Kurt's Big Day

Overnight storms cleared in time for wiffle this morning, though they left large puddles all over the asphalt for the defense to contend with. The Commissioner gave Kurt "Krash" Mosser a treat for his birthday - he placed Kurt and Dave Eldridge (R-OH) on the same team, with Brent. Republican Dave said it was like having a day off, not having to face Kurt. He said this, by the way, BEFORE the game.

Those three would face Peter, Stats and Han-Soo.

Laura, Elizabeth and momentarily Robyn were spectators, all coming to see the wiffle prelude to the Mosser birthday par-tay. Look for some of Peter's candid shots from the post game on the group Facebook page.

Dave and Matt pitched scoreless halves of the first, and then Brent took the mound for the home boys. Brent allowed four singles and one run, driven in by Han-Soo. Meanwhile, Mackintosh baffled Stats, inducing two weak ground outs and a weak pop-out; escaping with only one run allowed.

Brent's turn came around again in the fifth, and the visitors had a little more success this time, managing three more runs - two from a bases-juiced double from da Commish. Once again Matt was unable to square up Brent's pitching. All told, Brent recorded six outs today; five of these by Matt - the very heart of his 2-for-11 showing with the bat. A performance that uncharacteristically resulted in utterances of swear words and swilling of beer.

[Parenthetically, a casual glance at the stats would make Matt's batting line against Brent quite easy to predict: overall Matt is slugging .545. But with runners in scoring position he loses over one hundred points on that slugging average: .429. Two out, RISP: a dismal .273 SLUGGING AVERAGE! He is simply not clutch. And when Brent is pitching, there are going to be runners in scoring position, which is when Matt clenches up and ... chokes.]

Stats, Peter and Han-Soo each pitched two scoreless innings for a six-inning shut out. Han-Soo wrapped up the game in the bottom of the sixth with an incredible 6-pitch inning. But they also had a special birthday present for Kurt Mosser: THREE EARNED RUNS!

Yes, it is true. For the second week in a row a 0.00 era pitcher gave up his first runs of the season - both first runs driven in by Han-Soo, coincidentally. (This is perhaps not surprising as Han-Soo's 7-for-12 at the plate today maintained his blistering .542 batting average.) Anyway, Krash had 2 out and 2 on before allowing 4 straight hits - a double then three singles - which plated the three runs. Oh well, Kurt, just focus on your 6-for-9 hitting and remember: Next week it won't be your birthday!

Krash sends it plateward (Photo: Peter Berwald)

Han-Soo, Matt, Peter - 7
Brent, Dave, Kurt - 0

W: Lindsay
L: Mackintosh

Photo: Brent Mackintosh

SPEAKING OF NEXT WEEK: Games Wednesday and Saturday. Summer wiffle is in full swing!