Storm doubles up Greenthumb

 A ten man Storm team suited up against a shorthanded Greenthumb team who had a little help from some of The Crew in the Tuesday night matchup. Storm started strong with a couple of singles before Duran mashed a home run. This was the real contest in the game. Storm had already locked up first place, but Duran was chasing Richard from Greenthumb for the home run lead. This brought him to within three and put Storm up three. Greenthumb was blanked and Richard, who after watching three pitches land off the board outside, lined the next pitch to… none other than Duran who made the catch on the hot smash, but who came off the field shaking his hand because the ball had been hit so hard.

Storm added to the lead in the second. With two runners on, Joey launched a three run shot. Under normal circumstances, this would be something to applaud, but with first place already locked up, the gentlemanly thing would have been to leave the home runs for Duran. Duran then came up next, but with Storm plus two, he could not hit a home run. Scratch that. He could hit a home run, it would just be an out. And that’s exactly what happened. Duran mashed a home run out. 

With Storm up two home runs, Duran had his hands tied. Would Richard be able to increase his lead? Nobody would know in the second as Greenthumb went down in order. Storm chipped away and got three more in the third to take a 10-0 lead. But Greenthumb wasn’t done yet. They scored four in the 3rd to make a game of it. But it wouldn’t stay close for long. Mills, who played again like he had eaten some extra wheaties, mashed an inside the park the home run in the fourth to propel Storm to a six run mercy. In the fifth, Mills would outdo himself. He hit an inside the park grand slam en route to a seven run inning for Storm. 

The only thing left was to worry about home runs. Storm kept Richard off the home run board. He came close in one at bat driving a high fly ball to the fence, but Mills sprinted back and caught it. He also popped up to right centre and then to deep second base to go 0 for 4. Greenthumb didn’t manage a home run until the bottom of the 6th, which was too bad because Duran had made the last out of the top of the 6th and didn’t come up in the 7th.

Cycle Watch:

Joey missed the double 

Scotty from the Crew, but playing for Greenthumb, completed the cycle in his last at bat with a home run that was too late to help Duran

Storm    28   -   Greenthumb 14

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Storm	3	4	3	6	7	6	1	28
Greenthumb	0	0	4	2	1	3	4	14

Notable Boxscores:

Joey - 5 for 6, HR (stolen from Duran), 5 RBI, 3 runs

Duran 4 for 6, HR, HR out (thanks Joey!), 5 RBI, 3 runs

Mills 3 for 5, inside the park grand slam, inside the park 3 run homer, 7 RBI, 4 runs

Brian - 5 for 5, 2B, 2 RBI, run

Sam 4 for 5, 3 RBI, 3 runs

Rene 4 for 6, 5 RBI, 2 runs

Kevin - 4 for 6, 4 runs

Storm Soars over Falcons

 In the first game of the doubleheader, it appeared Storm was trapped in a softball version of And Then There Were None, so while winning was important to Storm, getting through the night with everyone still (relatively) healthy was also a priority. 

Storm set the tone early with a six run mercy to start the game. Storm then scored in every frame, including a five run fifth on their way to a 22-9 victory.

Almost everyone contributed to the offensive onslaught. Mills had been eating his wheaties and went 5 for 6. He also played very solid outfield, covering most of the field. In the final frame he made all three outs without hardly having to move.

Joey hopped along at short with some nice plays, and got four hits. Duran started off strong in his bid for his ___th cycle of the season (we’ve stopped keeping track. He hit a three run blast in the first, a double in the second, and a single in the third. After getting the hard one out of the way (the single is the hard one for Duran, he struggled with the one everyone else struggles with, and ended a triple short of the cycle.

Kraig lived up to his alternative spelling and struck out, but he also hit a home run making him a true outcome player. Al pitched a gem of a game and added three solid hits. Jeff made a couple of nice plays at third and went 3 for 3 while hitting two sacrifice flies. Lancer Beam has clearly sacrificed a goat (or a daughter?) as he went 4 for 5./

Sam I am started looking like  he is in line to inherit the Pilkey dynasty. After a number of frustrating at bats Sam I Am, Looked a little more like his father as he went 4 for 5 and drilled his first home run of the season. Of course, Sam is his own man, so he hits pull instead of his dad. Between the two of them they have been peppering the foul territory on both sides of the field.

Kevin made a couple of nice catches in the outfield and got a couple of hits. Brian did his best High Jackman impression, as he was the lone X-Man of the evening being retired in every at bat, but he played a solid first base.

Storm    22   -   Falcons 9

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Storm	6	3	2	1	5	2	3	22
Falcons	0	3	2	2	2	0	0	9

Storm neutralizes Isotopes, but lose Bob in the process

 Storm played an incredibly solid game defensively. The outfield was a vacuum and sucked up everything hit out there. Ground balls found their ways into gloves and throws were solid. Jeff and Al combined for the rare slopitch shutout as Storm won 12-0.

Defensive highlights:

The defensive highlights mostly occurred on plays made at catcher. Lance made a couple of outs against the Isotopes at catcher, but the Isotopes were short players and Lance also made a couple of outs against his own team from catcher. The first was Kevin popping up and Lance made a nice grab. The second was a foul tip lined back at Lance and he caught it. But turnaround is fair play, and when Lance had to leave catcher to bat, Craig jumped at the chance to catch. Sure enough, Lance hit a foul ball that Craig caught.  Call it Karma or the baseball gods, but it was hilarious to everyone watching.

Less hilarious was the injury report:

Greg came up limp and had to sit the last few innings. 

More seriously, Bob broke his ankle sliding into 3rd. There was a loud pop, (See picture) and Bob was unable to continue. Bob has signed out for the remainder of the season as he may require surgery. We all wish Bob a speedy recovery and hope he's good for the start of next season.

Bob's Broken Ankle

Storm    12   -   Isotopes 0

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Storm	2	3	3	0	2	0	2	12
Isotopes	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

A Guide to Nicknames

Nicknames have started to become more prevalent in the writeups because of a belief that people thought they were funny and added a certain pizzazz to the writeups. One reader actually commented that he knew a writeup had been created by AI because of a lack of nicknames (that’s an A and an I for artificial intelligence, not an A and a lowercase l for Al). However, after one of our faithful readers commented that he had no idea what was happening in the game writeups anymore because he didn’t know who anyone was, I stopped using them.

Here is a guide to nicknames that have been used in recent writeups, if you would like to go back and cross reference to see who did what when and to whom.

Captain Underpants = Al (last name Stanfield, which is a brand of underwear turned into a name from a popular children’s book series)

Captain Kangaroo = Joey (a joey is a baby kangaroo, and Captain Kangaroo was an old children’s television show)

The Captain = Duran (because he wants to be called the Captain [also because it give us something to write with a K should he strike out again])

The Thane of Whitby = Brad (last name Macdougall and he is a big Shakespeare fan, and in Macbeth  er, I mean The Scottish play, everyone whose name begins with Mac is a thane of something)

Tank Engine = Jeff because his last name is Thomas and Thomas the Tank Engine was a popular TV show (just noticing a lot of references to kids’ TV shows).

Batting Practice = also Jeff, when he is pitching because, well, the other teams hit really well off him. Since he donned a pitching mask, he has also been referred to as Hannibal Lecter and Stanley Ipkis (the character who turns into the Mask in the Jim Carrey film)

Any reference to cereal = Mills because General Mills makes cereal brands

Dr. Seuss/ I am Sam - Sam - there have been some fun poems about Sam. Check them out Starting to contemplate new references to Son of Sam or Samwise Gamgee or Sam McGhee so if you see those, they are all still Sam

Marlborough Man - Brian

Can’t remember any others for now, but if I missed any you can ask and I’ll let you know. 

Also, there might not be a use of nicknames in the future for fear of confusion. 

 

Storm comes out on top in seesaw game

Storm started a little rough on Wednesday night. The Expos found a number of holes in the infield as a number of ground balls made it through and the Expos were able to plate five runs in the first inning. Storm could only muster two runs. It was like they entered a hall of mirrors as in the second inning, the Expos scored two and Storm scored 5 making the score tied. In the 3rd, neither team wanted to score. It seemed the Expos really didn’t want to score even though Jeff was struggling with the strike zone. After walking the first batter on four pitches, he threw three straight balls to the next batter, who inexplicably then swung at a 3-0 pitch and grounded into a double play. The next batter popped out on a 2-0 pitch, and Jeff somehow recorded three outs after only throwing two balls in the strike zone in the inning. Storm didn’t fare any better in the bottom of the 3rd as they also got blanked. 

The teams remembered it was slopitch, and therefore a game where runs should be scored in the 4th. The Expos were patient, took their walks, and got some timely hits, including a three run blast and the Expose Exposed Storm’s lack of pitching depth with a 6 run inning. Storm had a response, though, as Jeff took a page out of the Expos book and walked starting a five run rally capped off by Bob’s two run blast. 

The open innings were up next, which was a scary proposition since the pitchers had been having trouble staying in the strike zone, but Jeff settled down and the Expos only scored one run in the final three frames. Storm managed to get 6 in the fifth as Rene launched a two run blast and then they put the game away in the 6th as Duran launched a two run home run in a four run inning. This was a big comeback win for Storm as they trailed at the end of four innings but managed to keep it together and play a dominant final three innings to win 22-14.

Cycle watch:

Duran missed the double, but hit two triples

Bob missed the triple

Storm    22   -   The Expos 14

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
The Expos	5	2	0	6	1	0	0	14
Storm	2	5	0	5	6	4	x	22

Notable Boxscores:

Rene - 4 for 4, HR, 6 RBI, 5 runs

Duran - 4 for 4, HR, 6 RBI, 5 runs

Bob - 4 for 5, HR, 4 RBI, 2 runs 

Jeff - 3 for 4, 4 runs

Brad 3 for 5, triple, 2 RBI, run

Ken 3 for 4, run