suburban cougar

HOU --- HOU Munro @ PIT Van Benschoten
SFG --- SFG Tomko @ ARZ Johnson
CHC 0.5 G1: CHC Wood v FLA Pavano
FLA 2.0 G2: CHC Prior v FLA Kensing
SDP 2.5 SDP Lawrence @ COL Estes

A half game out still? The way the obits are being written, it seems like it should be 50. The Cubs should at least be tied with the Giants by the end of the day.

The story about the Marlins ending up playing their home games next week at the Cell is the craziest thing I’ve ever hear. They’ve even got to schedule some as day games, because the two stadiums share a lot of people and replacements can’t be found this late. And White Sox day games don’t draw outside the summer, so who knows how many people would show up. Good Seats Still Available.

I’d love to go to one of those games, but my schedule next week looks iffy. I do suspect there will be a fair bit of Cub fans showing up to cheer for the Expos, and Sox fans cheering for the Marlins.

Seeing as chances to see real live baseball are dwindling (and opportunities to stay inside and watch TV are always plentiful), I made it out to last night’s KC Cougars (A’s)/Peoria Chiefs (Cardinals – but apparently about to jump back to the Cubs) first round game in in the Midwest League Playoffs (low A). It was game 2 of a best of 3, the Chiefs having won at home the previous night in 12 innings.

Rosters are scattershot at this time of a minor league season, with people who had good years being moved up and playing the string out last year, and lots of mid to low round draft picks from this year filling in the gaps. Given the situation, it was still a pretty well played game.

Cougars pitcher Brad Knox walked himself into lots of trouble early, which is kinda a surprise given his low walk ratio during the season (24 in 146.1). He got bailed out in the 1st with a bases loaded 5-3 DP by Olympian Vasili Spanos (GRE), who’s also really started hitting since I last checked out a game this summer. Knox got out of bases loaded no out jam in the 3rd with a fortunate 1-2-3 DP and a swinging strikeout. Chiefs finally got on the board in the 3rd with a double by Davis and an RBI single by Sherman.

Cougars weren’t getting much done on their side, leaving seven guys on in through four. It was regular season strategy that came back to haunt Peoria. They left in starter Lambert i the 5th to try and squeeze out enough innings for a win – Lambert averaged 4 1/3 per regular season start – and he got a bit wild. Luke Appart (potg) got on via infield hit, but ended up getting all the way to third on two wild pitches, one on strike 3 to put Spanos aboard. They pulled Lambret for Brantely Jordan, who promptly hit the next batter up, gave a bloop hit, and a sac fly to give the Cougars the lead. KC roughed up another couple relievers in the 7th for four more runs, and held on to lead to win 6-1. Series is even at 1 now.

Stadium was pretty empty, one of the lowest attendances of the season (~1500), which I was kinda counting on. Cougars do a great job setting up huge group packages and drawing in families, but neither tactic really works that well on a Thursday night in September for a game that didn’t exist at the beginning of the season. It works great for me, because I could walk up 40 minutes before the game and get 4th row seats, just behind the netting.

If you’re really bored and like hieroglyphics, you can try and unscramble my score keeping in the form of really big (700K) jpgs – away & home. Please note

a) I can’t spell Peoria on my first try
b) This scorecard system is goofy if you’re not used to it, but I like it a lot more than the ones they give out.
c) I change my mind about the best way to score about eight times during the game. Every game.

The pivotal game 3 is tonight. Not sure if I’m going.