We camped outside last night, up on the hill behind our friends’s house in Vermont, with a spectacularly clear dark sky (just a sliver of waxing moon) that set us smack dab inside the Milky Way. The fire roared, a guitar hammered, voices rose in praise of, mainly, the Rolling Stones and Tom Petty. The kids made s’mores and the dogs howled when coyotes got too near.
Around us radio waves certainly flew, filling the air, but none of our devices could receive them. After dark, when the singing was replaced by crickets and the dogs curled up close in front of our tents, when the dreams came, I did have a vision that Hector Noesi was pounded by the Royals, but I couldn’t tell from the fuzzy box score whether Eric Hosmer, I hoped, did the damage.
So, this morning was different than all the other mornings this week. On those other days I knew the results when I woke up, apart from maybe one late game, but today I knew nothing.
I thought, as I walked down the big hill, smelling of fire and smoke, that I should wade into last night’s results. Page through the box scores, try to recreate the events game by game, but when I sat down at the machine I clicked Last Night’s Boxs. I couldn’t wait, and there was good news.
Homers from Reddick, Calhoun and Ackley certainly helped separate me from Jerry’s Kids, and gained me half a point.
My gamble on Noesi resulted in a decent game for him, but no win, while my other starter, Rick Porcello, was pounded by the Twins. So, no big W in the Wins column. That was the bad news.
If I had clicked on the Burn Bags’ box score, I would have learned that he got Wins from both his starters (Iwakuma and Kluber), that Rusney Castillo hit a homer (so did Brian Dozier) and stole a base, that Marcus Strohman earned a save (!) and that the Bags hit .362.
But I didn’t click on the Bags’ box score, but rather checked the standings, where I was immediately reassured that I was still in first place, and then dismayed to see that my lead had shrunk to .5 points. It was then I looked at the Bags big day.
The villain here, as far as I’m concerned, is Rusney Castillo. Without his two homers the Bags would have one fewer point. That would be much better for me. He’d be farther from a steals point, and less likely to gain in RBI and more likely to lose. Rusney Castillo is wrecking my week.
Here’s the rundown of the cats. I’m far from dead, but things are darker today than they were yesterday:
HOMERS: Bad K are three ahead of the Jerry’s. Bags are tied with the Moose, two ahead of the Tooners.
RBI: Bad K are locked. Bags are four behind Palukas, two ahead of Nova.
STEALS: Bad K are one steal ahead of the Tooners. Bags are two behind the Guns.
BA: Bad K are locked. Bags are .0005 behind Nova.
WINS: Bad K are tied with Jerry’s, with Lobstein and Kyle Gibson starting. Jerry’s have Cory Rasmus. Bags are locked.
SAVES: Bad K are tied with the BB’s, who have gotten three saves from Aaron Sanchez this month. Hopefully no more. With the Marcus Stroman save yesterday, the Bags are one save behind the Peppers, two ahead of the Hackers and Tooners.
ERA: Bad K are .01 ahead of the BBs. Bags are locked.
WHIP: Bad K are .016 behind the Nova. Bags are locked.
I don’t think I’ll sleep out tonight.