please. How did you know?”
“You have a score card kind of face.”
Sounds about right.
Unfortunately it wasn’t a totally karmic afternoon as the Royals topped the Cubs 4-3 to halt the home team’s pursuit of Milwaukee at the top of the NL Central. It was the 40th win of the season for the Royals, who stay anchored to the bottom of their own mediocre division.
It was a beautiful day for a ballgame; and a noisy one too, with several flyovers from military planes rehearsing for the weekend’s air show down by the lake. The field darkened in the shadow of a C-17 transport, while jets in tight formation circled Wrigley so quickly at various times through the game it left the sell-out crowd cheering their contrails.
When the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr homered in the 6th inning, it felt like the bench had called in an airstrike – the whole scene had echoes of a Top Gun recruitment film.
The Cubs wore their CityConnect jerseys today, so I’m going to blame the loss on the good people of Garfield Park.
Better luck on Sunday…
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Thursday, 17 August: Washington Nationals vs Boston Red Sox, Nationals Park, Washington DC.
Even having Chris Sale back on the mound couldn’t help the floundering Red Sox, as a spirited fightback – including a Luis Urias Grand Slam – came up short after the equally floundering Nats had racked up a 9-1 lead. After a good entertaining game with plenty of hitting, the Sox fell 10-7 to drop the series and stay fourth in the AL East, ahead only of the Yankees, whose implosion seems to – hilariously – worsen with each passing day.
(For good measure, Urias hit another Salami the following day against the Yankees – becoming the first Red Sox player to hit a Grand Slam on consecutive pitches)
Patrick Corbin got Thursday’s win after six solid innings – one more than Sale – but the Nats stay rooted to the bottom of the NL East, now 23.5 games back.
Today’s National Anthem was sung by The Baseball Project, the “supergroup” featuring REM’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills, and I went to see them at The Hamilton after the game. It was the first time I’d seen Buck and Mills on a stage since REM was part of the Vote For Change tour in 2004.
“Bring our band to town and your team will win,” they said.
It was a fun show.
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Saturday, August 12: Washington Nationals vs Oakland A’s, Nationals Park, Washington DC.
The “Sell The Team” roadshow came to town as the teams with the ugliest records in baseball faced off on what was otherwise a beautiful evening in the nation’s capital.
It was Racing Presidents Bobblehead Night and as Washington and Jefferson appeared to set up to breast the tape together – as in the giveaway model – Tom sneakily tripped George to take the win. Politics is life. And sure enough, a walk-off home run by Keibert Ruiz – the first of his career – twisted the knife at the death to send Oakland to yet another loss and leave them and their sub-.300 record more than 30 games out of a Wild Card spot.
In fairness, though, the A’s shot themselves in the foot long before the final frame, typically with this knucklehead play by rookie Luis Medina in the second inning. It should probably have been scored an error, but that would have taken a hit away from a Little League-style hustle by Ildemaro Vargas, who went on to score and give the home team the lead. The play pretty much summed up the game, and Oakland’s season.
With the A’s still widely expected to move to Las Vegas – a smaller market – for the 2024 season, it would be the first time an MLB franchise has relocated to another city since the Montreal Expos moved in 2005 to become… the Washington Nationals.
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(Read ‘Not All Who Wander Are Lost’ the Q&A with Michael Avila, who grew up in the Bay Area and saw his first MLB game at Oakland Coliseum)
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Tuesday August 8: Richmond Flying Squirrels vs Bowie Baysox, The Diamond, Richmond, VA.
It’s pretty hard to miss Jackson Holliday.
The Orioles’ top prospect cuts an impressive, confident figure in everything he does around the ballpark; your eyes would be naturally drawn to him anyway. Plus now kids are showing up – like many did in Richmond last night – with signs aimed at getting his attention, and maybe an autograph, as the buzz continues to grow that he could make the jump to the big league before the end of what has already been a remarkable season for the O’s.
Whether that happens sooner or later, the aura around Matt’s kid is only sure to grow with every performance.
But last night the Baysox, with the rehabbing Cedric Mullins at leadoff, were eclipsed 10-2 by the division-leading Giants’ farm team the Richmond Flying Squirrels.
The minor leagues’ decision to move to six-game series as part of the structural changes post-pandemic means the kids here will have another five chances to get that Holliday signature – especially if it comes for free instead of the $8million dollars his John Hancock cost the Orioles last summer.
And when you think about those lottery-esque numbers for a young player, it’s always worth remembering what Dirk Hayhurst wrote a decade or so ago about the harsh conditions facing the vast majority of minor leaguers. Living the dream.
The Diamond, home of the Flying Squirrels, is out on Richmond’s Arthur Ashe Boulevard where the Greyhound station used to be, but which is now one of the main arteries to where smart new apartment buildings are springing up. I took the – free – city bus out and back to downtown; it took about twenty minutes and runs every 30. The atmosphere at a Squirrels game is – like at most minor league parks – reflective of the strong community connections teams rely on.
Last night, for instance, there were at least a dozen ceremonial first pitches from a queue of various sponsors – outfielder Vaun Brown was on catching duty and efficiently tossed all of the balls into a bubblegum pail to be retrieved and signed later.
It was also Salute to the Peanut night, sponsored by the Virginia Peanut Growers Association, featuring what was certainly a pretty, er, unique giveaway. Sadly I’m heading back to Baltimore this evening, so will miss Breastfeeding Awareness Night…
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Saturday August 5: Baltimore Orioles vs New York Mets, Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD.
The historical echoes have grown louder as this season has gone on, and as the Orioles marked the 40th anniversary of their most recent World Series-winning season, the current team continues to lay claim to that mantle, another strong victory over the New York Mets leaving them three games clear atop the AL East.
The celebration of the 1983 team went off smoothly (apart from a typo in one of the big screen images), with a sold-out crowd waiting in line for more than an hour for the Eddie Murray bobblehead ahead of the ceremony. The club thankfully resisted drawing a through-line to the current team by having Murray, Palmer, Ripken and Dempsey show up as Futuristic Teletubbies…
Even the presence of 1,600-odd members of the Seven Line Army among a sold-out Camden Yards couldn’t inspire the Mets who, after rolling over the previous night, went down 7-3 to another inspired Orioles performance, behind home runs from Henderson and Santander and a quality start from Kyle Gibson for his 100th career win.
But while the Seven-Liners at least managed to get O’s fans to join in a brief chorus of “Yankees Suck” they should maybe watch out for the irony wagon.
The Mets have now lost five straight and haven’t won since a trade deadline that saw them unload both Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander as the “reset” – apparently towards 2026 – continues at the team with the highest payroll in MLB history.
In all, a satisfying win for the home team, a packed house and a beautiful evening. The wave goes on and the whole city is loving it.
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Wednesday August 2: Washington Nationals vs Milwaukee Brewers, Nationals Park, Washington DC.
At what seems to be a genuinely historic moment, it felt right to be in the nation’s capital today as it prepares for tomorrow’s arraignment of the former President after his third federal indictment. There was some disruption to the Metro on the way to the park, but I only found out later it may have had something to do with this…
It also felt appropriate that the Nats’ opponent today should come from one of the states where the alleged “fake electors” scheme contributed to Trump’s alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. Then again, they could have been hosting any of the Diamondbacks, Braves, Tigers, Pirates or Phillies…
But it was the recently NL Central-leading Brew Crew who were in town, and behind recalled veteran pitcher Wade Miley managed to blow a heartbreaker in the ninth.
Yesterday was also the MLB trade deadline and at the same time as Special Counsel Jack Smith was announcing the defendants to be named later, both Brewers and Nationals were adjusting to roster changes from the previous few days; Milwaukee picking up Carlos Santana from Pittsburgh and the Nats losing Jeimar Candelario to his former team, the ever-schizophrenic Chicago Cubs. It’s fair to say they had contrasting outings at the plate on Wednesday.
Like politics, the real excitement in baseball often waits for the denouement, and yesterday saw the Nats come from behind to win on a walk-off error.
Tomorrow in DC could prove to be the beginning of the end for the former President. The capital’s ball club will hope that today’s unlikely reprieve might be the end of the beginning. Don’t count on either, though.
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Wednesday July 19: Baltimore Orioles vs Los Angeles Dodgers, Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
Yes, that would be your “division-leading” Baltimore Orioles tonight after avoiding a sweep against the Dodgers – Brandon Hyde’s team still hasn’t been swept in 70 straight series, or basically as long as Adley Rutschman has been on the roster.
Yet Rutschman wasn’t a factor Wednesday as the O’s won 8-5 against a good team that always kept threatening. And it was a particularly satisfying victory after falling hard the previous night.
After a 45-minute rain delay, the Dodgers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first with Dean Kremer looking shaky in his first career start against the team that drafted him, but Baltimore answered with four of their own then consolidated behind some funky Urias on Urias action and a Gunnar Henderson homer to take their MLB-leading 34th come from behind win.
It’s the first time the Orioles have been in first place after the All-Star break since 2016, as they head into what will be a pivotal four-game series against the slumping Rays in Tampa this coming weekend.
Plenty of the narrative around this hugely entertaining AL East race will be, understandably, about how the Rays squandered their remarkable 30-9 start to the season – they were six-and-a-half games up at the beginning of July – but that does a disservice to Brandon Hyde and his players, who have never lost touch and never lost heart.
There’s still a long way to go, but for now, embrace the chaos.
There has been plenty of talk this week about what the O’s should be doing ahead of the Trade Deadline in two weeks. Ken Rosenthal’s piece in The Athletic made the point that teams never get to dictate their window of competitiveness and now is the time to be aggressive. Riding a perfect storm of overachieving early and an absolutely stacked collection of prospects, surely now is the moment to go after the best player currently playing the game.
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Monday July 17: Baltimore Orioles vs Los Angeles Dodgers, Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
First game back for the second half of the season and it was a tough night for the Orioles, their win streak snapped at eight as the Dodgers won a tight one 6-4 behind a huge sixth inning capped off by a Chris Taylor grand slam.
Grayson Rodriguez took a 4-1 lead into the inning, but it all started to unravel for the recently-recalled pitcher when Freddie Freeman tagged him for a lead-off triple. After Will Smith jiggily brought Freeman home it just got worse for Rodriguez as a couple of singles and a wild pitch ended his evening. Bryan Baker replaced him and a walk to Jason Heyward set the table for Taylor.
The Dodgers’ unlikely game-winner had grounded to third twice and there was little reason to expect him to do anything else until he belted an 0-2 fastball into the bullpen and that was that.
Despite a two-RBI triple in the second from Gunnar Henderson and a solo homer by Adley Rutschman in the fifth, the O’s offense was pretty quiet; their 7-8-9 innings even more subdued by hitting into a couple of double plays.
After presumably hearing the umpire yell “You’re Out, man” his previous three times up – because, y’know, who among us could resist? – the Dodgers’ center-fielder finally got on base in the top of the ninth. But by then his team had as much of a cushion as they’d need and veteran Ryan Brasier came in to pick up the save, the win going to young Emmet Sheehan, who’s now 3-0 on the season.
It was a tough loss for the O’s after such a promising start by Rodriguez (2-2), but they stay a single game behind Tampa after the Rays fell to the Rangers on a walk-off wild pitch.
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Sunday June 25: St Louis Cardinals vs Chicago Cubs, London Series, Olympic Stadium, London, UK.
The London Series returned after a Covid-interrupted break since the Yankees and Red Sox faced off at the Olympic Stadium in 2019. And generally it was worth the wait, with pretty much everyone heading home happy. Two almost-sold out games, a split series, a great atmosphere, the requisite positive publicity and lots of kids in the crowd on both days bodes well for awareness of youth and amateur-level baseball in the UK.
Especially on the back of Team GB’s fine showing in the WBC earlier this year – and coach Drew Spencer featured in the broadcast during the opening game – having the “real thing” up close as part of MLB’s continuing effort to grow the game internationally is a great opportunity to spread the good word about the grassroots game here.
As you’d maybe expect, though, amid the excitement and good time, the actual game experience was no Camden Yards. The Olympic Stadium is far from a perfect venue, but is the only reconfigurable location in the capital that can hold 60,000 people (Twickenham rugby stadium holds more than 80,000, but can’t be adapted for baseball, likewise Wembley and the Tottenham Hotspur stadium can only be reconfigured for NFL games) and the ground staff did a fine job with the conversion. But there are some issues that obviously wouldn’t be accepted in a baseball-specific stadium that’s being used every day during the season.
Leaving aside the field dimensions, which were probably the least of MLB’s worries for just two games, the low-hanging structure meant the scoreboard is obscured for everyone not down in the 100-level seats – which themselves are white to fit West Ham United’s colour scheme, but from the field apparently means teammates’ white jerseys can be harder to pick out.
That curvature you can see across the infield is a shadow, which stretches as the afternoon goes on and made it tricky to see the ball off the bat from where I was sitting; which brings us back to the quality of the seats for their price. Of course you expect to pay a premium for a relatively unique experience and, like with MLB, the highest-end seats are always aimed at a distinct class of fan, for whom £1000 means as much as £100 does to others. So it’s churlish to complain about ticket prices – except, as with MLB, if you’re taking a family or a couple of kids.
For Sunday’s game I ended up in a section out in left field which cost £60 ($76) including fees. I thought that was OK for a one-off event, even if the view wasn’t great, and as usual I didn’t spend too much on top of the ticket: £10 for a game program, £15 for a – really good – chilli dog and about another tenner for a beer.
The previous evening, I went to the MLB Fanfest in Trafalgar Square, where below Nelson’s Column the biggest screen was again largely obscured by a batting cage. The Fanfest was set up to be more interactive, but with free admission it offered a good chance to just sit in the Square and watch the game on the two other screens, while sampling some midwestern food truck delicacies. Not as expensive as being at the stadium, plus without the trek out to Stratford.
As for the games themselves, an honourable split, with the Cubs beating up on Adam Wainwright on Saturday (and somehow one of the British commentators appeared to think that Wainwright pitching at all at 41 was something to be celebrated..) before the Cardinals took advantage of Marcus Stroman’s blister-shortened outing on the Sunday.
With the Ashes test series against Australia under way, for many first-time English baseball fans the cricketing connection is probably the easiest form of reference and MLB played up the games’ shared ancestry, with England bowler Jimmy Anderson and Australia’s Nathan Lyon throwing out the ceremonial pitches at Saturday’s opener. Anderson later sat in as a colour commentator and was actually pretty good, drawing a smart line between things like pitch selection and bowlers’/pitchers’ mentality.
Sunday’s first pitches were left in the hands of Dexter Fowler and Albert Pujols.
In all, it was a good weekend for fans and for the game. MLB will be happy and the “rivalry” theme is set to continue next year, when the Mets and Phillies bring their own unique brand of competitiveness to town on June 8-9.
***
Wednesday June 21: Pittsburgh Pirates vs Chicago Cubs, PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA.
The Cubs – and me – head across the pond in the best possible frame of mind after another comfortable victory in the lunchtime game here completed a sweep of the Pirates – their second three-game sweep of Pittsburgh in the last two series – and the Cubs’ fourth straight series win. They’re now 12-7 this month.
The Pirates scored first – their first run in these three games – but Kyle Hendricks was generally his steady self today, notching another quality start behind some solid run support from Nico Hoerner and Pittsburgh native Ian Happ, before a tricky couple of walks brought Mark Leiter to the mound in the seventh.
Hendricks has now gone 5+ IP, allowing 3 or fewer ER in five straight starts.
The Pirates pulled a couple back after Trey Mancini bobbled a play at first base which saw Leiter fall awkwardly. But the Cubs got those runs back in the next inning and went on to close it out 8-3. They’re now 12-2 against Pittsburgh over the past year and while the Pirates’ current slide continues, that hasn’t stopped talk of the team being aggressive ahead of the upcoming trade deadline.
You already know from the last couple of Game Notes how I feel about PNC Park and the overall experience of watching baseball here; but this is a great fanbase that deserves a more consistently competitive product on the field.
As for the Cubs, I’ll see you in Trafalgar Square on Saturday for the MLB Fanfest and then at the London Stadium on Sunday!
***
Tuesday June 20: Pittsburgh Pirates vs Chicago Cubs, PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA.
A friend said his brother had been at last night’s 8-0 blowout and left early “because the Pirates were doing Pirates things like they have for the better part of 22 years [since the ballpark opened].”
This game was more of the same, with the Cubs sending upcoming All-Star Marcus Stroman (9-4, 2.28 ERA) to the mound for seven solid innings to help nail down a 4-0 victory for the series win (and Stroman’s seventh straight), behind two Nico Hoerner RBIs and a solo homer by TV’s last remaining likeable Tucker. Mike Tauchman went 3-for-5.
Hoerner had a slide home overturned on review in the eighth to score the Cubs final run.
The Cubs have now won 9 out of 11, with four consecutive series wins. For the Pirates, their losing streak now stands at eight, with five of those losses against the Cubs. It’s another sign of how chaotic and unpredictable the NL Central is at the moment. Who would have thought at the start of the season that the Cardinals would be propping up a division led by the reborn Reds?
(Certainly not my friend Chris Lamb, who was typically down on his team when we did a Q&A a few weeks ago…)
***
Monday June 19: Pittsburgh Pirates vs Chicago Cubs, PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA.
On Juneteenth, the Pirates marked the day with a superb national anthem from Zuly Inirio. Pennsylvania’s first Black Lieutenant Governor – and the youngest in the country – Austin Davis threw out the ceremonial first pitch, while tonight’s designated non-profit partner was the August Wilson African-American Cultural Center.
A wonderful Roberto Clemente display graces the newly-extended team store near the Left Field gate, joining his statue out front.
PNC Park is still, without doubt, among the most beautiful places to watch baseball.
When it opened in 2001, I travelled down from New York to see the Cubs series, but the last time I was here was the 4th of July game in 2019 when Joe Maddon was hilariously ejected. The Cubs went on to win that game by eight runs, and they did the same last night; the home team’s collapse a disappointing way for 2021 top draft pick Henry Davis to make his long-awaited debut.
With the Bucs already down by three, at least the locals had something to cheer when Davis – whose walk-up music is ‘Free Bird’ – doubled off Cubs pitcher Drew Smyly his first time at bat. Sadly there would be no fairytale this time, as a flyout ended the inning after Smyly had issued two more walks to load the bases.
With the crowd already clearly embracing him, Davis has an opportunity to make a name for himself in a great sports town. It will be fun to watch his progress. One man who had definitely cemented his place as a legendary part of Pittsburgh sports, broadcaster Stan Savran, died last week. He was honored tonight by a moment of silence.
Love the show.
***
Thursday, June 15; Baltimore Orioles vs Toronto Blue Jays, Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
The O’s bounced back from last night’s reversal behind Jose Berrios’ stellar pitching, to beat the Blue Jays, 4-2 and take another series, moving to 43-25 on the year. This makes five straight AL East series the O’s have won – the first time they’ve done that in a season since they last won the division in 2014.
Tyler Wells pitched 6 2/3 innings despite giving up two home runs to Jays’ catcher Danny Jansen – whose scoreboard picture still looks like he’s auditioning for Devo – hit two homers for the Jays’ complete offense on the night.
Appropriately enough on the 35th anniversary of Bull Durham, it was Jansen’s opposite number, the imperious young catcher Adley Rutschman (DH-ing tonight), who again proved to be the Orioles offensive focal point. He homered alongside Austin Hays (and who’d bet against them both repeating that in next month’s All-Star Game?) and kept his pitchers on track to seal the win, using both Cano and Bautista to close things out.
As Keegan Matheson wrote after today’s game: “The Orioles are suddenly sitting in the Blue Jays’ seat at the table in this division, built around a young, impressive core with a league-best eight Top 100 prospects still on the way.”
It’s definitely a fun ride. Long may it continue.
***
Wednesday, June 14; Congressional Baseball Game, Nationals Park, Washington DC.
On Monday, it was reported that Speaker Kevin McCarthy, while briefing the press about House business, “spent several minutes talking about the Congressional Baseball game tomorrow.” Problem is, the game wasn’t until Wednesday, giving me an instant flashback to GOP strategies like this:
But the Democrats barely showed up in any case, getting steamrollered 16-6 as the Republicans took bragging rights for the third straight year.
As the players lined up for the national anthem, the Republicans at least looked like a team that was reasonably serious about this – what you’d expect from a group managed by Roger Williams – while the Dems’ decision to wear uniforms from the players’ respective districts was symbolically safe, but just made them appear like a pick-up team at the local sandlot on a Saturday morning.
Dan Goldman, for example, wore a Manhattan Borough Community College shirt and a Brooklyn Dodgers hat.
In truth, though, it was like watching a Little League game, but with Secret Service.
On the anniversary of the shooting incident during practice in Virginia for the 2017 game, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, wounded that day, got the Republican rout going in the bottom half of the first, with his designated runner stealing a couple of bases and coming home to put the GOP on the board. The “AARP Shohei Ohtani”, Florida Rep Greg Steube – who wore a signed MAGA hat – was solid on the mound and at the plate, apart from plunking his opposite number, Pennsylvania two-wayer Chris Deluzio.
Texas Rep Jasmine Crockett became the first Black woman to play in the game’s 114-year history. She was also the only woman on the Democrats’ roster, to the GOP’s three. And at least this guy didn’t make the cut…
But as it became clear that it wasn’t going to be another 13-12 nailbiter like 2021 (in which Steube hit the first out-of-the-park home run for 40 years) the crowd turned their attention to themselves – never a stretch in Washington. As well as raising money for local charities – usually around $1.5million – the game is primarily a night out for Congressional staffers, interns and lobbyists to get together and do very Washington things.
Given the past few days in the “real” world, it was maybe inevitable that there were chants of “In-dict-ed, In-dict-ed” from the blue half of the stands, but it was all mostly good natured. I left for a train before beer sales got cut off (although since it was only a seven-inning game they actually may not have been), so I missed what might have been some interesting photos on the see-saw prop brought by Storycorps’ One Small Step, an initiative promoting bipartisan dialogue.
And before the game started, I found out what “bipartisan dialogue” looks like to some people.
A large group of students – all wearing the same red t-shirts and supervised by staffers from a prominent GOP “institute” – arrived and wanted to sit together in the row where I was on the aisle. I was planning to go get a beer anyway, so I got up to leave, realising about thirty seconds later that I’d left my phone on the seat I’d been in.
I went back and one of the kids was holding it. I said it was mine and thanked him for finding it, but before he handed it over he asked “Are you a Republican or a Democrat?” I replied “My phone’s neither Republican or Democrat. It’s just a phone.” I could have asked him why it mattered, but I remembered that when I was 18 or 19, being out in public among members of the same tribe can be a powerful thing. If the One Small Step initiative accomplishes anything, it might be to remind us that people as individuals are very different from people in groups – particularly if they’re all wearing the same shirt, regardless what colour it is.
In all, for a few hours Nationals Park was like a cross between a party convention and a 1990s tech conference, lots of beer and bragging, plenty of flirting and everyone went home with armfuls of useless tchotchke swag in a sponsor’s bag – with your choice of red or blue handles, of course.
Talking of the 1990s, in what was a totally random encounter as I got out of the subway, the Bull Pen across the street was hosting a pre-game lobbying event for a patients’ rights group and the guest band were veteran Portland rockers Everclear.
My favorite song of theirs, “Tell me everything is wonderful now”, was probably more perfect for summing up the whole evening than anyone knew.
***
Sunday, June 11; Baltimore Orioles vs Kansas City Royals, Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
There were lots of kids – and plenty of “first game” buttons – at the park on another beautiful Sunday; and after being entertained by probably one of the widest ceremonial first pitches for a while, they got to see a really good game as the Orioles completed a three-game sweep of Kansas City.
The 11-3 win – the O’s biggest margin of victory so far this season – came on the back of doing the basics right: effective pitching and glove work, as well as some overwhelming power at the plate, including a 7th-inning home run by Gunnar Henderson that turned out to be the longest shot hit onto Eutaw Street since the ballpark opened.
After the Royals struck first, the O’s responded to take a 3-1 lead in the bottom half of the first. KC tied it up in the third and it looked like the game would be a tight one, with Mike Mayers steadying the Royals’ ship for a couple of innings after starter Carlos Hernandez left at the end of the opening frame.
But that turned out to be the last time a Royal would cross the plate, and behind a solid outing by Kyle Gibson, the O’s offense – without Adley Rutschman, Ryan Mountcastle and Cedric Mullins – layered on eight more runs – including that monster blast by Henderson – for an emphatic victory.
This is the ninth series the O’s have swept in the Rutschman era. They have yet to be swept themselves.
With the win, the O’s move to 17 games over .500 at 41-24, but weren’t able to make up any ground on the Tampa Bay Rays, who beat the Texas Rangers in a meeting of the teams with the best records in baseball.
***
Tuesday, June 6; Washington Nationals vs Arizona Diamondbacks, Nationals Park, Washington DC.
The Washington Nationals host the longest-running Pride celebration in MLB – this was the 18th year – and it’s particularly noteworthy this time around because of events taking place both inside and outside of baseball. As Gabe Lacques writes in USA Today, the nation’s capital offers a relatively safe space from which to watch what’s happening elsewhere, in the context of what promises to be a particularly performative political cycle.
“..Fans took pains to note there was nothing particularly subversive about gathering with friends over cold drinks and a Nationals-Arizona Diamondbacks game within a supportive community largely unbothered by sexual orientation or gender identity.
“But zoom out a bit from D.C., and add the context of discriminatory laws passed in other states, and politicians chasing clout at the expense of the marginalized, and a thrum of culture warriordom aiming to sweep away rights fought for over decades, and the tenor can change.
“Loud and proud? Certainly. Yet “leave us alone” also fits these times.”
Even within MLB – like within America itself – there appears to be far from a unified approach on how to recognise the event, with individual teams left to deal with the consequences of individual decisions. The Texas Rangers, for example, are the only team not observing a Pride event this year. But things like this are nothing new.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – a guest of Team DC, the largest LGBTQ sports group in the US – threw out the ceremonial first pitch, a “looping toss” to the Nats’ rainbow-bedecked mascot Screech. One of them was immortalised in tonight’s bobblehead giveaway.
The Gay Mens’ Chorus of Washington DC sang the national anthem – as they have every year since 2006 – and everything was great. But then the game started. A grand slam by Stone Garrett gave the Nats a 4-1 lead in the first inning and it was downhill from there for the home team, as the D’Backs went on to win 10-5. Arizona stole five bases on the night and the Nats committed two errors.
All in all, another game to forget for the Nats, and they have to face the fact that their continuing poor form isn’t going to bring more people to the park. I mean, this was the crowd at first pitch, and unfortunately no amount of eagle bobbleheads is going to do much to change that…
But people show up to ballgames for any number of reasons. There was one gentleman who sat in a prominent first-row position behind the plate wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat. Presumably he’d chosen that seat so he’d show up on TV. I hope he thought it was worth it.
***
Sunday, June 4; New York Mets vs Toronto Blue Jays, Citi Field, New York NY.
Great to be back in New York and ride the 7 train out to Flushing.
Last time I was at Citi Field was three years ago, the night Pete Alonso broke the Rookie Home Run record, and sure enough he broke another one today, hitting his 72nd HR at Citi Field (after some discussion among the umpires over where it hit the wall).
But it’s probably more likely – for the first 15,000 fans at least – that the words “Pete Alonso” and “broke” might come up more frequently in talking about the sunglasses giveaway. And you have to feel for Jon Stewart, who was at the game but seemed to only appear on the big screen when things were going badly…
With the Blue Jays – in stunning powder-blue Sunday unis – taking Sunday’s game 6-4 to complete the sweep, you have to think Joel Sherman has a point when he asks “Maybe this drastically inconsistent team is exactly who the 2023 Mets are”. Incidents like the unfortunate ground-rule double call on Marte in the second inning don’t help, but as they head to Atlanta for a three-game series, Buck’s team just need to capitalise better when they do find some hot streaks.
Finally, there was an interesting tidbit in Joe Posnanski’s column the other day about the Mets being the team with the highest payroll. Their 40-man payroll is $377 million – not just the highest this season, but the highest in baseball history. The difference between that and the next-highest current payroll – the New York Yankees – is $82 million.
The Baltimore Orioles’ entire payroll this season is $82 million.
***
Wednesday, May 31: Baltimore Orioles vs Cleveland Guardians, Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
This home stand ended on a down note for the O’s who, after dropping two of three to the Texas Rangers, lost today’s rubber game to Cleveland 12-8 and with it the opportunity to tie a franchise record for wins before June 1st. The 1997 Orioles had 36 wins before June and really, for this young team, 35 wins by this stage of the season – given the projections – is plenty to celebrate, even if there are some pressing questions to answer; mostly on the mound.
They’re also adjusting to the loss of Cedric Mullins for an uncertain period after a groin strain on Tuesday (although Aaron Hicks had a solid debut in centre field, going 2-2 before leaving the game with cramps). An upside has been the continued hot streaks of both the reliable Adley Rutschman and former Cleveland prospect Anthony Santander.
After tagging Cleveland starter Shane Bieber – on his birthday – for four runs and an early lead, the Orioles’ bullpen couldn’t hold things down – sound familiar? – and ended up using seven pitchers in a roller-coaster slugfest that featured 29 combined hits. This was the first time this season that the O’s had lost back-to-back series, while the Guardians have only won by more than three runs three times this season – and two of those were this week.
Over the three Cleveland games, the O’s gave up 22 runs to baseball’s 29th-ranked offense, so clearly there are issues to be addressed as they head to the West Coast.
***
Thursday, May 25: Washington Nationals vs San Diego Padres, Nationals Park, Washington DC.
There’s always a deeply respectful marking of the upcoming Memorial Day weekend in pre-game ceremonies in the nation’s capital.
This was the final home game before Monday, when the Nats will be out in Los Angeles. I’m always somewhat embarrassed to answer in the negative when the staff at the team store ask if I’m “serving or retired military” to get a discount on a scorecard – but moreso than ever this particular weekend, as we all express our gratitude for immeasurable sacrifice.
It also puts what we value in perspective when you’re riding the Green Line out to the game and you overhear young people talk enthusiastically about their service and postings in between discussing pitching matchups.
Which is probably why a story like this felt particularly jarring on a day like today.
As for the game itself, it was a frustrating one for the home team, who failed to build on a first-inning lead as the Padres – with DC’s prodigal son Juan Soto getting another standing ovation before his first at-bat – jumped out to a 5-1 advantage by the fifth and looked to be cruising to what would be just their first series win since the start of the month.
That was until a breakout seventh inning when the Nats rallied to score five runs on seven straight hits to lead 6-5. But then, with the Padres down to their last life, everyone’s favorite Game of Thrones character Rougned Odor sent a three-run blast into the Nats bullpen in right field, just below where I was sitting.
The Padres and their heavenly payroll have struggled, particularly with hitting, more than many people expected this season – in their last 11 games they’ve managed only three hits with runners on that have resulted in multiple runs; and Odor has all three of them. They needed a win like this to remind them what they should be capable of with the likes of Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr, Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado in their lineup. Maybe the birthday of Padre Pio had something to do with it…
“Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless.“
*
For the Nationals, as David Aldridge wrote in The Athletic, the post-Soto rebuild is “slow and (far from) steady.” He writes:
“It will never be normal to see Soto coming out of the third-base dugout at Nationals Park. If the sharp pain of his departure has lessened, the collective fans’ arm is still, figuratively, sore. What genuinely stings, of course, is that the 2019 team never really got a real chance to defend its championship.”
And with the Trade Deadline looming into view, the Nats appear to have taken a unique approach to their roster…
***
Thursday, May 18: Baltimore Orioles vs Los Angeles Angels; Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
It was STEM Field Trip Day and the ballpark was packed with school groups from all over the city and their incredible energy. They danced, they did the Wave, they screamed on cue – in fact, the ‘Get Loud’ sign on the jumbotron was totally redundant. This was way better than going to the Aquarium.
And after doing some science experiments on the field before the first pitch, the kids got to witness a rollercoaster of a game as the Angels held on to beat the O’s 6-5 and split the four-game series.
Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout both hit their tenth homers of the season – Ohtani in the first and Trout in the third off Tyler Wells – as the Angels jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but the O’s tied it up in the fifth on the back of an Anthony Santander blast. The lead then bounced back and forth, with Adley Rutschman hitting a two-run shot in the seventh to make it 5-4 O’s and setting up what looked like being a dramatic unlikely win after a pretty flat start.
But the O’s bullpen couldn’t make it stick and after Austin Voth hit Trout to load the bases in the eighth, Danny Coloumbe came in to give up an RBI to Ohtani, making it 6-5 Angels.
In the bottom of the ninth, a great throw by Hunter Renfroe got Adam Frazier at second, and despite a double by pinch-hitter Cedric Mullins, Angels’ closer Carlos Estevez intentionally walked Rutschman and struck out Ryan Mountcastle to wrap it up.
If any of the kids here today were seeing their first-ever ballgame, they could hardly have picked a better one, apart from the outcome.
***
Monday, May 15: Baltimore Orioles vs Los Angeles Angels; Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
The Oh! Show came to town and it was every bit as effortlessly dominant as we’ve come to expect. The phenomenon that is Shohei Ohtani led the Angels to a 9-5 win over the Orioles, handing rookie Grayson Rodriguez his first major league loss.
On the mound, Ohtani pitched seven innings, giving up four hits for five runs; all of them via homers – two-run shots from Adam Frazier and Anthony Santander, and a solo by Cedric Mullins.
At the plate, Ohtani was a double away from hitting for the cycle, after walking in the first inning and going four for five, crushing a towering, 456-foot, three-run blast onto the terrace in the fourth to retake a lead the O’s couldn’t claw back. Staying in the game as DH, he became the first pitcher to both start a game and reach base five times since the Yankees’ Mel Stottlemyre did it in September 1964.
For Rodriguez, the much-anticipated pitching match-up wound up as a disappointing night for sure, giving up eight runs in three and a third innings. There were some – not many – boos as he exited, but as Dan Connolly writes at The Athletic, that comes in part from the heightened expectations surrounding this Orioles team, but “the club probably isn’t reaching those heights without Rodriguez.”
“… Fans shouldn’t be worried [about Rodriguez]. He possesses maturity well beyond his years to go with talent that’s undeniable.
“Now, it’s a matter of knowing how to pitch in the big leagues and making adjustments when his command is spotty. This is where he has to learn that consistency. Rodriguez has graduated from the minors, and now he’ll take his lumps at times on the biggest stage.”
They say there’s always someone having a worse night than you are, and in this case it was probably the guy who snagged the Ohtani homer – and threw it back. Apparently he “instantly regretted it.”
***
Sunday, May 14: Baltimore Orioles vs Pittsburgh Pirates; Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
With the three-game series against the Pirates already won, the O’s fell 4-0 to another fine outing from a rejuvenated Mitch Keller, who struck out 13 over seven scoreless innings – a modern franchise first. Keller (who’s now 5-1) had thrown his first career shutout last week to help the Pirates snap a seven-game losing streak and was in command early, getting all the run support he’d need by the end of the third. This was only the Bucs’ second win in 13 games.
For the O’s, even Cedric Mullins, fresh off hitting for the cycle in Friday’s series opener, couldn’t click, while Kyle Stowers’ struggles at the plate continued, striking out four times today. Kyle Gibson (4-3) gave up four runs on seven hits. It was the third time Baltimore had been shut out this season – all three behind Gibson.
From what I’ve seen, the O’s have looked either good or really good in three or four games out of every five or six so far; they still have the second-best record in baseball (don’t forget they just took a series against the team with the best record) and are trying to work out some of the issues with consistency and personnel. Joey Ortiz made his home debut at short, striking out in the third in his first at-bat.
The Angels come into Camden for four games starting on Monday, when Shohei Ohtani is set to start against Grayson Rodriguez. See you there.
***
Tuesday, April 18; Washington Nationals vs Baltimore Orioles; Nationals Park, Washington DC.
Ron DeSantis and I were both in the Nation’s capital today, but it sounds like I had a better day than he did.
As Representatives from DeSantis’s home state used his DC fundraising event to declare their fealty to his potential presidential rival, Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer was locking down a 1-0 win in the first ‘Beltway Series’ game of the season between the often uneasy neighbours. The Nats’ bats went to sleep yet again, wasting another fine outing by Josiah Gray.
In the 25-year-old right-hander’s four starts this season, the Nationals have scored a combined total of *one* run. Tonight he pitched pretty well through six innings, exiting after issuing his fourth walk, with the Orioles leading by what would be the game’s only run on an Austin Hays RBI.
Kremer tied his career-best with 15 swinging strikes on his way to a fifth career scoreless start of at least six innings. But he had to pitch out of a shaky moment in the third after a fielding error at first base put a couple of Nats runners in scoring position with no outs. After that, Kremer went on to retire eleven straight through to the 7th inning.
Overall, a fine showing by the Orioles, who move to 10-7, while the Nationals’ struggles continue at 5-12.
One quick final thought, and it’s not just about here, but here is where I was.
I usually enjoy my visits to Nationals Park – it’s a nice park, never too crowded, has a good informative scoreboard if you’re keeping score and it’s accessible from Baltimore (although come on MARC, restore the 10pm train home). The game day staff are pleasant and helpful, and yes, on principle, baseball belongs in the nation’s capital. But you guys have to do something about prices.
I shouldn’t be paying more for a beer than for either the game ticket or the roundtrip train fare to get here.
Because the on-field product is poor, ticket sales are patchy at best – there were easily more Os fans here tonight – you resort to on-the-day gimmicks to try to boost the numbers. For instance, because today was Tax Day, you had a special $10.40 off some tickets on the day. Not really a big help to those of us who already bought our tickets (and even then, how do you justify $7 in “fees” on a $13 ticket? Just call it a $20 ticket and shut up).
It’s already expensive enough to go to a ball game – and most times I’m by myself. I’ve got to the point where I usually buy the cheapest admission available, I only have one beer, I eat before I get to the park, and I rarely buy anything in the team store. It’s not like I don’t have some disposable income, I’d just rather go to more games than blow it on one.
Maybe if teams made it just a little less expensive for a night out, they’d get fans going back more often. But like everything else these days, you never see prices go down…
***
Sunday, April 16; Johns Hopkins vs Dickinson; Babb Field, Baltimore MD.
Some folks in charge of baseball these days might have a problem with doubleheaders because they feel like they might never end.
For the visiting Dickinson College team, the first inning of the first game today must have felt that way.
JHU almost batted around twice, scoring 14 runs on nine hits including a flurry of six homers – setting an NCAA D3 record for a single inning – before adding six more runs over the next two frames to lead 20-0.
The visitors pulled a couple back in the top of the fourth, but those were cancelled out by another five in the home half. The only shock from there on in was that neither team managed to get on the board in the final three innings, with JHU eventually taking it 26-8.
It was, as far as I can remember, the biggest margin of victory I’ve ever seen in any game.
Unlike the World Baseball Classic, there’s no mercy rule here; although probably the most painful thing of all was the fact that the second Dickinson pitcher in the first inning had to take his warm-up throws while JHU batter Alex Shane’s walk-up music “Woop Woop, That’s The Sound of Da Police” played on an endless loop.
Credit to the Dickinson coaches for huddling their guys at the end of the first and trying to get their heads together to go back out there. But there wasn’t much anyone could say by then.
The second Blue Jay victory of the day finished a more respectable 8-6 – which for the Red Devils probably felt like a moral victory – leaving first-place JHU with a record of 28-3 on the season.
***
Thursday, April 13; Baltimore Orioles vs Oakland A’s; Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
*
When I lived in New York two decades ago, I used to go to every Sunday lunchtime game at either the “old” Yankee Stadium or Shea – whichever team was at home – then leave in time to get to the office for the start of the overnight newsdesk shift around 4.30pm. It took about the same time to get back downtown on the subway to 54th Street from both stadia; usually leaving straight after the seventh-inning stretch.
I missed a lot of walk-offs by leaving early. I also missed plenty of what turned out to be frustrating extra-innings games; but work is work.
Today was probably the first time I missed a walk-off because I had to leave early to pick up groceries on the way home. One of those things, but even apart from the dramatic final shot, this was a really good afternoon’s entertainment on an unseasonably warm day in Baltimore – and yet another of those games that the O’s will admit they should have put to bed much earlier.
Again it fell to hot hand Adley Rutschman to deal the coup de grace, hitting his first walk-off homer – his fourth bomb of the season and third in five games – to lift the O’s over the A’s 8-7 in the latest battle of the vowels.
And talking of Shea, Rutschman’s opposite number on the A’s, catcher Shea Langeliers is the only current major leaguer named after a now-defunct MLB stadium AND a Stephen King story.
As far as I know…
Best story of the day, though – even better than the walk-off – was the 100th birthday of a lifelong baseball fan who celebrated with family at the ballpark.
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Friday, April 7; Baltimore Orioles vs New York Yankees; Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.
An excellent game to start the O’s home season, as the good guys edged the Yankees 7-6 in front of a sell-out crowd of 45,000-plus – the largest home-opener attendance since manager Brandon Hyde arrived in 2019.
Yesterday’s postponement had thrown plenty of fans’ plans into disarray – particularly those who might have been taking part in religious observances at the start of this holy weekend; while having Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in town at the arena just up Howard Street likely gave the BPD some traffic headaches.
As for the game itself, a solid pitching performance by Dean Kremer and the Os bullpen was bolstered by some clutch hitting and baserunning from the Orioles’ energetic new stars, even if the final score eventually wound up closer than it should have been.
It’s going to be fun to watch this young team this year. And this time we’re not talking about the Yankees. Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Grayson Rodriguez could genuinely take the AL by storm. And with it being 40 years since the Orioles last won a World Series, expectations are already sky-high.
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Wednesday, April 5; Cincinnati Reds vs Chicago Cubs; Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati OH.
The first rainout of this project, and unfortunately it would have been a good one, with Hunter Greene scheduled to go for the Reds against Marcus Stroman. The teams are going to make it up as a doubleheader on September 1.
Today was a getaway day for the Cubs, but because of the huge storm front moving through, not many folks were going anywhere. So… first world problems, I guess, as ballparks on the east coast try to deal with what parts of the midwest and south have been going through over the past couple of days.
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Tuesday, April 4; Cincinnati Reds vs Chicago Cubs; Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, OH.
Finally, the Cubs’ bats – which were already pretty ‘woke’ – managed to stick it out to get the win. A seventh-inning breakout sealed a 12-5 victory to even this three-game series with the decider at lunchtime tomorrow.
Hayden Wesneski had his first start of the season and was a little shaky early on, likely giving David Ross a flashback to last night, but in the end it didn’t matter as the Cubs scored 12 runs on 16 hits. Hoerner, Bellinger, Wisdom and Happ – who always hits well in the city where he went to college – all had three hits and Trey Mancini and Patrick Wisdom each drove in three runs.
And although the game was pretty much over by this point, Trey understandably wasn’t happy at this call…
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Monday, April 3; Cincinnati Reds vs Chicago Cubs; Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, OH.
Tonight was one of those instances where you hope your team stays off social media.
The array of frustrated comments are never going to be kind and no amount of venting will change the result – plus you can’t really argue that the team can learn from perceived mistakes when these are professional players who should already be completely aware of what went right and what went wrong.
In particular it was Cubs’ manager David Ross who was savaged on Twitter for his handling of a couple of situations which led to the Reds squeezing out a 7-6 win in what was an entertaining – and, at 2:35, brisk – contest where the teams combined for 20 hits and left 15 men on base.
The first contentious issue was how long Ross persevered with starting pitcher Drew Smyly, who was struggling with his control; the other was why he left Patrick Wisdom in the game after he was hit by a pitch and was unable to swing, leading him to bunt with a runner in scoring position.
For the Reds, there was another Viking hat for Jason Vosler, who continued his run of good form filling in for the injured Joey Votto; following the latest obscure MLB rule that injured players have to be replaced on the roster by a player with the same initials.
Like yesterday against the Pirates, I was there with my friends Marc Bona and Chris Lamb, a Reds’ fan for fifty years, who said he couldn’t remember the last time he’d watched his team win back-to-back games. That may have been an exaggeration…
The Reds are now 3-1 through the season’s first four games. It took them 16 games to reach three wins in 2022, a season they finished with exactly 100 losses.
For this group, last season could turn out to be their Nadir. The only way is up.
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Sunday, April 2; Cincinnati Reds vs Pittsburgh Pirates; Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, OH.
A tenacious and deserved 3-1 win for the Reds behind seven strong innings with a reasonable pitch count by Graham Ashcraft in his season debut. Reds reliever Alexis Diaz – whose walk-up music paid tribute to his injured brother Edwin – picked up his first save of the season.
The young first three of this year’s rotation – Hunter Greene, 23, Nick Lodolo, 25, and Ashcraft, also 25 – should give the Reds a pretty good foundation for moving forward; and with a couple of position players on the verge of breaking through, like Elly De La Cruz, Reds fans could finally have something to look forward to after a few frustrating seasons.
And, yeah, the whole Viking thing is fun too…
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Thursday, March 30: It’s Opening Day!
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Tuesday, March 28; Washington Nationals vs New York Yankees; Nationals Park, Washington DC.
This was an intriguing last Spring Training exhibition game between one of the clubs tipped for the post-season (but then when aren’t they?) and a team that won the World Series in 2019 but had the worst record in baseball last season. (They aren’t projected to be much better in this one.)
On the strength of today, though – despite one or two standout performances on either side – you’d seriously not know which team was which.
The Nationals ended up 3-0 winners powered by a solo homer in the second by Alex Call and four strong innings from Trevor Williams to take the win. The Yankees, for their part, had a decent outing from Nestor Cortes – despite being called for a ‘quick pitch’ clock violation and picking up the loss – but the star of the show was their new young shortstop Anthony Volpe, who singled his first time up in the third and looked impatient to steal at any opportunity, before showing off some excellent defensive glovework.
Volpe looks the real deal, for sure. But for the Yankees, local bragging rights may be at stake this year; with the Mets and their owner Steve Cohen – the “most beloved billionaire in Queens” – determined to make some waves ahead of an even bigger splash next season after possibly landing the best all-round player in baseball.
Aaron Boone started swapping out his entire line-up from the fourth inning onward, and it ended up being the sort of game where everyone looked like they were getting used to something – the Nats’ scoreboard operators included. With the stencil outline in place but not yet filled in for Opening Day against the Braves on Thursday, this was one of those games that was ultimately meaningless, but was better to win than not, particularly for the home team.
Abe won the Presidents’ race, but Nats fans will be happy to have seen an almost-President’s name on the mound, with Mackenzie Gore – one of the Padres’ top prospects who came over in the Juan Soto deal – making his home debut.
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Friday, March 17: Chicago Cubs vs Los Angeles Dodgers; Sloan Park, Mesa, AZ
A beautiful St Patrick’s Day in the land of actual snakes, and the Cubs’ split-squad couldn’t manage a win between them, with the traveling half tying the White Sox 4-4 at Camelback Ranch.
The Dodgers arrived at Sloan Park without Mookie Betts, who’s still on WBC duty, but they did have Great Britain’s man of the moment Trayce Thompson, fresh off his homer against Team USA. And it was Hayden Wesneski’s walk to Thompson that kick-started the Dodgers’ avalanche in the fourth inning.
Up until that point, Wesneski had looked pretty solid and an Ian Happ double had given the Cubs a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third. But the Dodgers – including beloved former Cub Jason Hayward – batted around in the fourth and left the shellshocked Cubs looking up at an 8-1 deficit.
To their credit they tried to battle back behind a sprinkling of big hits from Cody Bellinger, Matt Mervis and Jacob Wetzel – and Dansby Swanson notched a rare double – but the Dodgers held on to win 9-7.
Long-time Cub fan Joe Mantegna was on first-pitch duties – interesting trivia tidbit I never knew: Mantegna sang the seventh-inning stretch on the day of Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout game.
And of course, with it being St Patrick’s Day, Clark the Cub found some green stuff to wear, to the general bemusement of onlookers.
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Thursday, March 16: Chicago Cubs vs Arizona Diamondbacks; Sloan Park, Mesa, AZ
It still feels odd to me to see Madison Bumgarner in any other uniform than the Giants. But thanks to last night’s rainout it’s always good to see the three-time World Series winner pitching at all, even if I had to look up a few of the players lining up with him today for the Diamondbacks. Maybe he did too.
In his second Spring start, Madbum – who turns 34 this year – put up three scoreless innings to help the Dbacks to a 3-1 win (although he returned to the game after reliever Zach McAllister got him out of a second-inning jam – the first time I’ve ever seen that quirky Spring Training rule in operation).
When I was last at Sloan Park a week or so ago, Drew Smyly – incidentally the same age as Bumgarner – became the first Cubs pitcher to go four innings this Spring. Today he became the first to go five and looked pretty solid, giving up two runs on three hits, with four Ks. The Cubs’ only run came on a homer by Cody Bellinger, in what will probably be close to the opening day line-up two weeks from now.
On a beautiful day for a ballgame it was another 16,000-plus sell-out, and you never know who you might run into over by the nacho stand…
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I started this season in Phoenix, watching qualifying games in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, including the USA and – making their WBC debut – Great Britain.
Follow highlights from the tournament here and read my Conversation with baseball writer Danny Knobler here.
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Wednesday, March 15: USA vs Colombia; Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ
The final game of this week’s pool play and as the heavens opened with an intense southwestern thunderstorm outside, even with Chase Field’s famous retractable roof closed, there was something of a pool developing inside.
Strange as it might sound, the stadium is now the fourth-oldest in the National League and after issues with the roof throughout last season, the Diamondbacks’ ownership is weighing its options for when the current lease runs out in 2027.
Going into tonight’s last qualifying game, the USA knew a win would take them to the qualifying stages; but they also knew that even if Colombia came out on top, prompting a three-team tiebreaker for the second spot, Mark DeRosa’s team had an advantage in run differential.
In the end, such mathematical projections were academic after Mike Trout powered the USA to a 3-2 comeback win in a tight contest. Like most of the US team’s games this week, it wasn’t pretty, and a similar standard of play in a win-or-go-home situation might not be enough, but Team USA will play Venezuela in the quarter-final in Miami on Saturday, guaranteeing the WBC and Fox Sports at least one more reasonably-rated broadcast opportunity. (The highest-rated game not involving the US so far was Colombia-Mexico on Saturday afternoon, which drew just 758,000 US viewers).
Tonight’s outcome also had positive implications for Great Britain, who by virtue of Colombia’s loss, gain an automatic spot in the next tournament, set for 2026. Colombia will now have to qualify.
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Wednesday, March 15: Mexico vs Canada; Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ
Apart from rooting for the Great Britain team to do well (mission accomplished) my favourite team to watch during this past week has been Mexico.
Their fans bring a great party attitude to the park, but are also deeply serious about baseball; while their roster is full of entertaining, determined and outstandingly skilful players – there is, literally, always something exciting happening every time they’re up to bat.
They showed just how good they are in brushing aside Team USA on Sunday and put on a show again today, beating Canada 10-3 in what was effectively a play-in game for a place in the quarter-finals that start in Miami on Friday.
Mexico’s Cuban-born outfielder Randy Arozarena has proven to be one of WBC’s biggest assets this week, in terms of his interaction with fans and all-round on-field performances. He understands the value to the tournament of marrying the idea of a spring training feel with a genuine competitiveness.
For a concept like WBC to succeed and become embedded in the minds of fans (and indeed, players) along the lines of a ‘World Cup’, as MLB hopes, there has to be something at stake, but at the same time it has to be a fiesta. With Mexico and Arozarena this week, it has definitely been that.
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Tuesday, March 14: Great Britain vs Mexico; Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ
For a brief, insane moment it looked like Great Britain could be on the verge of exceeding the heights of their outstanding achievement in beating Colombia yesterday. Could they take one more step towards baseball glory?
Against the Phillies’ former All-Star pitcher Taijuan Walker (8 Ks and four scoreless innings) and an impressive Mexican team it looked like it might be a mountain too high to climb, but when the sixth inning began with Mexico leading just 1-0, Chavez Young ripped a double to put the lead-off man in scoring position, and anything might be possible.
The heavy underdogs in Pool C had – underdoggedly – refused to lie down since the second inning when Mexico’s backup catcher Alexis Wilson – himself the subject of a classic baseball cinderella story – had driven in the game’s opening run.
But despite two quick outs that threatened to leave Young stranded, he stole third (tying the WBC steals record) with Harry Ford at the plate. When Ford worked a walk to put men at the corners, Mexico’s manager Benji Gil went to his bullpen, bringing in JoJo Romero to pitch to BJ Murray, who lashed Romero’s first pitch to Mexico shortstop Alan Trejo and beat out Trejo’s throw at first, scoring Young. Cue mayhem!
In the bottom of the frame, relief pitcher Donovan Benoit steadied Britain’s ship and the team’s irrepressible confidence, built on a never-say-die collective attitude, was turning the underdog into a bulldog.
Alas, though, the next inning was destined to be Alexis Wilson’s moment. After fouling a Tahnaj Thomas pitch off against the umpire’s mask leaving him shaken, Wilson stunned the rest of Chase Field by lining a shot into left, scoring Alan Trejo from second. Daniel Cooper came on to pitch and struck out Randy Arozarena before Alex Verdugo rolled one to first and GB were out of the inning with the game thankfully still close.
When Arozarena pulled in pinch-hitter Alex Crosby’s pop fly to end the game, Britain’s dream was over, but Mexico knew they’d been in a scrap. It certainly felt like they were pushed harder than they had been by the USA the other night.
Mexico now go into their last – equally crucial – Pool C game on Thursday against Canada on a huge wave of confidence. The winner automatically advances to the quarter-finals and if the unpredictable USA beats Colombia in the late game, they’ll be the other qualifier.
Mexico are a really good, MLB-calibre team, and even though – no matter what happens – many fans will remember their emotional victory over the USA, this win tonight showed just how resilient they are when circumstances are in flux.
It was, in truth, a remarkable performance from Drew Spencer and his Great Britain team, but then, their whole tournament has been. They may be eliminated, but no-can say they didn’t deserve to be here. They’ll be back. (And if team USA beats Colombia tomorrow, GB will automatically qualify for the next tournament).
Great game!
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Tuesday, March 14: Canada vs Colombia; Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ
The Arizona qualifying pool is going to go down to the final day tomorrow after Canada’s decisive 5-0 win over Colombia behind a superb pitching performance by Noah Skirrow in his WBC debut.
Canada may have been in too much of a Rush to get on the board. Freddie Freeman’s walk-up music in the first inning was ‘Sprit of Radio’. In the third, it was ‘Tom Sawyer’. If he had come up next time to the intro to ‘2112’ it would have been a clock violation…
Freeman left the game after the fourth inning with what was described as a “hamstring concern” and looks set to miss tomorrow’s crucial game against Mexico.
Best sign was the two Canadian dudes who held up a board with “Our Beer is Stronger, Eh?”
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Monday, March 13: USA vs Canada; Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ.
A crazy, chaotic first couple of innings as US fans finally got the breakout slugfest they were expecting, while Canada became just the third team in WBC history to win by the mercy rule one day and lose by the same rule the next. It was a tough night for Canada’s 19-year-old starter Mitch Bratt. As Joe Posnanski writes, the kid had no chance.
With pool play moving into its final stages and qualification still up for grabs, strategies will revolve around teams’ use of their pitching staffs, given the rules on pitch counts. The mercy rule is designed to protect pitchers’ arms, so sometimes taking the loss and moving on can work out to a team’s advantage.
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Monday March 13: Great Britain vs Colombia; Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ.
Picking themselves up after a demoralising mercy rule loss to Canada yesterday, the Great Britain team turned the page to produce nothing less than their greatest-ever baseball victory, coming back from a three-run first inning deficit to beat Colombia 7-5.
And their former colonists are celebrating along with them, since the result puts the USA’s progress to the quarter-finals back in their own hands.
Catcher Harry Ford went 2-4 with a solo home run, but it was an all-round team performance that showed bravery, self-belief and pride from exciting young players like Chavez Young and Jaden Rudd.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of this win. I spent some time a couple of nights ago with the folks behind the scenes at the British Baseball Federation and genuinely couldn’t be happier for them. After likely surprising themselves against the USA, it must have been deflating to fall to Canada the way they did; but I’m sure they feel that to perform the way they did in tonight’s game has made everything about their first WBC experience more than worthwhile.
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Sunday March 12: USA vs Mexico; Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ
Team USA’s unconvincing victory over Great Britain yesterday spilled over into another lacklustre performance in a raucous, sold-out game against Mexico, themselves smarting from their late disappointment against Colombia.
But on Sunday Mexico dominated from start to finish and their 11-5 win was thoroughly deserved. It delighted their passionate fans – in what was, after all, a home game for them – just as much as it led inevitably to US fans questioning their team’s mentality to go all the way.
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Saturday March 11: Great Britain vs USA; Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ
The heavily-favoured US team, behind pitcher Adam Wainwright and laden with major league stars, took their opening game 6-2 against Great Britain, but that wasn’t the whole, predictable, story. The Brits gave a good showing of themselves in the early innings after jumping out to a 1-0 lead on a round-tripper by Trayce Thompson of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The shot may not have been heard around the world, but it at least temporarily silenced a crowd that had come expecting a slugfest on the other side of the scorecard. The crowd had also come to perform themselves, with a gathering of costumed minutemen, bald-bewigged Ben Franklins and almost as many tricorn hats as $49 USA baseball caps.
For a nation that professes to revere its flag, the number of people wearing it as items of clothing of various degrees of appropriateness might have made Betsy Ross blush. But then again, she was married in a tavern so she probably would have got the vibe. There were many, many banners and shirts bearing 1776-related slogans and anytime a British incursion threatened, there was a healthy, deep-throated booing, before breaking into the inevitable mindless catchall of “USA USA!” (My own favourite t-shirt, though, was of a muscular Bald Eagle wearing RayBans with the slogan “Too Cool For British Rule”…)
This was always going to be a one-sided contest. Kind of like having a Single-A team play in the All-Star Game – you just hope it doesn’t turn into a Home Run Derby.
But it was unrestrained American power in the form of a typical Schwarbomb that sealed the plucky Brits’ fate and allowed the crowd to go home believing they’re the world’s greatest superpower, at least for one more night. It was a far from convincing show by what should have been an imperious Team USA, and that could come back to haunt them.
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Saturday March 11: Colombia vs Mexico; Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ
The Arizona leg of the WBC got under way with what turned out to be a really exciting game between Colombia and Mexico after a cagey start. With their fans heavily outnumbered in the Chase Field crowd of more than 28,000, Colombia grabbed a 5-4 victory in the tenth inning following a go-ahead run scored on a Mexican fielding error, then a fine performance by pitcher Guillermo Zuniga to close it out.
Mexico has now lost its opening game in all five WBC tournaments, but its fans will still be hyped for tomorrow’s game against the US.
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Hearing people all around you talking baseball and reacting to the action on the field in a language you can’t understand is both refreshing and humbling. It shows the true global nature of the game – and helps remind us of our own shortcomings. On the big screen, the WBC event “hosts” – an unnaturally energetic couple – screamed at us (in English) to show how excited we were as the TV feed went live. There really was no need. This crowd was definitely in the mood.
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Friday March 10: Chicago Cubs vs Chicago White Sox; Sloan Park, Mesa, AZ.
A final-inning rally came up short as the Cubs snapped a nine-game winning streak to fall 4-3 in this year’s first meeting of the crosstown rivals in Mesa on Friday.
Drew Smyly became the first Cubs pitcher this spring to go four innings in what was a pretty tight game before the Sox jumped out to a 4-1 lead by the top of the ninth. While the Cubs had 11 hits, none went for extra bases, but there’s enough to be optimistic about for the rest of the spring on the day that a roster trim sent several prospects to the minors, including Brennen Davis and the highly-regarded Pete Crow-Armstrong. They’ll be back.
One thing I’ve always loved about Spring Training has been watching kids enjoy the casual proximity to star players and how they respond. Something as simple as tossing some BP balls to a group of kids and seeing the scamble for them will never get old.
Just as the games don’t really count, Spring Training should be about not worrying about anything and enjoying the experience.
That’s why it was more than a little jarring to see a guy wearing a t-shirt with an image of an AR-15 bearing the words “Come And Take It”. It was the only deliberately provocative and overtly political thing I saw all day, and of course it’s his right to wear whatever he wants – at least as far as society deems it’s not inciting, insulting or otherwise dangerous to the public peace. So I guess society has some work to do.
Now this is an altogether more wholesome choice of attire…
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Something I haven’t really written much about yet on the project is how I’ve wanted to test out public transit systems in the cities I visit and see how practical they are for getting to ballparks that aren’t always in the centre of downtown. It’s one of the marks of a civilized community to offer a real alternative to automobile use.
While going completely car-free in a place as spread out as this isn’t really possible, so far the Valley Metro system that serves the greater Phoenix area seems to be a pretty good model for how it can work – there seems to have been well thought-out investment in stops and rolling stock for a reliable integrated bus and light rail service. What it needs, though, is some better directional signage. It would be good to know the closest stop to the ballpark for anyone arriving on foot, and that should be marked on the route infographics, not left to the rider to figure out based on guessing from a map that’s not to scale. Today I went two stops past where I should have gotten off, and it took me 40 minutes to walk back.
But that’s a relatively small thing. Apart from the score, today was nothing but great, and genuinely felt like coming out of hibernation…
And there’s always the Sonoran Nachos…
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Click here to read my Game Notes from the 2022 season
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States of Play 