A Strange Game

The game last night was a strange one.  While I could type a wall of text about it, let's just focus on the bottom of the 9th.  Tommy Field led off.  On a 1-2 pitch, it appeared he had fouled of a pitch.  However, there were two sounds.  Upon taking my eyes back to the plate, the umpire was pointing at the Z's catcher and then sending Tommy to 1st.  It was catcher's interference, not a common call.

Next up, Wil Nieves squared to bunt.  The pitch was up and in and sent Nieves sprawling back while the ball, which had struck the bat, was rolling down the first base line.  It was a successful bunt, moving Field to second.  Not exactly pretty, but the job was done.

Then, it really got weird.  Rob Scahill, normally a starting pitchers, was the pinch hitter.  Why did the Sox bunt if they only had pitchers left on the bench?  In any case, he was announced by the plate umpire.  However, New Orleans was very confused.  They even hollered back, "We don't have him."  However, the umpire let him hit.  On a 2-1 pitch, Scahill lined a single up the middle.  Field rounded 3rd but was held (wisely) by Stu Cole.    The problem was the Z's centerfielder didn't see that Field was being held and launched a throw to the plate.  It went over the head of everyone to the screen.  Normally, this wouldn't be a big issue, but the Z's pitcher wasn't backing up the play.  Field scores. Sox win.

Summary: Field reaches on interference; Nieves sac bunt; Scahill (pinch-hitter) singles, advancing Field to 3rd; Field scores on error.

Strange end to a strange night.  Good teams win these kind of games and right now, the Sox are winning them.

Sky Sox Playing Well

I really need to post more here.  The Sox have for the most part weathered the storm of the early season schedule, coming home at 20-19 with only 11 home games played.  The optimist says this is a very good sign.  The pessimist says the Rockies have called up all of the starting pitching because of the struggles in Denver.  Either way, I'm looking forward to watching some baseball this weekend.

Sky Sox can't pull off their first series sweep of season | season, series, sky - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO: "The Colorado Springs Sky Sox (20-19) could not finish off their first series sweep of the season as their bats were blanked 6-0 by the Memphis Redbirds (14-25), but the Sky Sox were able to stay in sole possession of first place in the Pacific Northern Division."

Just a curiosity question, how did the Sox get New Orleans to agree to an 11am start Thursday?  Usually teams travel early in the morning and the Z's are coming in from a homestand in New Orleans.  I know there's an off-day Wednesday, but I would have thought they still would have wanted to stay home the extra day and fly out Thursday...

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