Sometimes it's amazing what one good solid night's sleep can do especially when you're first out of the hospital. You can sleep straight through because there's nobody coming in at 4:00am jabbing you in the arm, taking vital signs and asking you your name and date of birth for the millionth time. My first stop on Friday morning was the local store to find a pair of pants I could fit into. When I came home from the hospital I was holding my pants up in the back because they would have fallen to my ankles otherwise, that's what happens when an operation takes forty pounds off your weight and six inches off your waistline. In the evening I felt good enough to be at the ballpark, the Stormers hosted the Long Island Ducks in game #4 of a six-game series. The Stormers won two of the first three but I was of course absent for the obvious reasons. On this night the visitors took a 2-0 lead in the third before Aaron Schunk's two-run home run in the bottom half tied it, the game was still 2-2 in the sixth when things went south quicker than they had for me the previous Thursday. An eight-run Long Island salvo in the sixth and two more in the eighth salted away a 12-2 Duck win, Cole Patten was the losing pitcher in relief of Kyle Lazer. On Saturday Jenny and I saw each other for the first time in ten days (although she and Helen called me on regular occasions while I was Inside), since we missed out on the 16th we celebrated Jenny's belated birthday with lunch at a local Italian eatery. In the evening we were back at the ballpark. This night featured another of those wacky Atlantic League last-shot-wins kind of game, back-to-back home runs in the first from Corey Rosier and Aaron Schunk gave the Stormers a 2-0 lead. After LI tied it in the second the Stormers went up 5-2 on a three-run shot by returning fan favorite Mason Martin (back with the club after spending the season in the Mexican League), a third-inning solo homer from fellow returnee Tyler Miller (back from his MiLB assignment) made it 6-2. In the fourth Martin went yard again with a man on giving the Stormers a six-run lead but from there the game turned on a dime. The Ducks scored ten unanswered runs in the sixth and seventh to forge ahead 12-8. Over the last two innings the clubs scored twice each, the Stormer runs coming on a seventh-inning error and a Nick Lucky groundout. When the smoke cleared (both from the game AND the postgame fireworks show) Long Island won it 12-10, Richie Dell took the loss in relief of Jason Bollman. The series ended on Sunday with another LI win but for me it was the proverbial day of rest, with little else gong on the rest of the month that should give me plenty of opportunity to further recover. The ballclub returns home on the 1st of September, as of right now that's the next major event on the calendar. Take care, thanks for reading.
