A lovely late August weekend in Phoenix finds the Bob Melvins duking it out with the Chip Hales in a three-game series at Chase Field. It’s your final opportunity of the season to watch the A’s play some exciting National League rules ball.
Friday at 6:40: Sonny Gray vs. Chase Anderson.
Saturday at 5:10: Felix Doubront Aaron Brooks vs. Jhoulys Chacin.
Sunday at 1:10: Jesse Chavez vs. Robbie Ray Allen Webster.
One thing about haboobs: They’re real, and they’re spectacular.
Oops, wrong video.
I haven’t been to a D’Backs game at Chase Field, but did go to a couple World Baseball Classic games in there, which happened to be fortuitously scheduled on a day when the Cactus League was rained out. It’s an aircraft hangar, nothing very charming about it by the standards of new ballparks, and holy crap you can be way way up in the rafters in the upper deck down the base lines. I go to Phoenix enough, have no particular desire to see regular season games there and consider it checked off my list.
110? odd
I always hope to see haboobs when I come the ballpark, but I rarely do.
HABOOBIES
(had to)
Also, w00t Billy Burns
the copy of the green day fireworks promo is terrrrrrrible
its gonna be breslow v cwspedes ftw in new york
It was Jonny Gomes vs. CY25 in Atlanta.
breslow wins the batter
HA! Boobs!
I just found out some people pout the MILK for their cereal BEFORE the actual cereal. My world has changed, and not for the better.
That’s outrageous. Those people are sick.
I wouldn’t do that to start, but occasionally I want a little more cereal so I dump some into the milk after I’ve finished the first serving. You do want to be sure there’s only milk left when you do that, because otherwise a Cap’n Crunch morsel that’s been floating around in there for 10 minutes will be a gross glob of sog by the time you get to it.
This.
Also, I love you.
Not sure whether that refers to the Cap’n or the belated but previously intended addition of Teri Hatcher.
Same. Sometimes I will sometimes do this when I can’t decide what cereal I want. BOTH.
Now I want breakfast.
That could be an offer.
So if I make dinner…
Thanks, and go As.
Way too late with the effort, Mike.
ah, well.
You keeping safe dude?
Thanks, and go As.
Very.
And I spent the last 4 days at home with the family. My temp gig outside SLO might be ending mid-September and I can’t say I have a problem with that.
Awesome.
Thanks, and go As.
I guess Sonny’s stuff is so good that Vogt can’t deal with it?
Catch
the
FKing
ball
What the FKing FK, Canha????
He better sit of the far side of the
dugoutbusplane from Reddick for the rest of thenightseriesseason.Flipping over to the California Classico en español because FK this shit. I like the red and white look for the Quakes a lot.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS
FK what a great game to be at.
Thanks, and go As.
When Venditte hangs one, oh god, even I could hit those a long way.
Not even a real teAse. At this point it’s nothing more than 129 down, 33 to go, and my best guess is 68-94.
Good call.
you people are witches
They were well into the death spiral of pitching collapse by then. Anybody making a prediction on August 28 shouldn’t have missed by more than two games.
So, um, that Lawrie homer went really, really far. 476 feet. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when it hit off the second level of seats way back there in left. Goldschmidt’s went 470.
the A’s are winning, seemingly.
They are ahead.
I believe that ball is wet.
i want the practice to stop
brooks looked like a batter
And not a broken ladder?
diamondback tv guys don’t talk at all. which is an impovement over vince or glen and ray
They do that with consistency?
the confidence is showing
vince is confused. Brooks was pitching with such confidence
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Vince “the conversation was make sure you pitcvh with conviction”
I would believe the comerica commercials more if they hadn’t made a small business loan to one of the chevron cars
The best thing about NL Rules games is that Butler is one and done as a pinch-hitter.
Also noticed that JamesV got some nice television face time a few minutes ago. Phoenix in August, woo hoo!!
The one inning I sit with Will, and I’m on TV. Funny.
something has been bugging me for a while and I haven’t typed it here
the a’s sell kids butler and lawrie shirts.
never sold a donaldson. you look at any highlight from skydome and there are dozens of donaldson jerseys
Guys! Guys! guys!
a lead
I wonder, can he doo it?
Drew wasn’t doo! How about that!
Pom Pom done did it.
he was safe
brenley on reddicks stirrups
“apparantly they don’t have mirrors in the visiting clubhouse”
Does Melvin’s neglect to use the challenge suggest he wants to distance himself as quickly from this season as do the rest of us?
The message was “don’t wander that far off the base if you’re not going and then ask me to decide whether to use a challenge in the top of the first inning.”
Hey Jesse, you’d be in the dugout with zero runs allowed if you could have either fielded the ball cleanly or thrown it accurately.
4th best catcher by f war
Are the Diamondbacks the first baseball team to wear those non-glossy batting helmets? I’ve noticed in this series both their red and black versions are like that; have seen it on some college football teams as well, but I don’t remember seeing it previously in MLB.
pirates as well
national league baseball
In the minor leagues pitchers hitting is down to AAA and AA when two NL affiliates are playing each other. That’s not very many games. It’s just not much of a step anymore to make the DH universal. The 2017 CBA is probably a good opportunity to pave that path.
i wish. not going to happen until the 20s
It won’t be universal for the 2017 season, but the next CBA could stipulate that it will be universal starting in 2021 or whenever.
so, coco to left, vendetti replaces canha? is that how the nl works?
Ask Bob Geren, the double-switch expert. (I loved it when Ken and Vince made reference to that a few days ago.)
brenley just joked about a guy who went over a railing after a foul ball
“he’s not doing too good now”
read the paper bob
butler’s current ops? 666
Which reminds me that Brandon Moss is .687 combined Tribe/Cards.
Drew pitched like DOO last night, but bringing him back for a second game in a row, I fear doo doo.
drew doo?
I don’t blame Inciarte for being mad there. “I know it’s not intentional, but why do you suck so much?”
heh
the yelling at pomeranz likly contributed to pich selection and the failure here
C’mon guys, if you’re going to blow a save can’t you just let it be over already?
I’m glad for the A’s fans who went down there that this has been an entertaining series. The baseball has been largely shitty, but entertaining nonetheless.
there was a hardy “let’s go Oakland” coming through on the AZ broadcast before the director cut it
Canha has not been charged with an error, but he has had a bad defensive series
Yikes, who will Bob bring in to close this thing?
phegley moved less than tabata
DFAbait
come on guys. nothing?
I’m pretty sure Venditte is nothing more than a footnote to history, but a W in the big leagues is pretty sweet.
…and out with a nice pair of wins.
It sucks to have to go to Phoenix in August, but if you get your hands on a nice pair the weekend isn’t a total loss.
watching ESPN for the first time in 5 years.
they have one announcer that knows what she is talking about. Is that new?
Ugh, a Furdie.
She’s filling in for the suspended Schilling; I have never heard her in the booth so no opinion there.
Today’s game was awesome. At least, the Pat Venditte part.
wow, kruck sounded downright progressive on the broadcast. asked when baseball was getting a woman in the clubhouse
dammit. just realized venditte won’t pitch tomorrow.
I have NL ball along with an unlikely 2-out rally to thank for getting to see Venditte bat today (and win), and after starting the game about 10 rows behind the 3B dugout, I moved down to an empty seat in the first row for the 10th and 11th. That was a pretty good spot for some late-game photos.
cool, I have the front row seats tomorrow.
I’ll be on my way to Denver tomorrow for more games.
Are you on a job or just a kick-ass vacation???
Just vacationing. I’m no longer doing photography on any kind of ‘pro’ basis.
I didn’t think so but with all the jet-setting I wasn’t sure.
First time I’ve flown anywhere since last October, actually.
I’ve flown 113,834 miles since last October :-(
and boy are your arms tired
Thanks, and go As.
Toonces???
Damn.
Are you going to start building towards perma-status on another airline, just to say you did?
If another airline that flew useful routes offered me complementary status for the first year (which I’ve head of them doing) I’d consider it, especially now United awards air miles based on ticket price rather than distance flown. That’s already cost me about 30K in award miles this year, and I rely on them to get us to Europe every summer to see my lazy stay-at-home family.
It’s also the last year of Planck, so I had expected my long-distance travel to drop significantly – though we just got Phase A approval from NASA to work on a Japanese space agency mission, so I’ll probably just replace my current routes with trans-Pacific flights.
Large chunks of natto in your luggage.
Crap.
You win.
Got to see the Raiders for the first time this year (thanks NBC).
Losing your starting right tackle for the year (in what was a very important year for him personally) certainly blows.
I continue to be very underwhelmed by Carr whenever I watch him. How many open guys did he completely airmail the ball to?
On the other hand, Cooper had some awfully impressive routes run against Peterson and the defensive line looked rather dominant, even it was against a below average offensive line. It does not seem that bold to suggest Mack finishes the year as one of the five best defensive players in the entire NFL, either.
I was on the sidelines. That was neat.
Thanks, and go As.
savoir faire is everywhere
I’ve decided to just root for Bryce Harper. Screw teams.
I’m rooting for Donaldson and Cespedes. To the extent I’m able to tolerate baseball at all at the moment.
Vogt & Venditte.
You are so strong. Teach me your ways.