Game 21 – Cubs vs. Reds

Monday, June 10, 2013

Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie

Weird night at the ballpark.  It’s June and it feels like April.  It wasn’t snow boot weather, but it sure wasn’t shorts and flip-flops.  Although many came dressed like that so they had to be freezing.  And well, well, well, look who made an appearance:

Mai Tai Guy!!  I think he’s lost a little weight, but was trying to make up for it by downing at least 10 mai tai’s during the game. 

It was super foggy.  Check out these pictures, which really don't do it justice as to how foggy it was:

 You can barely see the press booth in this one.

It would kind of come and go, but was pretty thick during the first few innings, faded away and then came back.  So bizarre.  In the first inning, Valbuena dropped a popup near the pitcher’s mound, but I’m not convinced that was fog-related.  He ended up throwing the runner out at 2^nd while the batter (Cozart) was safe on first – I don’t understand why the infield fly rule wasn’t called.  Maybe the fog???  Who knows.  Cozart ended up scoring on a Brandon Phillips single, his first RBI of the evening.  I had just commented on how Phillips has 46 RBI’s on the season already.  Seemed like a lot (and compared to the Cubs, oh yea it is). 

From my gal Carrie:

After the second, the Reds' outfielders talked to the umpires as they came off the field about the conditions. The umpires then conferred among themselves, but there was no stoppage of play. Meanwhile, the White Sox game against the Blue Jays eight miles south at U.S. Cellular Field was delayed more than an hour due to the fog.

We noticed at first they put an “R” on the scoreboard for the White Sox game.  They later changed it to an “F”.  ha ha.

Here is a link to some photos from both Cubs and Sox games.
http://mlb.mlb.com/cutfour/index.jsp?partnerId=ed-7181366-565831973#contentId=50244526

In the 3^rd, Phillips came up with the bases loaded, and of course hit a grand slam.  4 more RBI’s.  He tacked on another in the 8^th for all 6 runs in the game (his career high of course).  Add that to the 46 he started with and he’s at 52 which is 2^nd in the NL, behind AZ Paul Goldschmidt.  (In the AL, Miguel Cabrera has a whopping 69.)    Phillips did have a throwing error, which led to a Cubs run in the 6^th.  So there.  Another plus – Phillips has now passed Joe Morgan for Reds RBI leader for 2^nd baseman, and has tied him on the HR list. 

Castro finally broke his 0-15 slump with an RBI double in the 9^th.  Dusty said they couldn’t see it in the fog.  Boo hoo. 

Oh, and Mai Tai Guy (MTG) almost had a meltdown in the 8^th when his friend apparently sat on his mai tai.  And since it was the 8^th, there were no more to buy.  He’s screaming at the friend saying “you’ve got to calm down and sit down”.  While friend was the calm one sitting down and MTG was the one who was not calm and doing all the yelling.  We thought it could get ugly, but WAIT – he found another mai tai under the seat.  OK, they’re BFF’s again.  Phew.  Crisis averted. 

Recap: 

Cubs Lost  6-2 (hmmm – same score as game 20….)

My season record:  Visitors 14, Cubs 7  (a .333 winning percentage, while their season winning percentage is .410)

Parking update:  No update.  JO is in SF for his new job.  Do Trish & Bonnie park without him???  I need to find this out.