Like Ships in the Night

Stick and Ball games, like today’s game of whiffle at Nance Bradds Field, can sometimes have interesting internal trajectories.  Today, a four-on-four game in a 45-degree chill that had outfielders wanting the sun field, two teams were on opposite arcs that crossed in the sixth inning.

The visitors - Dave (R-Plymouth), Glen, Hansoo, Eric - took to their at bats with a steady clip, with hits in each of the first five innings.  They strung together 4 in the third off Peter, including doubles by Eric and Glen to plate the game’s first run.  They stranded 8 runners by the middle of the fifth.  It surely seemed they were never out of any inning, and that with the ease they made opportunities, some would eventually pay off.

The home standers - Ben, Kurt, Matt, Pete - while somehow managing the visitors’ bats, were not mounting credible threats on offense.  They were not shut down completely, to be sure, but had only the one hit through 2.  Two hits to start the bottom of the third were snuffed by Hansoo’s slick fielding, getting a grounder from the league’s leading hitter, Kurt, and then inducing a double play from Matt.  Eric and Dave scattered three singles in the next two innings while recording 6 K’s.

And so after 5 the visitors held a 1-0 lead that felt more insurmountable than the mathematical margin.

The Final Three Innings

Kurt pitched the top of the sixth, and recorded the home team’s first 1-2-3 inning with 2 strike outs and a fly out.  Glen eschewed warmups and pitched the bottom of the frame; and he started most effectively.  When Peter came to bat as the fourth batter of the inning there were two out and a runner at first (courtesy of Kurt’s single).  Peter’s single would be the first of five in a row, the last three of which plated runs.  When the merry-go-round stopped, the home team was leading 3-1.

And here was the striking demonstration of the power of LATE runs.  Having gone so far into this game, having consistently put together good at bats, and had pitchers on the ropes, but then having had the late lead lost seemingly in the blink of an eye - the visitors’ bats also went quiet.  They would not make fair contact for the rest of the game.  Six up, six down in the seventh and eighth - all by strikeout.  The final three from Matt saved the win for Kurt, and sealed Glen’s Blown Save and Loss.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	R	H	LOB
Dave E, Glen, Hansoo, Eric	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	9	8
Ben, Kurt, Matt, Peter	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	X	3	13	9

W: Mosser
L: Cebulash
S: Lindsay
BS: Cebulash

	AB	H	RBI		AB	H	RBI
Dave E.	9	1	0	Ben	9	2	0
Glen	9	2	1	Kurt	8	4	1
Hansoo	7	4	0	Matt	8	3	1
Eric	8	2	0	Peter	8	4	1

Notes:

• To end the bottom of the seventh, Ben Montague grounded out to Hansoo Ha.  Unknown to any one at the time was that this was the 2,000th AB of the season.  I did not think we would get there this week, and so I was unprepared for a ceremony.  
• The Races: No home runs again today and Glen and Peter remain knotted at five atop the leaderboard.  Kurt leads the league in hits (2 ahead of Peter) and Pitching Strikeouts (again, 2 ahead of Peter).
• Hansoo had another fine day with the bat, 4-for-7 to raise his average to 0.418.  No one did better work on his average today.  But Kurt went positive, too, going 4-for-8 and adding 0.001 to his average, which now stands at 0.462.
• It does appear that in their emotional funk the visitors skipped a batter in the top of the eighth.  Hansoo should have led off, but Eric did instead.
• Stats hit an ignominious mark today - becoming the first batter to strike out 100 times this season.  Eric Zamonski authored the “Century K” in this monument to futility.
• A deer ran across the deep outfield (actually along the Aberdeen sidewalk toward the library and Far Hills Avenue) during the game.