This post is overdue and with the Dodgers playing in New York once again, I finally decided to get around to it. The Dodgers are currently playing a three game series at Yankee Stadium. This is only their third regular season series at either Yankee Stadium. I went with my dad in 2013 and I went with Adam in 2016. But this year, the ticket prices were absurd. I was looking at $75 for standing room last night and tonight. Sunday night is not as expensive, but I’m not going to the game and missing Game 2 of the NBA Finals. So I’ll just watch it on TV. And it was weird scheduling. The Dodgers played two series in the Eastern time zone (Cincinnati and New York), then they went back to Los Angeles, and then came back to the Eastern time zone for two more series (Pittsburgh and New York). So that was 12 out of 15 games in the Eastern time zone (six in New York) with three games in Los Angeles in the middle.
Anyway, the Dodgers were supposed to be playing a three game series at Citi Field starting on Memorial Day. The Memorial Day tickets were pretty expensive and the Wednesday game was at 4:10 so the only game I really considered going to was on Tuesday. As it turned out, they got rained out on Memorial Day. I was expecting the split doubleheader on Tuesday, but they went with the real doubleheader instead. So we would be getting two for the price of one. This was going to be my third doubleheader. In the pre-blog days of 2010, I went to Dodgers-Mets in April. It was very cold and the Dodgers lost both games by a combined score of 14-5. We left fairly early in the second game. In June 2021, I started my summer vacation by watching the Mets and Braves split a doubleheader. It was the first game since the pandemic started with no limits on attendance, but they still were only playing seven inning games for doubleheaders at that point. So I was excited for a doubleheader with good weather and nine inning games. I expected to get there a little late for the first game because my dad had to pick me up from school, but we got to our seats just in time for the first pitch.
It was Tylor Megill against Tyler Glasnow. It was a matchup that would seem to favor the Dodgers since their Tyler spells his name correctly. But Megill was better. Both pitchers went seven innings (shocking for 2024) and Megill didn’t give up any runs. Glasnow was good, but he allowed two runs on a home run by Francisco Linder in the third. That was all the scoring until Freddie Freeman had an RBI single in the eighth to make it 2-1. Chris Taylor tied it up with a squeeze bunt in the ninth. It looked like the Mets were going to win it in the bottom of the ninth. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out. Daniel Hudson fell behind Tyrone Taylor 3-0, but got him to pop out on a full count. And then Jeff McNeil popped out to end the ninth. The good news was the Dodgers didn’t lose. The bad news was that meant we had to play Rob Manfred Extra Innings and runners just appeared on second base for no reason. Mookie Betts drove in a run on a lead off single (that sentence is so stupid that it makes my brain hurt). But then Freddie Freeman hit a two run homer. So the Dodgers scored two real runs in the tenth. Blake Treinen got a strike out, fly out, and strike out in the bottom of the tenth on three batters to end the game. So the Dodgers won 5-2, but really they won it 4-2 because the third run shouldn’t have existed. And it was so much more satisfying winning this extra innings game 5-2 rather than 3-2 because it was a legitimate win and not a win only because of a runner appearing on second base for no reason.
Usually I’ll post a picture of the first pitch, but this was the first Shohei Ohtani at bat that I’ve seen in person. I’ll get to him.
Game 2 was Jose Quintana against Gavin Stone. I saw Gavin Stone last year in Oklahoma City. He was much better in this game than he was last year in triple-A. He pitched seven innings of shutout baseball. Quintana pitched six innings and allowed three runs. Is there a former pitcher up for canonization? Because a doubleheader in 2024 where the starting pitchers went 7, 7, 6, and 7 in the two games seems like a miracle. The Dodgers took the lead in the first with a solo home run by Will Smith. Miguel Rojas had an RBI double in the second to make it 2-0. We decided to leave after five. It was a warm day (81° when the first game started and 76° when the second game started), but it was very windy where we were sitting. That wasn’t too bad, but it started to get kind of cold once it got dark (even though the wind died down a little bit). So we saw 15 innings of baseball for the price of one game. I would say that 14 of those innings were played without stupid rules, but all 15 innings were played with the designated hitter in a National League game so I can’t say that (the designated hitter is always stupid, but it’s especially offensive in a National League game). As we left the stadium, we could hear the radio call of Miguel Vargas hitting a home run to make it 3-0 in the sixth. And that ended up being the final score. Attendance was 36,021. There were a lot of open seats early with the 4:10 start when it was originally supposed to be one game at 7:10, but it filled up as the first game went along.
This was the first pitch in the second game.
The Citi Field beer selection left a lot to be desired. They need to have more good beer on tap. It wasn’t all that easy to find good beers in cans on the upper level either. I found Sam Adams Summer Ale on tap at this little stand on the field level. The only reason I looked for it there was because it was right by where Vin’s seats were and I remembered them having it there from when I went to a game with him last year. So I ended up getting my favorite beer on tap, but good beer needs to be more widely available at Citi Field. I thought the food options were better than the beer selection. I got some tacos during the second game. If it had been my first game of the season, I would have gotten a hot dog, but I did that when I went to the game in Des Moines back in April. The tacos were good, but if I go to any more games at Citi Field this year (there’s a decent chance that I won’t, but we’ll see), I would go with something else because they were expensive.
This was my first time seeing Shohei Ohtani in person. He’s been playing in the US since 2018, but the last Angels game I went to was in 2015 when I went with Pete and Katie. He was hitless in five at bats in the first game and then he didn’t play in the second game. I’m probably getting to two more Dodger games this year so hopefully he’ll have an impact in those games. I hope I get to see him pitch next year. And he was recently cleared of any wrongdoing as far as gambling goes. That whole situation reminded me of the Manti Te’o situation 11 years ago. There was definitely a story, but a lot of people wanted to jump to the worst possible conclusion. And it turned out that the facts did not support the worst possible conclusion. Of course, I’m glad that he won’t be in any trouble. He is the most interesting player in baseball when he’s pitching. He’s the best and most likable designated hitter in baseball (because he’s also a pitcher). And I would still have absolutely no hesitation in getting rid of the designated hitter even though it would hurt the Dodgers.
So those were my first Major League games of the year. I’m hoping to get to at least three more this season. But for right now, I’m much more concerned with basketball. The Celtics are back in the NBA Finals. They made it there the first four years of my life. And this is their fourth time since the first four years of my life. Let’s Go Celtics!
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