Game #8

It was one of those days again …

Today we lost 12-4 to a mediocre team that we should have beaten. After all, we won our last game, and the last time we played these guys we led for most of the game before giving up the go-ahead runs late in the game …

Grrrr.

We played tight defense in the top of the first to shut them down and then put the first run on the board in our half of the first. Unfortunately, I wasn’t part of that mix though -- batting in my usual leadoff spot, I slapped the second pitch I saw back at the pitcher. It was a hot shot that glanced off his stomach area and stunned him for a few moments, but he recovered nicely and threw me out at first…

Then disaster struck. These guys started hitting everything to right field, which, frankly, is where our weakest player was playing. It’s bad enough you need x-ray vision to pick up the ball at this field, even worse that our right fielder’s knees are worse off than Kirk Gibson’s during the ‘88 postseason … After awhile it was pretty clear these guys were aiming for him.

And the balls that weren’t hit to right, it seemed, were being hit to our third baseman, whose arm was so sore, he couldn’t make the throws to first base …

The other team scored four in the second inning, and did it again in the third, scoring seven … Oh yeah, and we pulled our right fielder and moved our third baseman to first base …

We weren’t having much luck hitting the other pitcher either. The pitcher they threw at us today was probably the best pitcher we’ve seen all year. He threw hard and he threw some nasty stuff …

… I struck out twice today -- something I‘m proud to say I don‘t do often -- both on some awful sliders. But the good news is I kept my hitting streak going with a single in the sixth inning. As I strode to the plate in the sixth, we had a runner on first and the third base coach gave me the hit-and-run sign. Um, ok, I thought, and I was set to swing at the first pitch I saw. It was high, but I threw my bat at it and blooped the ball into shallow center field …

I didn’t do too bad in the field today either. I played left field for the first six innings and caught two flies, including one ball hit to shallow left-center that I had to run a little to get to … Then in the seventh, I moved to third base, but had no plays there …

And there’s not much more to say than that …

My line for the season …
.381 average, 8 hits, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, .458 on-base %, 2 stolen bases, 5 runs, 2 RBI

As for our other games …
Game one: We lost, 16-4
Game two: We lost, 13-2
Game three: We lost, I was off for the weekend
Game four: We lost, 5-4
Game five: We lost, 20-9
Game six: We lost, 5-4 (with pictures!)
Game seven: We won, 7-5