Down On The Farm

We got four free tickets this evening for the River Cats’ game, courtesy of our friend Susan, who is convalescing from surgery on a broken clavicle. The River Cats were playing the Fresno Grizzlies, who are the Triple-A team for the San Francisco Giants. It’s quite interesting to watch the Grizzlies, since we get to see players who will figure in the Giants’ future, the Giants being a team seriously in need of rebuilding.

The starting pitcher for the Grizzlies was 24-year-old Jonathan Sanchez, who has been pitching middle relief for the Giants much of this season. He was decent though erratic this evening, with 7 strikeouts and 4 walks, getting a bit wild in the third, and giving up three runs total. It was also nice seeing 23-year-old Nate Schierholtz, playing in right field this evening for the Grizzlies. He went 3 for 3 with a walk and a home run. He’s played in a few games with the Giants this season and has done well there, hitting .325. I’d love to see him up with the Giants outfield for good.

The River Cats broke away with the game in the 8th inning — the three errors committed by the Grizzlies didn’t help things — and the River Cats ended up winning 6-3. A very enjoyable game. We also had good company. We never found anybody to accompany us to the game, so we were under instruction to try to give the extra tickets away to somebody with a kid, and we did just that. Pica found an eight or thereabouts year-old lad attending the game with his grandma in line to get tickets, and gave the extras to them. We think it was his first triple-A game. He had a great time, and enjoyed the action on and off the field, soaking up the minor league between-inning entertainment, and even getting his picture taken with the River Cats’ mascot Dinger!