Game 50 Recap: Did Not Know I Was Just Gonna Turn and Run into It
Long Beach Pulls Ahead Late, Drops Ballers 8-2; Beale’s Nominee for Catch of the Year
By Joe Horton
LONG BEACH—One incredible play does almost a game make.
On a serene night after a hot SoCal day that saw all fans gifted a drink by a generous benefactor (more on that later), the Oakland Ballers jumped to another lead, plating two in the third from a Jaden Collura double. When starter Hunter Day exited after the fifth, it was 3-2 Coast, and even after Jacob Jablonski’s sixth inning two-run homer, the game still felt within reach. But three more Coast runs in the eighth put the game beyond the belief of even the most optimistic Oakland fan. Long Beach, it must be said, has so many weapons that any close game feels like borrowed time until another Coaster blasts a base hit or a bomb and they’re bringing in closer Zach Voelker, who now widely surpasses the rest of the league with ten saves. At least one story today was men left on base: Oakland (22-28) stranded ten compared to five for Long Beach (39-11).
Day had another solid outing by B’s starting pitching, going 5.0, giving up three runs and three walks while striking out four. He was helped by an errorless team effort and at least one moment of spectacular defense.
The play of the game, and easily one of the contenders for Dispatches Play of the Year™, which I have just decided exists, was Myles Beale’s total effort for a ball in the left field corner where he crashed full-body into the wall in foul territory. He ran so fast he outpaced the camera, so the video, I’m afraid, doesn’t do it full justice. (I was right there, in the nearby kid play area, thanks to my son with a near-complete disinterest in baseball—this is how the arc of fate works—and I fortunately managed to get a far, far worse video immediately after.)
Said Beale after the game, “I felt the track underneath me, so I knew I was running out of room. Did not know I was just gonna turn and run into it, but there's padding on [the wall], so thankfully, it didn't hurt me too bad.”
But this was about as full-speed-defenseless as it gets, an absolute sell-out for the ball. Did he think about the chance of injury, especially while trying to prove himself to a relatively new team during a long season? “No, honestly, I'm not really thinking about myself,” Beale said. “I'm trying to be a pitcher's best friend. Whenever there's a fly ball hit in my direction, I want them to know that it's gonna get caught. That's kind of my mindset all the time in the outfield.”
Beale (3-for-4) was the only Baller to record multiple hits. Is he one of those players who subscribes to defense sparking offense, a great play in the field getting a bat hot at the plate? “It definitely is a little bit of a confidence boost. You're helping out the team one way, and you kind of just want to do more, and it helps when you get in the box for sure.”
The Ballers and the Coast close out their three-game series on Thursday at 6:35pm before the B’s return to Oakland for a weekend set with Modesto.
Odds & Ends
Transactions news: P Connor Godwin has been released. Cam Bufford went on the injured list as of July 11. P Austin Balentine went on Ineligible List as of yesterday.
Wednesday’s Long Beach starter Cole Percival is the son of Coast manager Troy Percival.
From superfan and ball-knower Mike Chouinard: Fun in the Pioneer League: in the first half of the season there were only 6 Ballers games where no team scored in the 1st. In both games in this series, neither team has scored in the first or second innings.
Returning Baller Reed Butz began as team ballboy but quickly gave way to Charlie Hurley, who took the responsibility for the bulk of the game. Dispatches has the exclusive on his strategy: “Don’t trip.”
Here’s what it looks like when someone—Ben Nguyen—buys everyone in the stadium a drink.
There was a softball game going on in the diamond adjacent to Blair Field that went longer than this relatively brief 2h48 Pioneer League affair. No word on the final score.
Joe Horton is the editor of Dispatches from Raimondi.
