I was planning on posting about last night's Vegas 51's game, this morning, but the internet at my hotel is, how best to put it, stupid. No free wireless at this place. And if you want to pay, you pay for noon to noon usage. So when I wanted to get it, this morning, I would have had to pay the full day cost for a couple of hours worth of service. Not much fun.
The hotel has a ‘business center', so I went down there, $1 a minute for computer use. Seems a bit excessive, no? So I'm figuring posting will be pretty light from Vegas.
But I enjoyed the game last night. First they let me talk to manager Marty Brown for a few minutes before the game. He was very nice, very informative. I'll have the interview up soon after I get home. We sat in his office for a few minutes, a pretty small office he shares with his dog. You have to like any job were you can take your dog to work with you. After the game, while waiting for a cab, he and his dog came by, the dog getting his after game walk and sniff around.
The game itself was good. Kyle Drabek started and looked pretty good until he seemed to tire in the 6th inning. Might seem early to tired, but it is hot here. I imagine pitchers wouldn't tend to go as deep into games in this heat. He gave up 3 runs in the 6th off 4 hits, including a home run and a walk. He was fairly lucky to get out of the inning with only the 3 scoring, the third out was a very hard line drive right at the second baseman. Before the 6th, he scattered 5 hits and 2 walks, giving up just 1 run off a Jose Lopez home run. Lopez was the one that hit the homer in the 6th as well.
Travis Snider was 2 for 5, with 2 RBI and 2 stolen bases, he stole 3rd base in the 1st inning and 2nd in the 4th inning. I was calling him Moonraker during the game and folks around me got to calling him that too, I hope I started something.
Adam Loewen was 2 for 5 with a home run. He looked good at the plate, and played first base. He seemed fine defensively too, though tough to tell much from one game. I'm hoping we see him in September. David Cooper was 2 for 3 with 2 walks. Our old pal, Jayson Nix, hit a home run too.
That was my first chance to see Brian Jeroloman behind the plate. He looked pretty smooth back there and he threw out 1 of 2 base stealers. He's not having a great year at the plate, I talked to the manager about him and he figures Jeroloman will have to get a little more aggressive at the plate, if he wants to keep moving up the system. Jeroloman took a lot of walks in the lower levels but likely will have to show he can hit to be able to draw walks at Triple-A and above. I still like him as a future backup catcher. His glove is good and a left-handed second catcher would be a handy thing.
It was a fun game to watch. There weren't a lot of people at the park, like I said, it is very hot here, but it wasn't that bad at the park. By game time the stands are in the shade and by middle of the game it was cooling off some.