A's vs. Blues

From a centrefielder's viewpoint, this was a lousy game. I did not have one ball hit to me. From a pitcher's point of view, it was nearly a perfect game. Denis McNicol pitched a gem on Thursday night against the Blues, a 2-hitter. The A's ended up winning the game 4-1.

After going perfect through 4 innings, McNicol gave up a line shot to right field. With an excellent diving attempt by Martin Desjardins, the ball bounced in and out of his glove. Blad, of the Blues, took advantage of the dropped ball and moved to second on the play. With the scorekeepers still scratching their head as to whether or not an error should be charged on the play, Kelly Burchill hit a bloop single to help score the Blues only run of the game.

The A's had jumped to an early lead. With the bases loaded, I hit a hard grounder to 2nd base. The 2nd baseman had bobbled the ball, and everyone was going to be safe on the bases. Thanks to some heads-up baserunning by McNicol, he was able to score from 2nd on the infield error. The A's were up 2-0 after one.

The A's continued their hot sticks in the 2nd inning. They managed to score 2 more runs on some nice hits. Unfortunately, the A's were playing with only 8 batters, so they had to deal with an automatic out. This out seemed to stall any sort of rally that we would have in the later innings.

Jason Smith, of the Guzzlers, pitched for the Blues. He had struggled early in the game with his control, hitting two batters, but settled down nicely after some encouraging words from Steve Walman, "Keep pitching... don't worry about the hit batters. Just focus on pitching". Steve's words seemed to work as Smith was able to settle down and keep the A's bats quiet for the rest of the game.

The player of the game had to be McNicol. From a centrefield perspective, he was hitting the glove on most occasions. His curveball was working, and he seemed to control the outer half of the plate. It seemed, if he fell behind at all, he could always go back to that pitch on the outside.

The A's look forward to their upcoming game against the Rogues. This will mark the return of Will Mood from his 2 game suspension for throwing a bat.