Skid's 2014 Dream Season

May 21th - GAME #46 vs Los Angeles Dodgers (24-22)
Rookie Jacob deGrom (0-1) makes his second start versus the Dodgers' Hyun Ryu (3-2). Catcher Travis d'Arnaud has completed some of his concussion testing and may be closer to joining the team than was stated yesterday.

20-25

The Mets sixth loss in seven games. Another nice outing by rookie Jacob deGrom wasted by a lack of Mets clutch hitting. Thirteen hits but only three runs. Eric Campbell hit his first MLB home run, a two run shot to left, in the sixth. Outfielders Chris Young and Curtis Granderson are both batting .206 and failing in RBI situations. David Wright went 3 for 5 to raise his average to .293 while Wilmer Flores and Juan Lagares also had 3 hits apiece.

I left work a half hour early (4:00) and headed south towards Fresno. I had my Droid smartphone on the center console and hooked up to the stereo system so I could listen to Keith, Ron, & Gary on the drive. I could occasionally peek at the screen while driving to see the action. It was nice as I only lost signal twice during the one hour 40 minute trip. I got to Fresno's ballpark still watching the Mets/Dodgers on my phone and headed to the ticket booth. I grabbed a $20 ticket beside the Las Vegas dugout and entered just as the ballpark gates opened. No one was here and it didn't get much fuller by game time.

As Noah Syndergaard started his warm ups I headed to the left field corner to watch and get some pictures as I had when Zack Wheeler had pitched in Fresno early last year. I was the only person in the whole section as Syndergaard finished his warmup long tosses and took the bullpen mound. I was about 6 rows back as a fellow in Fresno Giants gear tried to obtain an autograph on a baseball but was ignored by Noah and turned away by pitching coach Tom Signore. I got a dozen or so shots of Noah throwing to Taylor Teagarden on my cellphone and about one minute of video. As Syndergaard finished up he went through the line of relievers and fellow starters with high fives and handshakes much like teams do after a win. As they headed toward the dugout, coach Signore tossed the warm up baseball to me, I almost did not see it coming. I gave him thumbs up and he just smiled and pointed at me. I was the only person around with Mets gear on, although there was about a half dozen Mets fans throughout the ballpark. A stupid minor league baseball. But it made the trip worthwhile to me. And I didn't feel obligated to give the ball to a little kid.

The 51's scored on home runs by Omar Quintanilla and Kirk Nieuwenhuis to give Syndergaard a lead but a late 2 run homer by Fresno 1B Travis Ishikawa off reliever Miguel Socolovich took the W away from Noah. So I ended up with double disappointment on this day as the Mets lost and Las Vegas lost. Even though it was minor league baseball in a near empty stadium it was still fun. It was pretty cool to see Syndergaard, Quintanilla, Nieuwenhuis, Josh Satin (who was playing second base), Aaron Brown, and Matt den Dekker up close. And I still was home by midnight.