Game vs Astros

Setting the Lineup
This year’s lineup making is so much easier than last years. The fact that we have several kids who are somewhat competent catchers helps. As does the fact that we have several kids who can play well at pretty much any position we put them at. 11 players is also easier to schedule than 12 players, though we could soon be back to 12 as Justin’s finger is just about healed. Anyhow, we’d told Sean he could catch 2 innings, and Nof, Alec, and Cameron that they’d be pitching. Jared missed Tuesday’s practice without notifying us so he got to sit twice. For catchers it was going to be Sean for the first two, Jeremy Ma in the 3rd, Jared in the 4th and 5th, and as a sop to him Matt S in the 6th.

The Game
We’re the home team, with our friendly ump Mark calling the balls and strikes against the Astrods. Noff is on the mound against what has to be a weaker part of their order and sends them down 1-2-3, though this included a fantastic play at short by Jeremy Ma. A kid hit it hard up the middle, Noff got his glove on it, deflected it, Jeremy Ma adjusted picked it up barehanded and got the kid at first. Just a terrific play.

We got up, after a hot grounder by Sean back at the pitcher, Jeremy F singles and steals. Jeremy Me flies out to center, but Jeremy Ma doubles home Jeremy F and is then driven home himself by Cameron. Nick strikes out to end the inning. 2-0 Red Sox.

Cameron is on the mound and does not look good. He eventually lets up 3 runs and has to be removed because he’s walked four. Jared comes in finishes the inning uneventfully. I think Jared has shown that he deserves more innings at the mound and Cameron should really only see time for us in relief as he just walks too many. 3-2 Astros.

Fortunately we come back with a one out double by Matt S who scores after Alec singles him home. 3-3

I’m sort of dreading the next inning as we have Alec on the mound. He hasn’t ever pitched for us and while he looked good in warm ups when I’ve practiced with him, I wonder if he’ll be able to translate that to the mound. And the good news is that he does. After letting up a walk and a single to a weak part of their order, he gets one player to fly out. And then suddenly he has heat on his pitches, striking out the next two players looking real good. It was insane. One batter he looks OK, the next he’s throwing them in there hard and well. We’ll definitely have to see him again. We take the lead in the bottom half of the inning with 2 runs, started off by a double with Sean. 5-3 Red Sox

Nick is up for us and after walking the first guy, who then proceeds to steal second and third on wild pitches, settles down. The first batter scores when a player grounds out to first, but otherwise he looked good. 5-4

It is then a bunch of uneventful half innings. Both teams go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 4th and the 5th. I had hoped in the bottom of the 5th we’d get an insurance run, but they have their ace on the mound. Fortunately we have our ace on the mound as well. So going into the 6th, Jeremy Ma just has to hold them for us to win our 6th straight. And he does hold them, except that on a disputed call a kid gets awarded first base on a hit by pitch. It sounded like it’d hit his bat and initially it was ruled that way for us, but in the end that ruling was reversed. The kid stole a couple of bases on Matt S and scored on a grounder to first. Jeremy Ma ended the inning by striking a kid out with a wicked change-up that ended up striking Matt S in the thigh and caused him to roll around on the ground in pain.

Steve and I feel good about the game since we basically have the heart of our order up. After Jeremy Me strikes out, Jeremy Ma gets things going with a walk. Cameron and Nick fly out, however, to end the game with a 6-6 tie.

All-in-all, it was another good effort and I have no real complaints about the outcome. Not to mention we play the Marlins Saturday and they’re the one team who we really hit well, so hopefully after a relatively dead day for us at bat, we’ll rebound nicely in that game.