The Trolley Dodger

Ready for the game: water, nachos, Coke, Dodger Dog, and notebook.

Manager Dave Collins chats before the game.

Girls softball players accompanied the 66ers onto the field — here’s Randy Wolf, with Bernie helping out.

Randy Wolf throwing a warmup pitch.

Gave up a homerun to the first batter — Wolf struggled in the first inning.

Wolf considers his next pitch.

Channel 2/9 sent out a crew to capture video.

Bernie the 66ers mascot exhorts the crowd.

Appropriately, it was Bring Your Dog day at the park. The little poodle was very sweet and spent most of the game sleeping on either owner’s lap — made me miss my standard poodle. The huge dog behind the poodle was either a ginormous dog of some sort, or the owners thought it was Bring Your Bear day.

LHP Marlon Arias.

The lineups are posted in the concorse, and you’ll see the guys scoring the game there beforehand, preparing their sheets. As I was taking this picture, a young man was teaching his girlfriend how to fill out theirs.

After the win, the 66ers file into the dugout. Wolf was long gone by this time.

I made it to the 66ers game tonight to watch Randy Wolf pitch. He had his customary rough first inning (including giving up a homer to the very first batter), but here was his pitch breakdown (accurate to +/- 5 pitches):

• 1st: 19
• 2nd: 8 (27)
• 3rd: 16 (43)
• 4th: 10 (53)

53 pitches, 4 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 6 H, 2 HR, 4 K, 1 BB

Randy looked in pretty good shape, albeit perhaps not going all out (from this not expert eye). No obvious difficulty or pain. The 66ers post-game news item seems to suggest there might be more rehab — “Making the first of what could be a limited few Minor League rehabilitation starts, former All-Star Randy Wolf took the mound for the 66ers.”

Mario Alvarez took over in the 5th and went the rest of the way and took the win. The 66ers won the slugfest 11-5. Adam Godwin in left field made two Web Gem-quality defensive plays (and almost made a third) in the later innings, drawing cheers and standing ovations.

Heard about Derek Lowe from a couple of guys sitting behind me. Such a bummer.

I should have a few pictures up soon.

Finally got back out to see another 66ers game — I had intended on seeing more by now, but hopefully will see a few the rest of the season.

Brandon Durden (LHP) vs Marlon Arias (LHP). Arias only made it two innings, giving up 5 hits, 5 runs (all earned), 2 walks, and a homer — which always seem few and far between at this park, at least the times I’ve come here. Things were pretty sedate until the bottom of the 5th with a nice rally by the 66ers. It all came down to the bottom of the 8th.

It was an afternoon game, beautiful, with a few light breezes and sun shining (a little too much, and I forgot to put on sunscreen, ouch). The 66ers had beat up on the Nuts the night before, winning 10-3. We were in the front row, right behind the home on-deck circle.

Here’s shortstop Ivan DeJesus.

DeJesus at bat.

OF Adam Godwin, who went 1-2 with an RBI. I noticed he was always the first to congratulate his teammates at the top of the steps, always up yelling and celebrating. Seemed like a cool guy.

3B Blake Dewitt, 1-4 with a double, 2 RBI, and 2 strikeouts.

Steve Yeager on his way back from coaching 1st base.

Celebrating the 5-run rally in the 5th inning.

Thanks to some way high-inside pitching by RP Pedro Strop in the 8th, an argument ensued with the 66ers first baseman, Russell Mitchell, with Mitchell standing in front of the home plate pointing and yelling at the pitcher.

Quickly, both benches and the bullpens emptied. A few minutes of jawing later, though, things were back to normal and the game continued.

Bernie did a good job of entertaining and keeping the crowd lively.

And on the way home, somebody was taking the right to bear arms a bit too seriously. ;) Actually, from the license plate on the RV towing the trailer, these were part of a Civil War reenactment group.

Jason Schmidt’s start today at Inland Empire went quite well, as mentioned in various stories around the web. Kevin Pearson’s story over at the Press-Enterprise caught my eye, “Schmidt cruises in rehab start”, for this passage:

On Wednesday, Colletti said Schmidt was routinely hitting 88 on the radar gun and at one point hit 91. He was hitting 88-89 out of the stretch in the sixth inning.

“I wasn’t thinking about it,” said Schmidt, who purchased a post-game spread from Claim Jumper for the entire 66ers roster. “I was thinking more about getting life on the fastball and trying to locate it. That was the biggest thing for me, that, and pitching pain free, and we accomplished that today.”

Nice guy! :)

The inevitable player movement up and down the minors hierarchy is starting to take place. One of the Great Lakes Loons (Low A) pitchers is heading up to the IE 66ers (High A). I’ll have to keep an eye out for his next start in San Berdoo, because he sounds awesome:

Francisco Felix, the Midwest League’s leader in Earned Run Average (0.76), has been promoted by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ to the club’s High-A affiliate, the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino, CA. Felix becomes the first member of the Loons to receive a promotion by the Dodgers.

With his dizzying array of off-speed pitches and multiple arm angles, Felix allowed just three earned runs in 35 1/3 innings and did not allow any earned runs in 20 1/3 innings as a reliever. He struck out 35 batters during his time with Great Lakes and limited opponents to a .158 average. Felix, along with Loons left-hander Clayton Kershaw, was named the Dodgers’ Minor League Co-Pitcher of the Month for April.

Check out today’s stat line from Baseball America for Lucas May, currently catching for the 66ers:

ORG LVL PLAYER             AB  R  H  BI
LAD HiA May, Lucas C  .... 4   1  1  1  .378 - HR (7);
22-year-old former SS now C tied for minors HR lead

Nice! And here’s Jonathan Meloan, pitching for the Suns:

ORG LVL PITCHER                IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  ERA  
LAD AA  Meloan, Jonathan  .... 2.0  1  0   0   0   4  0.79 - W (3-1)

Looking forward to seeing these guys working their way onward and upward.

Good game tonight at the 66ers home opener, with a win against the Lancaster JetHawks. Inland Empire pitchers and 3B Blake Dewitt tried to make it interesting, though: the former letting baserunners on, and the latter with a pair of ill-timed errors.

          R  H  E
-----------------
JetHawks  3  7  0
66ers     4  8  2

(Official box score here.)

We were worried earlier in the day with rain and crazy winds around the valley, but it cleared up and calmed down nicely in time for the game. Considering last year’s opener was called just before starting, we were happy it actually went off. :)

1B Russell Mitchell had a great game, going 3-4 with 2 doubles and two 2-out RBIs.

There was an interesting top of the 7th, where P Cory Wade pitching in relief (and who wound up getting the win after starter Marlon Arias was chased in the 5th) got the first batter to popup, then loaded the bases with a sequence of HBP, walk, and one of Dewitt’s errors. Wade threw a couple of nice fat strikeouts, however, and wriggled out of danger.

The 66ers kept a 4-2 lead going from the 3rd inning, despite loading the bases a couple of times, until the top of the 9th when they gave up a last run.

It was a blast being at my first baseball game of the year — nothing like it, despite the temperature dropping into the 50s by the end. :)

On our way out, a familiar gentleman was talking on his cellphone in the concorse and was good enough to sign an autograph in my scoring book:

Ned Colletti, a very nice guy in person. Hopefully his phone conversation had something to do with obtaining a power hitter. ;)

Looks like my pondering about the Dodgers picking up Nomar’s brother Michael was merely that, as Diamond Leung at the Press-Enterprise points out in the latest Dodgers Notebook:

Michael Garciaparra, Nomar’s younger brother, attended the game. The former Inland Empire 66er was claimed off waivers by the Phillies after being designated for assignment by Seattle. He was assigned to Class AA.

That means the Reading Phillies, and he has shown up on their roster.

In the Baseball America Prospect Report that came in email this morning was this amusing statline for a promising Dodger youngster:

LAD HiA Furcal, Rafael DH .......... 4 0 0 0 .000 - Faced Bartolo Colon

We have big hopes for Furcal. ;)

I stopped by the 66ers box office today and picked up tickets for Opening Night, which is next Thursday.

Good seats — front row almost directly behind homeplate, for $9 each. If only Dugout Club seats at Dodger Stadium were that cheap. ;)

Arrowhead Park is actually pretty nice. Both of the Cal League stadiums I’ve been to have been good-looking places with fine views of the mountains on clear days. ;) The Epicenter, where the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes play, is a beautiful spot too.

The diamond is looking good. The CSUSB Coyotes were preparing to play the Cal State LA Golden Eagles when I stopped by — the Coyotes have most of their home games here.

Can’t wait for the game! It’ll actually be my first attended baseball game of the year. I’d thought to try getting to a few local college games, but the accident sort of derailed that idea.

Season opener last night

The 66ers had a nice win last night in their season opener against the Mavericks, getting a big 4-run 6th inning and holding on to win 9-7 (box score).

Starting pitcher and awesomely named Alberto Bastardo surrendered 5 hits and 4 runs in 3.1 IP, so he gave way to Cory Wade, who wound up getting the win (Meque with the Hold, Leach with the Save).

Ivan De Jesus had a pretty good night: 2-5, with two doubles and one K. Jamie Hoffmann was even better: 4-5, 1 HR, 3 RBI, one SB, and one K.