Played last night at Watervliet where the sky was outrageously beautiful with plenty of late day sun and exquisite post thunderstorm clouds. The field was in phenomenal condition thanks to Dennis Lane who does the best job preparing the field for baseball. This game had a little of everything. Fine pitching, many outstanding defensive plays, many solidly struck balls, a bad hop off Twins third baseman Rodney Smiths cheekbone, 2 errors by both teams, a fair amount of tension, and more. Top of the first Twins Jeff Whitehead hit a one out double off Dodgers starter Mark Callahan but went no further as the next two batters were retired 6-3 and a long fly to centerfield by Ricky Saidenberg. Twins starter Steve Rychcik retires the Dodgers 1-2-3 to end the first. Craig Tynan leads off the second with a single. The next Twin batter is called out looking. Jim Tino delivers a solid double into right center driving home Tynan. Greg Briscoe flies out deep deep to centerfield and the third out is recorded as a pop out to first. 1-0 Twins. Rychik retires the Dodgers in the bottom of the second on 2 fly balls to center, a walk, and a swinging strikeout. Frank Owens opens the Twins 3rd with a single and steals second and then third. Rychcik singles home Owens and the Twins have a 2-0 lead. Bottom of the third Dodgers get one back on a walk and two Twins errors making it a 2-1 ball game after 3. Twins go down 1-2-3 in the top of the fourth. Twins starter Rychcik yields to reliever Whitehead after giving up 0 hits in his three innings. Callahan doubles to greet Whitehead and the Dodgers have their first hit of the game. Pat Alston walks. Next batter retired on the fielders choice. Lane grounds out 4-3 driving in Callahan and the inning ends on a strikeout. 2-2 ball game entering the 5th. Owens singles with one out in the top of the fifth them quickly steals second. Whitehead reaches on an infield error. 5 to 3 ground out by Rychcik , 2 outs. Sadenberg hits a tremendous bomb over the centerfielders head knocking in Owens and Whitehead. 4-2 Twins. Whitehead settles down on the mound and gets the Dodgers 1-2-3 in the fifth. Jim Tesereiro on in relief for the Dodgers. Stefan Koutsakis opens the sixth for the Twins with a single. Jim Tino reaches on an infield error. Greg Briscoe singles driving in Koutsakis. Owens walks. Whitehead grounds a fielders choice plating Tino. 6-2 Twins. The bottom of the 6th sees Whitehead retiring the Dodgers 1-2-3 again. Twins also go down 1-2-3 in the seventh. Whitehead retires the first two Dodger hitters in the bottom of the seventh 4-3 and 6-3. Pat Alston comes up and hits a super hard skimming grounder to Rodney Smith at third. The ball takes a weird hop and strikes Smith on the cheekbone hard. It was an ugly sound that I heard from 15 feet away. Smith does not wanna leave the game and the after checking him out and looking at his pupils, he did indeed remain at his station. Jim Bradley and Dennis Lane both hit clean singles to load the bases with two outs. Jim Burns hits another very hard grounder to, you guessed it, Rodney Smith at third, who jumped on the ball and smothered it with his body, picked it up and slammed his glove and ball down on the third base bag to end the game. Twins come away with a hard fought victory 6-2. 2-4-2 for the Dodgers and 6-9-2 for the Twins who also saw doubles by Whitehead,Saidenberg, and Tino. The Dodgers are very strong team loaded with talent.
-- Edited by crowbait on Wednesday 24th of July 2024 09:55:30 AM
