Archives for posts with tag: Baseball
The bobbleheads were the only things to get excited about at the Ravine last night.

So my Dodgers rep calls me yesterday to warn me that if I didn’t get to the stadium for Early Entry (4:10 p.m.) I might not get the Shohei Ohtani Bobblehead giveaway. She said people were showing up the day before to wait for the gates to open. We decided to risk getting to the game 2 hours early (a big concession for my husband, who hates waiting around for first pitch).

Long story short, it was fine. We got our bobbleheads, the hubby sketched his next series of paintings, and I finished the NY Times’ Spelling Bee. When the game finally started, it was getting cold, and not just in the stands.

There is something about the combination of my husband in the Top Deck and Tyler Glasnow on the mound that doesn’t work. Both games Glasnow has pitched with Stephen in the crowd have been disasters. His only losses all season, in fact.

But pitching was only part of our problem against Elly De La Cruz (4-for-4 with 3 runs & 4 stolen bases) and the rest of the Cincinnati Reds. Our bats were dead as doornails. You know it’s bad when Chris Taylor is the only guy in our lineup with a hit.

We finally came alive in the bottom of the 9th, but by then we were in a 7-0 hole, and there was no digging ourselves all the way out.

MY SCORECARDS
GAME 46: Reds 7-Dodgers 2

Side note 1: Apparently, there were a small percentage of Ohtani bobbleheads with gray away uniforms. We got the white home uniforms, and I thought it might have been an urban myth that there were special limited editions. But today, looking at eBay, it’s true. However, they probably only gave them to Field Level ticketholders. They’re snobby that way.

Side note 2: Some youngish guy walked past me in the middle of an inning. He said, “Nice to meet someone else who does this!” And he waved a baseball scorebook at me. He was being nice, but all I could think was, “If you’re keeping score, where the fuck are you going in the middle of an inning?”

Tonight is Joe Kelly Bobblehead Night at Dodger Stadium, and the team celebrated by getting this mural painted on the Reserve Level near the escalator to the Top Deck. It’s a great image, and I hope this will be a great night, too. Like last night! We beat the Giants, 7-2, and Emmet Sheehan showed he’s ready for (at least four innings of) the postseason. Got my tickets, and I’m ready for October!

So this happened!

The most unbelievable display I’ve ever seen.

The game on Monday (Sept. 11) started out to be just as spectacular, but it didn’t end up that way. The pot o’ gold at the end of this rainbow was a meltdown by our apparent closer, Evan Phillips, whereby he gave up 4 runs in the top of the 9th, putting the game against the stinking, smug Padres out of reach, 11-7. We scored another in the bottom of the inning, and we had the winning run at the plate with bases loaded, but Chris Taylor unfortunately aimed his line drive right into the glove of shortstop Xander Bogaerts to end the game.

As my ceaselessly optimistic husband would say, “If you want to make sure the Dodgers don’t score a run, load the bases.”

My boys in blue had a wonderful August, but so far this month, they are not doing so hot. They have a lot of injuries and a partner-beating (allegedly) pitcher, leaving the unreliable Lance Lynn as our only veteran starter. Our young ‘uns (Ryan Pepiot, Gavin Scott, Bobby Miller and Emmett Sheehan) do not a starting rotation make. But manager Dave Roberts is making do with them as best he can, while keeping his fingers crossed that Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler can come back before the playoffs. Good luck to you, Doc! Actually, good luck to us all.

One of the perks of the Top Deck.