July 1-7

The second half of 2019 began (rather appropriately) on a Monday, in the afternoon the garage called to tell me my car was ready for pickup. It passed through inspection with no issues and no problems detected which is always a good thing. The middle part of the week was quiet (which was just fine given how hot it was), on Friday the Barnstormers returned home for a weekend visit from the York Revolution. On this night the Stormers took an early 2-0 lead in the first on back-to-back home runs from Caleb Gindl and Michael Martinez. In the fourth the Revs tied it on a Wellington Dotel two-run shot, in the bottom half an RBI triple by Martinez gave the home team a 3-2 advantage. The Revs forged ahead in the fifth on a Henry Castillo RBI groundout and Telvin Nash's two-run homer, in the Stormers' half newcomer Andrew Aplin (late of the Arizona Diamondbacks system) went yard to cut the deficit to 5-4. In the ninth the Revolution added an insurance run on an Angelys Nina sac fly, the final score was 6-4. Peter Tago was the winner for the Revs in relief of starter Mitch Atkins, Jared Lakind took the loss for the Barnstormers. On Saturday Jenny and her mother again elected not to come into town, with the combination of the heat and thunderstorms in the forecast it turned out to be the right decision. I went to the ballpark (since it's only a mile away), the skies were very dark to the west and just before game time the winds started whipping in from that direction. The Stormers scored three times in the first, the Revs replied with a single in the second but it was all for nought. The field was covered after the Revs' at-bat in anticipation of the storm, within ten minutes the skies opened and ended the evening. The clubs played a doubleheader on Sunday to make up the rainout, it also drew the Atlantic League's first-half to a close. I was of course not there, day games in ninety-degree heat simply don't agree with me and I'm not sure they ever did. Sugar Land and Long Island finished as the respective first-half division champions, the second half starts after the All-Star break on Friday the 12th. Take care, thanks for reading.