Our home opener continued the pitching-first trend of the previous two games, as it remained scoreless through 6 innings. Block Chain’s Jose Deleon matched up with my Bert Blyleven to allow a combined 5 hits to that point. After Blyleven shut down the middle of the Block Chain lineup in the top of the 7th, the singing of Take Me Out to the Ballgame must have inspired my offense.
Pinch hitter Alex Cole hit for Blyleven with the bases loaded and one out and hit into a run-scoring force play but used his speed to avoid the double play. That kept the inning alive for leadoff man Kal Daniels, who drove Deleon’s 108th pitch over the wall in center field for a 4-0 lead.
Rod Beck pitched an easy 8th inning and should have emerged unscathed from the 9th as well. Rafael Ramirez booted a ground ball for his third error of the season to give Block Chain extra opportunities. Slugger Harmon Killebrew didn’t miss it, homering to bring the lead down to 4-2.
Closer Bob Woodward came in to get the final out and wrapped up his second save. We moved to 3-1 on the season and into a 3-way tie atop the National League West.
So far my emphasis on pitching in the draft has paid off with the league’s best ERA (2.21), but it’s very, very early. Team stats, and even individual ones, don’t start taking on significance until 20-30 games because of the skewing effects of outlier performances.
