Game 44 Recap: Stick Your Hand Out There and Hope for the Best
Roadsters Stay A Lap Ahead, Beat Ballers 11-7
by Joe Horton
WEST OAKLAND—Christmas in June was last homestand, but it felt cold enough for the end of December this Wednesday night at Raimondi. That didn’t stop the bats from both teams combining for six home runs muscled through in the chilly air. But every time the Ballers tried to mount a comeback, the Roadsters had an answer, ultimately keeping a four-run cushion to win 11-7 and even the three-game series.
Modesto scored two runs in the first on a Bryce Cannon single. Much like last night, the game kept a respectable baseball score into the middle innings as starters Corbin Talley for the Roadsters and Griffin Smith for the Ballers had similar lines—5.0 IP, 7 and 8 hits respectively—and worked themselves in and out of trouble. In the home series, Oakland has so far managed to avoid the big bad innings with very crooked numbers that have variously plagued them in the first half; they gave up no more than two runs in any inning. Tonight, however, the challenge was keeping those small numbers off the board: Modesto scored in all but three innings.
In the fourth, Oakland cut the Modesto lead to 4-3; in the eighth, they cut a distant 9-4 tally to 9-7. But they would get no closer, as the Roadsters tacked on two insurance runs in the ninth on a Justin Boyd homer, and after a Nick Leehey walk, the B’s went down in order in their final frame.
Noah Blythe and Esai Santos had monster days at the plate, accounting for more than half of the team’s hits and scoring.
Blythe, who hit the emphatic go-ahead homer last night, knotted the game in the third with a two-run single. In the eighth, his homer cut the deficit to two, pacing him to a 4-for-5, three RBI day and a triple short of the cycle. Blythe discussed his hot hitting with Dispatches after the game. “I feel like I'm starting early and being on time for the heater. I've been able to hit the breaking ball really well too. So I think if I'm on the heater, that gives me time to also see to the breaking ball. So I think it's just that everything's coming a little slow,” said Blythe. “I feel like I'm able to put a better swing on just everything in general. I'm starting to see it a little longer, starting to come in a little sooner, so I feel like my swing decisions are better.”
This was another game that felt out of reach until the bats pulled it back in range. Does the team feel like they can make up any deficit, or that they always have an extra gear? “Oh, yeah. We all know that it can happen,” said Blythe. “We have a really good offense. When we string a lot of hits together, guys pass the bat, I think anything can happen. That's a belief within our team, for sure.”
His bash brother tonight Santos described the team’s offense with similar pop, particularly with the short distances down the lines at Raimondi. “Especially with this type of field and short porch, a game could change really quickly. So I think as an offense, we feel that we're in a lot of games, even if we're down by, you know, five, like we were.”
Santos would know about the short field today. His eighth inning homer cleared the 321-foot right field wall by about 2 ¾ inches despite the doubts of Modesto manager JT Snow and right fielder Justin Boyd, who carried on an extended conversation with the Ballers’ bullpen. Santos, on that homer: “That at bat with the home run, I think I swung at two pitches that were out of the zone before I hit that. So I'm just trying to be in swing mode, see a good pitch to hit, and it worked out on that swing.
Tremayne Cobb added two stolen bases, bringing his total on the year to 23. The B’s and Roadsters play the rubber match of this home series Thursday for Disc A Round & Find Out disc golf night at Raimondi.
Odds & Ends
On Her Town Her Game night celebrating women in sports, the home plate umpire was Kate Hart, who talked to Dispatches last year about her trailblazing career.
In addition to Blythe, Roadsters Max Handron and Justin Boyd finished triples short of the cycle. Three players and three almost-cycles? Assistant GM and broadcaster Tyler Petersen made note that he remembered calling only one triple in all his time in the booth.
The College Prep Cougars were celebrating the school’s first-ever North Coast Section Championship at Raimondi, and one of their players, Wells, made a spectacular one-handed grab on a foul ball in the last row of the stands. Said Wells of his approach, “To be honest, I've been training over the summer: hand eye coordination, general fitness, strength. All that stuff. So I just kind of let my mind go. Let my hand find the ball. And caught it over my head.” Obviously, he’s on a championship baseball team. They practice. They win. What advice would he offer a normie? “I think you just gotta go for it. You can't get scared. Like, can't be ducking out the way. You just gotta stick your hand out there and hope for the best.”
Putting that advice into action: later in the game, Blythe tossed a foul ball to a fan, who may or may not have written this article, who made a grab that many people are calling “inspirational,” “resplendent,” and “the snag of the century.” Does that fan have a career in baseball? “Absolutely,” said Blythe. “He looked comfortable catching it, so yeah, absolutely.”
Video recap from Ben Verhoek.
Joe Horton is the editor of Dispatches from Raimondi.
