Now that is a clean up hitter

Phil Gurnee ♦ May 3, 2017 ♦ 1 Comment

but he was batting 8th.

I was lucky enough to get a ticket last night courtesy of Brent Cook who asked if I wanted to join him in just enough time for me to say yes and get to the game on time.

Six outs into the Giants lineup I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be at this game. Down 4 – 0 with a Dodger lineup that had the recently activated Franklyn Gutierrez batting 4th, Chris Taylor the future AAA infielder hitting 5th, backup catcher Austin Barnes batting 7th, and some guy making his first ever major league start at 1st base.  It didn’t seem promising.

But on an 0 – 2 count the new LAD cleanup hitter smoked a home run to center field and it was only 4 -1. At least we weren’t going to get shut-out by this lefthander.  Christ Taylor worked a walk. Puig hit one of his many ground balls but this one was in the right place and he had an infield hit. Things were looking up. Austin Barnes worked a walk and the bases were loaded.

There is a baseball saying that when you don’t want to insult a hitter by batting him eighth you call him your second clean up hitter.  It was true last night, as that 1st baseman making his first major league start at 1st base laced a shot down the right-field line into the corner. Taylor scored / Puig scored / Barnes scored and lo and behold a 1st baseman was standing at 3rd base with a triple and the score was tied.

When was the last time you saw a Dodger 1st baseman hit a triple that landed in the left field corner?

Brent and his group had shown up just as the Dodgers were hitting in the bottom of the 2nd. Does this guy live a charmed life or what?

The rest of the game was simply watching the Dodgers pummel Giant pitching and talking to Brent about the future brewery. I’ve been around a long time but this is the first time I’ve had a friend build a manufacturing business from scratch. I’m sure everyone who has ever spent time in bar/pub dreamed of owning one, but he’s gone one further and I wish him the greatest success. I’m trying to figure out if I can invest in his venture.  I’ll be crunching numbers tonight, it would have to be with money I don’t need. Mama doesn’t really need new shoes, does she?

Anyway, some other game notes:

• Puig hit three rocket ground balls, one was a double play, the other two drove in four runs.
• Hernandez and Barnes both have batting averages below .220 but an OPS of .771 and .772.
• Christ Taylor walked four times. Four times. The future AAA infielder now has an OPS over 1.000
• Gutierrez hit the second home run out of the clean up spot. Welcome back
• Alex Wood was worked in the second inning but he geared up and gave the Dodgers five innings.