Tennessee Smokies: Aug 14th

Caught only five innings of this game but saw Tyler Colvin break a bat for a ground out, fly out and strike out still make first and force a runner home.

Weird inning in the fifth. Bases loaded two out, Tyler strikes out on a pitch hitting six inches in front of the plate the runner from third catches the pass ball/wild pitch and runs home, Tyler makes it to first. Next at bat McGehee reaches first on an error scoring another run from third. BAD Lookouts defense.

Other excitement was Mitch Atkins in his second at bat (walked both) loosing his grip on the bat and sending it over the guest dugout (two feet above my head) and into the stands. Just missed a woman's head and picked up by a college kid. Mitch walks towards the stands and asks for his bat back (likely a modest portion of his annual income) and get booed by the fans. A few of us got it back from the college kid and handed it back down to Mitch (who then proceeded to take a BB).

Jemel Spearman and (Hip Hip) Jorge Cortes had a good night; both going 2-4 with a walk each - making solid contact while doing it.

Kyle Reynolds, who sits so far back in the box that his back foot is over the line, walked in his first at back and in hit a ball two feet foul that's likely now just coming down. Even so, he went 0-4 with a BB and run scored. The rest of the offense was a bit flat.

I think Mitch Atkins started this game with a 14.5 ERA or something in four innings of work at this level. He looked good at times tonight but never seem to put any batter away - often getting to full counts after being up on the batter. It burned him in the forth when he allowed a hit after getting ahead on Michael Griffin, then got two outs, hit Rosales, then gave up a bomb to Drew Anderson... there was no doubt on that one. I thought they were going to pull Atkins that inner or PH for him in the next but they kept him in till the 6th.

In general, The Smokies defence looked sharp with extra credit going to Robinson Chirinos for some very good plays at SS. Jemel Spearman made a highlight grab in RF and over all the kids looked like they handled the defence in good form.

The was no sign of Samardzija. He pitched two nights ago so I hope he'll make it into the rotation sometime this week while they're here.

Asides: caught three balls tonight. Okay two of them were essentially thrown to me, but one was a rip foul that was heading for my face - glad I was both looking and not holding a camera to my face at the time. Gave the first ball to my oldest son with me at the game and the other two to kids around me. I became quite popular by the forth inning.

I shot some video but will wait till tomorrow to resample it and get it online.