Cubs vs. Red Sox

We are facing the Cubs today. We had practiced with them on Tuesday and they were also 2-0 entering the game. However, they’d allowed almost no runs in their first few games, which was more impressive, to me, than their victories.

We’re the away team so we’re up to bat first. We get a couple of base runners with two outs but Alec ends the inning with a strikeout. Jeremy Ma throws a great inning sending them down 1-2-3 on only 9 pitches.

Second inning starts off with a couple of strikeouts, as they have the same pitcher in there from the first inning. However, after Jeremy F draws a walk and steals second, Jeremy Me drives him home with a double. They come out strong and score 2 putting us down 2-1.

We start to get things going with Cameron drawing a walk, and Nick singling him over to third. They have a very bad catcher in there and so after Jared lines out to the pitcher, who caught the ball more out of self defense than anything. If it had gotten by him it’d have been a two run single, easily. Anyhow, I convince Cameron to steal home next time the ball gets by the catcher. All goes well and Cameron will be safe, except he doesn’t slide and so he gets called out. Matt S then flies out left to end the inning. Their coach commented to me that this inning could have gone real poorly for them.

Nick comes in and on only 16 pitches strikes out the side, including have walked a guy. The big test for him will come next inning, as we’ve seen that he can just dominate the first inning he throws, the question is if he can keep it together for a second inning. When I told him before the game that he’d be pitching two, he was pleased but told me that if starts walking people to take him out. I assured him, that he’d be pulled pretty quickly if it looked like he didn’t have it for two innings. Anyhow, after 3 it’s still 2-1 Cubs.

We continue not to get anything going in the fourth. Fortunately, Nick does not need to be pulled as he strikes out the first two, lets up a single, however Jeremy Ma, playing catcher, throws out a guy who attempts to steal second ending the inning.

In the 5th we should have just gone to town. Jeremy F singles and proceeds to steal first. Jeremy Me then walks. Jeremy F steals third, the throw goes wild and Jeremy F gets a run. After Jeremy Ma walks, Jeremy Me, tries to steal third but gets thrown out. I would not have had him steal there, but don’t say anything since I hadn’t told him not to and we’ve been preaching aggressive base running. Jeremy Ma does advance to second. I then tell Jeremy Ma not to steal unless I tell him to, as their catcher has figured things out and I don’t want to risk us losing a big inning. So of course, Jeremy Ma on the first passed ball attempts to steal and gets thrown out. I was really upset with him about this, as not only did he ignore what I had said to do, but should have seen on his own that we just had a guy thrown out at third attempting to do the same thing. We do score Cameron after he walks, and is then driven home by Nick, who gets a legitimate double but ends up on third after some astute base running when the Cubs are sloppy getting the ball back to the mound. The inning ends, however. Good news is that we’re now up 3-2.
Cameron is now on the mound for us and things do not go particularly well. As in he walks the first three guys he faces. This then causes Steve and I some consternation about who to bring in if we need to pull him. We can either bring in Jeremy Me, who is scheduled to pitch the sixth making him ineligible to pitch there, or bring in Jared who is likely to be just as shaky as Cameron. Fortunately, Cameron settles down and strikes out the next batter. When the bases got loaded Jared, as shortstop, called out to throw home if they had the play. I immediately correct him and say “throw to an infield base” as we have Matt S catching and I don’t trust his ability to make the play. So of course when the next guy hits a ball right to Jared, Jared comes up with it and rockets it home instead of going to first or third, both of which would have been easy outs. Matt S, misses it and so instead of out 2 we now have the bases still loaded and only 1 out. Cameron strikes out the next guy. Which makes the fact that the next kid comes up and rockets a ball into the outfield all the more tragic. They tried to stretch out a triple, and we’d have gotten the out at third, except that Sean wasn’t covering the base. Fortunately the next kid flies out to end the inning. Still we are now down 7-3, when we might have gotten out of the inning with a tied ball game.

Life doesn’t start out well when their pitcher gets the balls over the plate and strikes out Matt S. However, after the pitcher hits Austin (in the groin), he becomes rattled. We then start a rally. Alec singles. Nof hits a double driving in Austin. Jereremy F singles, scoring another. Jeremy Me doubles, as does Jeremy Ma, giving us three more. We now are up 8-7 going into the bottom of the sixth.

Once again Jeremy Me is called up on to save the game for us. And while they do manage to get runners on second and third, Jeremy Me takes care of business striking out the last two players. We win in an another squeaker.

After the game, Steve and I disagree. Since we won, all is good for Steve. I feel like we had several mental errors, and our throws are still not as accurate as they should be. I know that if we’d lost the game, I’d have felt more positive about it than Steve. He’s pretty results driven, where as I try to see the good in loses and the not so good (if it’s there) in victory. Anyhow, game ball goes to Nick for his commanding two inning performance.

Good news is that, weather permitting, we’ll have two games this week as they made Wednesday’s practice into a game. Tomorrow’s forecast calls for thunderstorms, but hopefully they won’t come around here.