You may think a shutout in softball is vary rare. Transdyn came awfully close Tuesday night - a run scored on an error with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, and the final score was 13-1 over the Blue Dots.
But here's the thing - it make a much better story this way. Thanks, Cage. You gave me material.
After running down at least two gappers earlier in the game that would have produced runs, Cage ran under the final 'out' and then it doinked off his glove. The Blue Dots had a runner on second and he scored easily. At the bar later, Cage was contrite, even humble. He said it just clanked off the end of his glove.
Tom, the pitcher, not so much. "I'm going to kill that son of a mother", he said. Well no, I'm just kidding. Really, I'm just KIDDING. He said he would settle for Cage's first born, if it weren't for that fact that he is now paying for his second kid in college, and doesn't want to face that again. So rest easy, Cage, there will be no retribution. Myself, since I was sitting out on defense, I had already vacated the dugout to get in line to do the after-game high fives. But we did that after the next batter anyway.
I looked it up (naturally). We have had three shutouts in the Pleasanton years (2000 to now): Once in the playoffs in Fall 2012, and twice against a team called Pru Blue in 2007 and 2008. But never against a team with quality hitters like the Blue Dots. It was an impressive win.
Tom had a lot to do with it - he had them leaning this way and that with his mix of pitches, and made a couple of excellent plays, once on a scorched line drive, and once on a hot shot grounder. And to top it off he covered first on a grounder to first baseman Albert. Brian at 2B ranged far down the line for a popup that Chopper in right could not have reached. On another play, Tom deflected another line drive and Jason at short adjusted and got the out. Rene made a great catch racing in on another ball - although he was really only showing off his speed - he took a step back, then admired the height of the fly ball for a while, ate lunch, got a pedicure, then ran under the ball. The defense was so solid, we didn't want to mess with it, and I sat out and our middle infielders stayed in their starting positions (they had been switching off in the middle of the game until now).
Rene led the way on offense with another 4-4 game with two doubles. He is so hot (.900) that going 4-4 is the only way for his average to go up. Brian tripled home Jason as the second batter of the game - little did we know that when he scored on Cage's subsequent single, that was all the runs we needed. Load crushed one over the fence for two runs in the top of the fifth - a key hit because we had been nursing a 4-0 lead since the first, which is normally not enough, and who knew that we would catch almost everything the Blue Dots hit. After that the gates were re-opened and we won going away.
By the way, I didn't finish a post for last week's game, but one important thing - Tom put down the first nine batters in that one - that may be more rare than a shutout in softball. That game was pretty ho-hum - we scored one or two runs in every inning and won 10-4. Albert crushed two doubles and led the way with three RBIs, and Chopper and Brian had their usual three hits.
Milestones:
5/19
Coop 650 h (#2)
Chopper 150 ab (#25)
5/26
Jas 450 ab (#11)
Tom 10 bb (#21)
Tom 50 g (#25)
But here's the thing - it make a much better story this way. Thanks, Cage. You gave me material.
After running down at least two gappers earlier in the game that would have produced runs, Cage ran under the final 'out' and then it doinked off his glove. The Blue Dots had a runner on second and he scored easily. At the bar later, Cage was contrite, even humble. He said it just clanked off the end of his glove.
Tom, the pitcher, not so much. "I'm going to kill that son of a mother", he said. Well no, I'm just kidding. Really, I'm just KIDDING. He said he would settle for Cage's first born, if it weren't for that fact that he is now paying for his second kid in college, and doesn't want to face that again. So rest easy, Cage, there will be no retribution. Myself, since I was sitting out on defense, I had already vacated the dugout to get in line to do the after-game high fives. But we did that after the next batter anyway.
I looked it up (naturally). We have had three shutouts in the Pleasanton years (2000 to now): Once in the playoffs in Fall 2012, and twice against a team called Pru Blue in 2007 and 2008. But never against a team with quality hitters like the Blue Dots. It was an impressive win.
Tom had a lot to do with it - he had them leaning this way and that with his mix of pitches, and made a couple of excellent plays, once on a scorched line drive, and once on a hot shot grounder. And to top it off he covered first on a grounder to first baseman Albert. Brian at 2B ranged far down the line for a popup that Chopper in right could not have reached. On another play, Tom deflected another line drive and Jason at short adjusted and got the out. Rene made a great catch racing in on another ball - although he was really only showing off his speed - he took a step back, then admired the height of the fly ball for a while, ate lunch, got a pedicure, then ran under the ball. The defense was so solid, we didn't want to mess with it, and I sat out and our middle infielders stayed in their starting positions (they had been switching off in the middle of the game until now).
Rene led the way on offense with another 4-4 game with two doubles. He is so hot (.900) that going 4-4 is the only way for his average to go up. Brian tripled home Jason as the second batter of the game - little did we know that when he scored on Cage's subsequent single, that was all the runs we needed. Load crushed one over the fence for two runs in the top of the fifth - a key hit because we had been nursing a 4-0 lead since the first, which is normally not enough, and who knew that we would catch almost everything the Blue Dots hit. After that the gates were re-opened and we won going away.
By the way, I didn't finish a post for last week's game, but one important thing - Tom put down the first nine batters in that one - that may be more rare than a shutout in softball. That game was pretty ho-hum - we scored one or two runs in every inning and won 10-4. Albert crushed two doubles and led the way with three RBIs, and Chopper and Brian had their usual three hits.
Milestones:
5/19
Coop 650 h (#2)
Chopper 150 ab (#25)
5/26
Jas 450 ab (#11)
Tom 10 bb (#21)
Tom 50 g (#25)
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