The summer solstice was today and the Dodgers game was a hot one. After the letdown against Long Beach, the boys probably took the Plaza Mariners too lightly and they nearly paid dearly. Justin Boyd, an 11-year-old, pitched valiantly into the fifth inning, keeping the Dodgers in the game, but the defense had a few lapses behind him and permitted Plaza a couple more runs than they should have had. Meanwhile, the Dodgers offense spun its wheels quite a bit and failed to capitalize on the three runs they scored in the first inning, and fell prey to a pop up double play where Tiger Jablonski was thrown out at home in the third and a line drive double play where Matthew Fields was caught off of first in the fourth.
Still, when Mondesi Blanchard hit a two-run bomb in the fourth inning to give the Dodgers a 6-3 lead, it looked like the Dodgers would escape. However, it turned out Plaza was non-plussed and took full advantage of an error in the top of the fifth inning and hit a game-tying three run home run, and later in the inning pushed across two go ahead runs (although another run was prevented when the Dodgers executed a perfect double steal defense and Mondesi threw out a runner at home).
So, in the sixth, the Dodgers trailed by two, and Nate Polar singled and Tiger scored him with a hard hit ball to the right side which found its way to the wall. Then, on the next play, Tiger was called out at home for not sliding on a ball hit by Josh Fischer. Nick Munoz followed with a bunt single, but the Dodgers had another run cut down at the plate when Matthew bunted too hard to the pitcher and Josh was caught off base. So, with runners on 2nd and 3rd, Jose Hernandez stepped to the plate, down by one run. And, Jose came through, lashing a double to the right center wall to give the Dodgers a slim one run lead. Nate Polar, who took the tough loss on Saturday, came on to close it out, and danced around a couple of errors and a bases loaded jam, to earn the save. Dodgers 9, Plaza Mariners 8. Next up will be a rematch against the Long Beach Padres Wednesday at 5pm.
And a note on Tiger's baserunning adventures. In the last two games, Tiger has evinced a seeming reluctance to slide properly (i.e., feet first) and has been called out once and actually ejected from a game for these misdeeds. These meted punishments are well within the rules of Little League, and these rules are in place in an effort to protect kids from injuries. Nonetheless, there is a line we walk in life and in our microcosm of baseball, between being "dirty" and "aggressive". And, anybody who has seen Tiger play for any amount of time knows which category he belongs in (not dirty) and, frankly it takes quite a leap to assume that a 12-year-old is actually willfully inflicting damage on the members of another team on plays that are commonplace in other venues of baseball. It is absolutely our jobs as coaches to correct this behavior and admonish young Tiger, and let me continue my little foray out of the land of narration into editorializing and state without equivocation that true fans of baseball at any level should not delight when another team makes errors to give you a win or a big gain, at least not any more than a sigh of relief at your good fortune. I believe it to be beyond the pale to seemingly wish to ride a kid out on a rail for executing a good, hard baseball play, letter of the law or not. The sort of partisan rabblerousing that was apparent when Tiger was adventuring around the bases in the last two games really chapped my hide. For MY side, we are beholden to the rules of the game, and we want to "fix" the problem. For THEIR side, people need to quickly accept that a very athletic kid made a couple of boneheaded plays, forgive with great alacrity this lapse in judgment by a 12 YEAR OLD CHILD and get on with it. Seriously, people, let's have some dignity or clear the durn field.
That is all, carry on.
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