Game 73 Recap, Aug 11: Fly Away Home
Roadsters lap Ballers 19-6, hit five homers in Tuesday takedown
by Joe Horton
WEST OAKLAND—There was a question around the Pioneer League and its punditry about how good Modesto is right now, considering their 23-1 record coming into Raimondi was almost entirely built on the plentiful suffering of the bottom-table RedPocket Mobiles and Yuba-Sutter Freebirds. The answer, Tuesday night reported in no uncertain terms, is very good indeed. The Roadsters (24-1 second half, 51-22 overall) handily handled the Ballers (13-12, 35-38) from the jump, scoring eight runs in the first three innings on the way to a commanding 19-6 win on Bay Mitzvah night at Raimondi celebrating Jewish culture and heritage.
As our Nick Clementi just explored in his playoff push report, Modesto leads the league in team ERA, and Tuesday showed why. The Ballers got league strikeout leader Omar Serrano first, who went 6.0 with four runs, one earned, while striking out eight. The Modesto bullpen cruised through the last three innings, giving up two runs and chalking up another five K’s. The Ballers can be a patient team in the box, but they were only able to induce three walks all night.
On the other orbit of the mound, Oakland pitching never found any rhythm. Starter Christian Diaz went 3.0, giving up 11 hits and eight runs, six earned. Relief pitching was more of the same. A scoreless inning would be followed by a big one, and there were a few: six in the third, four in the fifth, four in the sixth. The basepaths were busy long after the traffic had cleared from the 880 overpass and the view of the perfect summer sunset. The B’s gave up five homers, including two to Bryce Cannon, who had five RBI on the night. In the eighth, DH Noah Blythe was brought in again to pitch; he’s done so a few times during the year in uncompetitive affairs and found a surprising amount of success. Tonight, he gave up one run over the two innings with high looping pitches that clocked around 45-50 mph. As he has all season, Blythe had a modest but game answer to being called upon:
“I just want to throw strikes, honestly,” Blythe said after the game. “I've yet to get a strikeout, so I have to let my defense work. I just want to get an out. Just get the defense off the field as quickly as possible. That's my goal.”
Most of the pitches were in that 45-50 mph range. But where could he go if he really brought the heat? “Probably like 75. And then I think my arm would just fall off right after.”
Offensively, the Ballers got five RBI from Jeter Ybarra (2-for-4, three RBI) and Jake Allgeyer (1-for-3, two) in the middle of the lineup. Said Allgeyer of being the Pioneer League’s reigning Hitter of the Week: “Last week, I was just seeing the ball really well, trying to keep it short and simple, like I feel like I always say. But I was getting into good counts and I was getting pitches that I could really handle. But the boys were rolling, so we're all feeding off each other, and when one guy ahead of you gets a hit, well, hitting is contagious. We put up a lot of runs last week, and it was not just me, but it was the entire squad. Anyone on the squad probably could have won hitter of the week last week, so I just got lucky enough that they chose me.”
Humility and team spirit much appreciated, but he did earn it. Allgeyer hit .438 and slugged .781, mixing three homers with two doubles and singles throughout the field. It wasn’t just one kind of hitting; it was all over the park.
“There are times where I am definitely trying to do too much, and it probably shows up where it's either home run or bust, but I really try to keep it simple, because that's when I'm at my best, when I'm hitting the ball out of the yard but also hitting the ball the other way, hitting the pull-side gap with backspin. So, honestly, I’m just trying to get pitches that I can handle and swing at those and try to leave the other ones alone.”
There surely were a lot of kudos coming in on social media—what was one that you didn’t expect?
“A lot of guys that I played with in the past were congratulating me, so that was honestly awesome. And my roommate from junior college actually hit me up too. I haven't talked to him in a while, so it's cool to hear from a bunch of people that all played a big part in my past; it was awesome to hear from them now.”
The series continues Wednesday at 6:35 with a Celebration of Coach Beam.
Odds & Ends
A child, possibly related to this author, recapped the action on the field as observed from the playground: “They were walking and one of them threw a ball.” I think my work here is done.
Raimondi had another gorgeous goose flyover; Anna Paquin and Jeff Daniels in talks to star in West Oakland’s Fly Away Home sequel.
The knockerball battle was gefilte fish-powered, which led to a couple of Super Bonks™
Video recap from Ben Verhoek.
Joe Horton is the editor of Dispatches from Raimondi.
