I'm on vacation this week, albeit not entirely from baseball. For one, the shift in time zones is well suited to pitch in with covering the Minor Keys at the end of a night. There's also the matter that I'm still watching baseball.
My in-laws are boosters of the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks in the Alaska Baseball League, a collegiate summer wood-bat circuit, and they've gifted me a t-shirt here and a cap there over the years. I finally got a chance to see what I had been repping from a distance on Sunday, and while the Chinooks lost to the Anchorage Glacier Pilots by a score of 6-1, everything about the afternoon was a pleasure.
For one, there's the backdrop of Lee Jordan Field.
It also reminded me of what Minor League Baseball lost when MLB eliminated the short-season leagues, which is providing a cheap form of baseball -- free in this case, as the Chinooks are the only ABL team that doesn't charge admission -- for a community to gather around during the best two weather months of the year.
We may head back for a game on Thursday, because I'm curious what it looks like to play a game in a ballpark with no lighting at 9:30 p.m. In the meantime, I'll continue to punch out the Minor Keys while appreciating Josh and the others doing the heavy lifting in my absence.
Nashville 5, Charlotte 4
- Blake Rutherford went 0-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Jake Burger was 2-for-3 with a walk.
- Reynaldo López: 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, 1 HR, 1 WP
- Tyler Johnson: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Birmingham 10, Pensacola 3
- Micker Adolfo went 2-for-4 with a grand slam, double and a walk.
- Carlos Pérez was 2-for-3 by going 2-for-3 with a homer and a walk.
- Konnor Pilkington: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 1 HR
Highlights:
Asheville 9, Winston-Salem 3
- Yoelqui Céspedes went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Yolbert Sanchez went 1-for-4.
- So did Lenyn Sosa, with a strikeout.
- Luis Curbelo went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
- Duke Ellis went 1-for-3 with a walk, and was picked off.
Kannapolis 11, Fayetteville 5
- Jose Rodriguez went 0-for-5 with a walk and two stolen bases.
- Bryan Ramos went 2-for-4 with a homer, walk, strikeout and stolen base.
- Luis Mieses went 1-for-5 with a triple.
- Harvin Mendoza, 1-for-3 with a walk, strikeout and a sac fly.
- Caberea Weaver was 0-for-4 with a walk, strikeout and two stolen bases.
- James Beard, 1-for-2 with two walks and a stolen base.
- Andrew Dalquist: 3.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
