Games

August 14th – It is hard to believe that we have been on the road for just over 4 months and that we have already seen 29 ballparks! It has been a great journey and the Boston Red Sox provided us with a grand finish. Fenway is a great ballpark. We arrived in Boston early enough to spend some time walking around the outside ballpark before the game. The game itself could not have been more exciting. Boston was playing Tampa Bay (where we started our trip) and like the first game, this one came down to the very last pitch and the Red Sox won!! The fans welcomed Jon Lester for his first home start after his battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. This was Fenway’s 365th consecutive sellout – the second longest streak in baseball history.

August 7th –This was an evening game so it was more comfortable weather wise than the game at Yankee Stadium. This is also another team with a new stadium in its near future and the new one is being built right next to the existing one so as you are watching games you can also see progress on the new stadium (Citi Field).

Fenway Park
Boston, Massachusetts

	Team	R	H	E
	Tampa Bay Devil Rays	1	4	0
	Boston Red Sox	2	7	0

Highlights

If you’ve been following these synopses of the games we’ve attended this summer, you’ll remember that I recorded that I thought it would be difficult to top the excitement we witnessed at the very first game back on April 6 at Tropicana Field. And as that was a fitting game to start our summer long adventure; this one was a perfect contest to end it on. For those of you who have not had the opportunity to attend a game at Fenway Park, it’s impossible to recreate in print the absolute electric atmosphere that exists here but this one seemed to have a little extra edge as the sold out crowd of 36,837 (365th sell out in a row) welcomed starting pitcher Jon Lester back to his first home start since overcoming his battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Needless to say, the stage was set. The game quickly settled into a pitching dual between Lester and Rays ace Scott Kazmir. The Rays scored first in the top of the fourth with Carl Crawford reaching on a leadoff double. Center fielder B.J. Upton followed with a single moving Crawford to third and then Carlos Pena delivered Crawford home with a sacrifice fly to center to give the Rays a 1-0 lead. Kazmir went the first 6 innings giving up 1 hit each in the 1st, 3rd, 4th & 5th while striking out 8 and walking 3 and left the game in line for a victory with a 1-0 lead. Gary Glover and Dan Wheeler followed with 1 inning of perfect relief each to carry the 1-0 lead into the ninth. Lester went the first seven innings and gave up only 2 hits and 1 run in the 4th. He was otherwise hitless while striking out 4 and walking 1. Things got a little shaky for the Sox in the eighth when reliever Manny Delcarmen was greeted by a leadoff base hit by Jonny Gomes and then followed that up by issuing a base-on-balls to short stop Josh Wilson. The catcher Josh Paul then delivered a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Wilson and Gomes to 2nd & 3rd with only 1 out. The lead off batter Akinori Iwamura was up next and hit a shallow fly to left that was not deep enough for Gomes to attempt to score. Delcarmen then walked Crawford intentionally to load the bases and was lifted in favor of veteran reliever Mike Timlin who came in and retired Upton on strikes to end the threat. Newly acquired Eric Gagne pitched the ninth for the Sox and struck out the side sandwiched around a double by Brendan Harris. Then came the bottom of the ninth! Manny Ramirez lead off the inning and promptly went down on strikes but the crowd was still cheering madly for a rally and they got part of their wish when the next batter Mike Lowell crushed a 2-0 pitch from Rays’ closer Al Reyes over the “Green Monster” to tie the score at 1-1. Kevin Youkilis followed with a strikeout leaving the fate of the game to catcher Jason Varitek and he almost ended the game with a deep fly to the right field corner which initially looked as though it might sneak by the Pesky Pole for a game winning homer but ended up bouncing into the stands for a ground rule double. Coco Crisp followed with a game winning single to right scoring Varitek and as they say, “The crowd went wild!”. We saw 30 games at 30 stadiums this summer and it seems fitting that the first and the last of these games were not decided until the final at bat.

August 5th – Could not have had a hotter day for this game! It was an afternoon game and we were sitting the sun all afternoon. First disappointment was that although we arrived well before the start of the game, Monument Park was closed for the day by the time we got inside the stadium. Alex Rodrigez had hit his 500th home run the night before this game but we did get to see a milestone – Hideki Matsui hit his 100th home run as a Yankee.

Shea Stadium
Flushing, New York

	Team	R	H	E
	Atlanta Braves	7	15	1
	New York Mets	3	6	0

Highlights

The Braves scored all the runs necessary in the first 3 innings as they closed the gap to 3½ games in the NL East and easily bested the Mets 7-3 in the opener of a meaningful 3 game series between these top two contenders. Matt Diaz started things off early for the Braves as he belted a solo homerun in the top of the first as the second batter of the game. Then after the Mets went quietly in the bottom of the first the Braves connected for two more runs off four hits in the top of the second. Jeff Francoeur got things started with a double after Andruw Jones led off the inning with a fly ball to left. Catcher Brian McCann followed with a single scoring Francoeur and then second baseman Kelly Johnson was retired on strikes for the out number two. Pitcher Buddy Carlyle helped his own cause by keeping the inning alive as he reached on a single and lead-off hitter Yunel Excobar delivered McCann for the third run of the game as he reached on a double. The Braves ended the inning with a 3-0 lead as Diaz flied out to right for the third out. The Mets sent the minimum batters to the plate in the bottom of the second and then the Braves put it out of reach as Francoeur slugged a 3 run blast in the top of third to increase the lead to 6-0. The Mets scored a single run in the fourth and 2 more in the fifth but were unable to overcome the Braves’ early lead. Buddy Carlyle completed five innings to secure the win giving up all 6 of Atlanta’s hits while issuing 1 walk and recording 1 strike out. Ron Mahay, Octavio Dotel, Rafael Soriano and Peter Moylan each went an inning of hitless relief to shut down the Braves the rest of the way.

July 31 – It was so easy to get to this stadium from where we were staying we were there much quicker than we had anticipated. Only problem was there wasn’t much to see or do in the immediate area so we just walked around the outside of the stadium and waited for the gates to open. The ceremonial first pitch we thrown by the President of the PGA America, Brian Whitcomb. Geico sponsors the Presidents Race where Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt race (graphically) around DC and finish along the first base line. The race was interrupted briefly when 3 of them decided to try putting before finishing the race. Next year this team is getting a new ballpark so we will have to return for a game in there. This one will remain the home of the Major League Soccer team – DC United.

Yankee Stadium
Bronx, New York

	Team	R	H	E
	Kansas City Royals	5	12	0
	New York Yankees	8	8	1

Highlights

The Yankees jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and despite the final score the outcome of this game never really seemed in doubt. The Yankees completed a 3 game sweep on this beautiful cloudless afternoon in front of a sold out crowd of 54,525. Royals’ starter and ace Gil Meche got into trouble in the second when with 2 outs already recorded, he issued a walk to Robinson Cano. Wilson Betemit followed with a single and then Andy Phillips worked the count for another base on balls to load the bases. Melky Cabrera singled to drive in Cano and Derek Jeter followed with a bases loaded walk to make the score 2-0. Bobby Abreu singled in Phillips and Cabrera to increase the lead to 4-0 before the ninth batter of the inning Alex Rodrigez (who incidentally on the day after hitting his career 500th home run was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts) hit a fly ball to right for the final out. The Bombers increased the lead to 5-0 in the 3rd when Hideki Matsui led off with his career 100th homer with the Yankees. They scored another solo run in the 4th when with 1 out Jeter was hit by the pitch and moved to third on a single by Abreu. Jeter was sacrificed home by a fly ball out to center by Rodrigez. Yankees starter Mike Mussina, cruised thru the first 5 with only 2 base runners getting to scoring position off a total of 4 hits and no walks. In the 6th though he hit Emil Brown with the pitch and Ross Gload followed with a homer to right to make the score 6-2. The Yankees got those runs back in the bottom of the inning that included Cabrera’s 7th home run of the season. Joey Gathright lead off the top of the 7th with a single which chased Mussina in favor of Brian Bruney who got Tony Pena Jr. to hit into a 5-4-3 double play but then got into trouble as he issued a walk to David DeJesus and a single to Esteban German. Bruney was lifted for veteran left hander Mike Myers who also had trouble as he allowed the 2 inherited runners to score. Myers allowed a run of his own in the 8th and so with 1 out Joe Torre opted for his save artist Mariano Rivera to come in and record the last 5 outs to earn his 17th save of the season.

RFK Stadium
Washington, D.C.

	Team	R	H	E
	Cincinnati Reds	3	12	0
	Washinton Nationals	6	12	1

Highlights

Nationals’ starter Matt Chico while utilizing a little luck pitched well enough to get the victory. He lasted 5 innings and had runners in scoring position for each of them but was able to escape damage until the 5th. After recording two outs on the first two hitters, Chico allowed back-to-back doubles to Adam Dunn and Jeff Conine accounting for the first run and then Edwin Encarnacion singled home Conine to make it 2-0 in favor of the Nats. David Ross followed with another single but Chico was able to get his opposite number Bobby Livingston to pop out to shallow center to retire the side. Livingston seemed to be coasting right along giving up just 1 hit in each of the first 4 innings but came unhinged in the fifth. He led off the inning by allowing a single to the number 8 hitter Nook Logan and then walked Jiminez who was pinch hitting for Chico. Lead off hitter Felipe Lopez followed with a single to load the bases and then Ronnie Belliard delivered yet another single to drive in Logan and reload the bases. Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman came up with still nobody out and slugged a base clearing double which chased Livingston from the game. Todd Coffey came in and got Dmitri Young to ground out short moving Zimmerman to third and then retired Austin Kearns on strikes for the 2nd out of the inning. Ryan Church followed with a single driving in Zimmerman to make the score 5-2 and then Coffey issued a base on balls to Brian Schneider that brought Logan back to the plate for the second time in the inning. He hit into a fielder’s choice forcing Schneider to bring the inning to a close. The Reds got a run back in the top of the 6th off a pair of singles and a pass ball to close the gap to 5-3 but were able to produce only 1 hit the rest of the way. The Nats got that run back in the top of the 7th as Church collected his 2nd RBI by doubling home Robert Fick who was pinch running for Young who had reached on a walk.