August 17-18

At some point in the future we may look back on the events of August 17, 2011 and place the blame firmly on the weather bureau in Portland, Maine. Had it not rained in Portland on May 19 we would never have been subjected to what happened in Baseballtown on this night in August. We played a doubleheader that got started at 6:05 and finally ended five hours and thirty-three minutes later. The R-Phils lost both ends of it as Portland took the opener 5-4 and the nightcap 5-3. In game #1 Carlos Rivero hit a solo home run, Matt Rizzotti had an RBI double, Tuffy Gosewisch had a run-scoring base hit and Ozzie Chavez picked up a ribbie on an infield groundout. B.J. Rosenberg lost it in relief of J.C. Ramirez. In the second game (which began at the princely hour of 9:20) the Sea Dogs took a 5-0 lead and made it stand up. Carlos Rivero went yard again, Chris Lubanski had an RBI sacrifice fly, the third R-Phils run scored on a wild pitch. Derrick Loop made the spot start and took the loss, Chris Kissock worked in relief. We had 5300 in attendance but much less than that by the time we finished, with it all I had the pleasure of walking through my front door at 12:25 on Thursday morning. Some thunderstorms moved through the area overnight but by sunrise they were gone. On Thursday Jenny and I had our usual lunch date at the pizza parlor in Quarryville, later in the day I was back at the ballpark as we wrapped up the series. The R-Phils rebounded nicely with an 8-3 win before close to 5500. Tuffy Gosewisch had three hits including a home run and three RBI, Fidel Hernandez had a hit and two RBI. Michael Spidale hit a solo home run, Carlos Rivero and Paco Figueroa had run-scoring hits also. Les Walrond won it in relief of Joe Esposito, Justin Friend worked the last inning. There were storm warnings up for the Reading area but the game was uninterrupted, I was home before 11:00. The homestand continues through the weekend as the Altoona Curve comes to town. Take care, thanks for reading.