IdahoBert

I guess we lost. But I can deal with it.

Tork walks after seeing seven 102 mph pitches. A silver lining for me regardless of how this game ends is that Arizona out scored Purdue 48–26 in the second half to move into the Final Four. And we won this first series. Boo yah.

I haven’t given up on this game because anything can happen, but getting “philosophical“ about it, winning two of three on the road is always a recipe for success.

A DP right now sure would be nice

Jack is right on the edge of being cooked.

Fernando Tatis Jr. steals (1) 2nd base. Jake Cronenworth scores. Throwing error by catcher Jake Rogers.

Fernando Tatis Jr. singles on a sharp line drive to right fielder Zach McKinstry. Freddy Fermin scores. Jake Cronenworth to 3rd.

Zach McKinstry Knows Right Field!

That’s three challengeable strikes that went unchallenged.

Jack Ks two in the first. Sweet. Good beginning.

There were two outrageously bad calls on balls that were called strikes in the top of the first and neither Tigers batter did anything about it. And I don’t necessarily blame them they don’t want to burn their chances. So hopefully our pitchers will get the same cheating edge from the umpire.

So the “pregame“ is only 10 minutes long with no frills. And so far there’s only Daniella and no Andy Dirks as the support staff. Maybe they gave Andy bus fare to get to Phoenix to save money. We do, though, get Jason and Peaches for PBP.

I wish I had more faith in Jack Flaherty. He had his moments in games last year, but he was also frequently hit pretty hard. If he only gets hit moderately hard and our guys can score runs, that would be a my best case scenario. Although he could rise to the occasion and allow one run in six innings.

Carpenter DH Torres 2B Keith 3B Greene, R LF Torkelson 1B McGonigle SS Vierling CF McKinstry RF Rogers C

By the way… I am in the correct thread… i’m watching the top of the 10th inning of the Pirates versus the Mets listening to the Pirates feed and the affection they have for Don Kelly is actually quite compelling. It makes me feel good to witness that.

It is encouraging to be understood… 🙃

Lolich is definitely worth worthy. As a kid, I kind of took him for granted, but he was steady and there when it mattered especially in the 68 World Series.

I could’ve sworn that this new “agreement” had some kind of “no blackouts” provision, which meant that the six games a year of the Tigers play against the Mariners I would be able to watch, but I guess that is still not the case. I don’t know how I got such a wildly hopeful idea in my head. But I can follow these games on gameday or on the radio portion of the MLB app so screw the cable providers, boo-hoo poor them.

This game starts at the same time as the Arizona vs Purdue game. I have attended both universities and I have some divided loyalties regarding this game, but I find watching basketball excruciating because it’s nonstop. Baseball has a languid enough pace so I can catch my breath which basketball does not possess so I’ll probably concentrate on this game and dart back-and-forth to the ESPN app just to see how the basketball game is going.

That’s probably true, but I can’t be bothered to look it up because I can’t find my pants and that’s more important

When you think of guys who got good for a while and you didn’t expect it, names like Chris Shelton and Brennan Bosch come to mind. Their short-lived flashes of brilliance didn’t last. But Kevin has been on the radar from the start and has been expected to excel and overall we can reasonably expect him to rise to the occasion even though there will have to be a learning curve factored in here. I think we have good reason to believe we have more than a diamond in the rough on our hands here.

I was just now looking at our 2026 schedule and every month of the season, except for August, has a streak of 13–14 games straight tucked in there. Sheesh. I asked our robot overlords what it thought and it said that our schedule was “remarkably dense” with streaks of this magnitude compared to the past, and it blamed the necessity of scheduling at least one series against every team in MLB every year. The now common adage “you can never have enough arms“ seems pertinent here. Even as a fan it seems grueling. And it will be made worse by rainouts requiring make up dates, etc. etc..

Strange that tomorrow, Sunday, is a travel day. Have never seen that before, and I don’t remember it having ever occurred but I could be wrong. Must be one of those anomalies of early season scheduling.

You might want to choose your words, more carefully… 😉