An ugly start, a messy end, and a decent game in between
So here we are, at Fenway Park on a cloudy afternoon to see a pair of minor league games and some Star Wars. Yeah, this day would be anything but normal.
Before we get to the games, there’s the matter of some Star Wars festivities. We start with a parade of costumed fans, ranging from kids in Halloween costumes to professional replicas, to the answer to “What do you get when you cross a Star Wars fan with a Red Sox fan?” The ball for the first pitch was delivered by Darth Vader using The Force. Or maybe it was the string…
Every game should start with a high five from Chewbacca
With that out of the way, the players emerged to begin their warmups and chat with fans, posing for pictures and signing autographs. The Renegades pitchers occupied the dugout rail and signed plenty of balls tossed over the dugout.
So why am I even covering a Renegades-Spinners game? The easy answer is because of the Bisons game coming up in the second half of the doubleheader, but it’s not like I had no interest in this game. Aside from payback for beating the Cyclones in two out of three games the previous week (which would in turn would bump the Cyclones down in the standings…), it was nice to see the closest professional team to where I grew up. Even if they do play on the wrong side of the river and it wasn’t formed until just a few years before I left, it is still a reminder of home. Well, not really, but who cares, I run this place and can cover whatever I want. It’s not like I have readers to appease.
Not how you want to get the first out of a game. Or any out ever.
The game was quick to get to some drama of the tragic kind when Hudson Valley’s Joey Rickard sent the second pitch from Lowell Spinners pitcher Brian Johnson straight back to the pitcher, hitting him square in the left eye socket. Johnson left the field on a stretcher, in pain but conscious. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery from one of the scariest plays a pitcher can encounter.
No pitchers were harmed in the hitting of these balls, unless you count damage to ERA.
The hits kept coming as both teams exchanged unintentional HBPs in the second inning, with the offense on both sides delivering enough to send each player as far as home plate (though for the Spinners their runner was the victim of an inning-ending double play). Joel Caminero and Jake DePew combined to drive in three runs for the Renegades, while Zach Kapstein drove in a run for the Spinners in the bottom half.
Hard-hit ball + slick defensive play - ball staying in receiving fielder's glove = single
The Renegades added three more runs over the next seven innings, with Jake DePew adding a double and a home run over the Green Monster to his 2nd inning single, leaving him a triple shy of the cycle when he came up to bat in the 8th. A great play by Lowell’s Matthew Gedman looked like it would turn DePew’s grounder into a fielder’s choice, but the ball had other plans, bouncing out of the glove of the fielder covering second and leaving DePew with a mere single. The game looked to be over as the Spinners came up in the bottom of the 9th, down 6-1.
Wait, what did I miss?
And so I went off to get some food so I would be ready to hunt down Bisons autographs before the start of the next game. While I was gone, the Spinners put together three runs on a triple, single, double, and a fielding error. Wait, I remember this, it’s how the Mets beat the Braves last Sunday. All they need to is give up one more run, and there it is. Now that pesky third out and…
The Mets would be proud.
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