Gold tried something radical today, to try to avoid our usual get a lead, give up a lead, and hopefully get it back by the end of the game.
We swapped our starting pitcher Tom Gonzales and our middle innings pitcher Steve Bedrick. It was going really well, we held the fearsome top of the Pirple lineup in the first to one run and we scored the max five runs in the first and third. Bedrock was dealing and throwing strikes. It was going oh so well. And then, sure enough we stopped hitting, and they scored six runs in the fifth and sixth, and they tied it up 10-10. So the more things change the more they remain the same.
But it's ok we had the top of the lineup in the bottom of the sixth (well, 2-3-4). We would score five again and they would cry uncle. Then BOOM, as great as they have been all season, 1-2-3 and out.
It came down to the seventh and final and open inning (shortened ahead of time because of the heat). They had their top and we had our middle. They got a couple on but Gonzales induced a couple of easy outs, and we at least had a tie.
Gonzales started the bottom half with a single, and we put in all world sprinter Gary Namanny to run for him. Batman Steve Alvarez finished a perfect day at the plate (3-3) with a single to right center, and Namanny was off to the races. Purple got it in quickly so he stopped at third. Curt Wade came up and played the hero with a slicing off field line drive to left field and we had our fourth one run and second walk off win, 11-10.
On defense, Gonzales had one strikeout looking and made a nice play on a comebacker and a shoestring catch on a little pop up that never got over six feet tall in front of the mound. Hugh Vasquez was a vacuum cleaner at SS, he must have had 10 putouts.
The heat really took it out of the hitters on both teams. We didn't even make it through the lineup three times. Alvarez and Wade had three hits, Vasquez, Namanny (2B and 3B, our only extra base hits), Gonzales, and Steve Mastronarde were 2-2, and yours truly had one and a walk in two trips to the plate (undoubtably Howard Davis was afraid to throw me a strike).
One thing about Gold, we will give you an entertaining close game more often than not!
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