Adam had asked me about going to a Yankee-Dodger game at Yankee Stadium. It was only the Dodgers' second regular season series in New York. I was there three years ago for the first meeting at Yankee Stadium. I definitely wanted to go again, but there were some things to consider. They were coming in for a Monday-Wednesday series during my first full week of school. Not ideal, but I still wanted to go. I told Adam that I wanted to see if Kershaw was pitching in New York and Wednesday was out because it was a 4:00 start. So of course, Kershaw ended up pitching on Wednesday. I really hated the idea of missing Kershaw's first ever start at Yankee Stadium, so I decided that I would get out of work a little early and drive to the Bronx. Getting off Long Island was fine, but it took about a half hour to go three miles from the RFK Bridge to Yankee Stadium. Anyway, I got to my seat after two batters. Not too bad.
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| Our view for the game |
To celebrate seeing Kershaw pitch, I had a Bronx Summer Ale (the school year said fall, but science still said summer) and a hot dog. Finally, Yankee Stadium got some beer from the Bronx Brewery. I had never had their Summer Ale before, but it was pretty good (and I think most breweries that aren't Sam Adams don't do summer beers very well). Ordinarily, I'd go for something a little more exotic than a hot dog at a game (especially at a stadium that I don't get to as often as Citi Field), but I decided to save money and go with a classic for my last baseball game of the season. I was pretty satisfied for $7.
Kershaw was cruising. And then the rains came. The game was delayed after three innings. We moved up a few rows to get under cover. We ended up next to an interesting character. He saw my Jackie Robinson shirt and blamed the Dodgers for the rain delay (it wasn't raining too hard). I pointed out that the Dodgers definitely didn't want the rain delay with Kershaw pitching. He started chanting "We're not Mets! We're not Mets!" And then he turned to me and said, "Or Dodgers." He wanted the National League abolished and prostitution legalized. All terrible ideas, but he was entertaining.
After a rain delay that was a little over ten minutes, they played another inning. It was weird to see the tarp go on and off the field so quickly. Then it started raining again and the tarp came out again. This delay lasted 48 minutes. Kershaw had gotten through four and he was perfect. With this being his second start back and two rain delays, I thought he might be done, but he came back out for the fifth (apparently he pitched a simulated inning during the rain delay to stay loose). Starlin Castro reached on an error and then Chase Headley got a clean single. They bunted the runners over to second and third (thanks for giving Kershaw a free out). Then the Dodgers brought the infield in and Kershaw struck out Rob Refsnyderl. Kershaw got out of the inning by striking out Austin Romine and he was done for the day. He finished with five innings, one hit, no walks, no runs, and five strikeouts.
The game was scoreless and stayed that way until the ninth. The Yankees brought in Dellin Betances. Corey Seager reached on an error and stole second. Turner doubled in Seager. Then Turner advanced to third on a sacrifice fly and scored on an error. The Dodgers held on for the 2-0 win. It wasn't quite Game 7 of the 1955 World Series, but it will have to do for now.
Here are Kershaw's updated numbers with me in attendance:
8 starts, 1 pinch hit sacrifice bunt
Dodgers: 9-0, Kershaw: 4-0
55.2 innings
0.97 ERA
59 strikeouts
29 hits
10 walks
0.70 WHIP
2 complete game shutouts
He's amazing.
The good thing about the 4:00 game and the two rain delays was that traffic was very light on the way home and I got back at a reasonable hour. I stopped at Little Vincent's for a victory slice.
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| There's a certain blood-alcohol level where Little Vincent's is just magic. You want to be a little drunk, but not too drunk to appreciate how great it is. I definitely wasn't there, but this was still delicious. |
With that, I was done going to baseball games for the summer, but there was still plenty of baseball to watch. I had Vin Scully's last games. His last home game was amazing. The Dodgers tied it with two outs in the bottom of the ninth on a Corey Seager home run and then won it in extra innings on a Charlie Culberson home run to clinch the division. Vin's last three games were in San Francisco. They were pretty much meaningless, but I wanted to watch (I watched the last two over college football on Saturday and the NFL on Sunday). His last game was an easy win for the Giants. His message for the fans at the end of the game had me crying. Serious tears. It was sad that he'll never call another game, but I am happy for him. He had a great career and he's going out on his terms. But I will be downloading as many Vin Scully games as I can on iTunes (so far I have the Kershaw no-hitter and Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, but there are more that I'll have to buy) so that I can have Vin back in my life whenever I need him.
And then we have the playoffs. As I alluded to, Vin isn't doing the playoffs so I'll just have to enjoy Dodger wins without him. The nice thing about Vin not doing the playoffs was that we knew for sure when his last game was. And it didn't matter that the Dodgers lost that game. I hope he gets to watch the Dodgers win the World Series. So now that we're down to eight playoff teams, let's rank them in reverse order of who I want to see win the World Series:
8. Giants- I really really despise them. Especially Bumgarner.
7. Nationals- I don't really have anything against them, but that would mean that the Dodgers didn't even make it to the NLCS.
6. Blue Jays- Canada can have hockey. This is baseball.
5. Cubs- If it's a National League team other than the Dodgers, this is the best option.
4. Indians- The only thing interesting about this team is that they play in the same city as LeBron James.
3. Red Sox- This would mean seeing Fenway Park in the World Series, which isn't bad.
2. Rangers- They came so close to winning in 2011 and I like Texas.
1. Dodgers- You knew this. My dream World Series would be a rematch of the 1916 World Series 100 years later. Dodgers-Red Sox. Los Angeles and Boston. My two favorite stadiums. Only the second World Series meeting between these two teams. And you'd have the story line of a Red Sox hero managing against them in the World Series.
Let's Go Dodgers!
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