4-15-2014
Oklahoma City Redhawks Vs. Colorado Springs Sky Sox
The Redhawks are the triple A Affiliate of the Houston Astros.
This was my first game to the Springs this year.
This day started really early for me I left my house at 7:15 in the morning to go snowboarding at Keystone. After 19 lift rides and 30,000+ vertical feet and 5 hours of snowboarding I took the 135 Mile drive from Keystone, Colorado to Colorado Springs. I took about 2 hours and 15 minutes.
It being Jackie Robinson Day I got on chair 42. It took about 4 runs to sink up and be able to get on this chair 3.
After arriving and getting my ticket I did some early Easter Egg hunting out behind Security Service Field!
found 10 Baseballs Most Minor League Practice balls and a few Pacific Coast League baseballs.
After waiting for Jared to arrive we headed in to the stadium.
Christian Friedrich was warming up in the bullpen. I was able to get Wilton Lopez on my Rockies team project since he was sent down a few days ago. It was then time for the game to start.
Christian Friedrich throwing the first pitch to the Redhawks Austin Wates.
He struck out swinging.
Friedrich would give up 2 hits before getting the second out of the inning also a strike out to John Singleton. After a Error by Ryan Wheeler at third and 2 more singles the Redhawks scored 3 runs and Friedrich got out of the inning after facing 8 batters. 3-0 Redhawks
The starting pitcher for the Redhawks was Michael Foltynewicz. He also started the game with a strike out his was looking to Jason Pridie.
Tim Wheeler would hit a double but would not score, the Sky Sox did get a second base runner on base it was Matt McBride who walked. The Redhawks got the best of Friedrich in the second Ronald Torreyes started the inning with a single followed by a Wates single. Friedrich walked the bases loaded, walking Gregorio Petit. The fourth batter of the inning was George Springer who hit a grand slam to give the Redhawks a 7-0 lead. Springer was called up to the Astros the next day and made his MLB Debut he went 1 for 5 with a walk in the game against the Kansas City Royals. In this game he went 3 for 4 with a walk.
After the Springer homer Friedrich settled down and got the next 3 batters out to end the inning. he then pitched well the next 2 innings sitting down 9 Redbirds batters in a row. He would give up a lead off double to singleton in the 5th who would score and the Redhawks had a 8-0 lead.
Mike McKenry got things started for the Sky Sox in the 5th with a double. He would score on a Tim Wheeler single.
8-1 Redhawks
Wilton Lopez came into pitch for the Sky Sox in the 6th inning.
Christian Friedrich left the game after 5 innings giving up 8 hits, 8 runs, walking 1 and striking out 4. After settle in and falling behind the 5 runs he did then have 2 good innings. It still looks like he needs some work but looks like he will be back to the way he pitched 2 years ago soon.
Matt McBride led off the 6th for the Sky sox and here he is diving back to first. He would get out at second on a ball hit by Ben Paulsen. The Sky Sox did go on and score 2 runs in the inning.
1 on a Kyle Parker triple that scored Paulsen. Parker then scored on a McKenry single 8-3 Redhawks.
The Redhawks scored another run to give them a 9-3 lead in the 7th. The Sky Sox then had a very good inning in the 7th. The first 2 on a Tim Wheeler 2 run home run, ben Paulsen then hit a homer of his own with McBride on base. Kyle Parker hit one for him self to go back to back with Paulsen. 9-8 Redhawks.
Rudy Owens came into pitch for the Redhawks in the 6th and was responsible for 5 of the Sky Sox runs the 2 in the 6th and 3 in the 7th. Chia-Jen Lo pitched the rest of the 7th inning for the Redhawks and was responsible for the 2 other runs in the 7th.
The Redhawks scored 2 more in the 9th and the Sky Sox scored 1 more in the bottom of the 9th. They also had some base runners in the 8th but were unable to score them. That was it for this one the Sky Sox lost 11-9. This was a pretty good game and the Sky Sox did have a few opportunities to get the lead in this game and like the Rockies had trouble getting the timely runs. Tim Wheeler did come up a triple short of the cycle going 3 for 5 with 3 RBI’s. Mike McKenry also hit well also going 3 for 5 and he had 1 RBI.
After the game I took the hour and a half drive back home, in total I drove about 300 miles and spent 5 and a half hours just driving this day. But it was a great day doing 2 of my favorite things to do in Colorado Snowboarding and Baseball.
So that is it for this one I will be back at Coors on Friday when the Rockies return from there road trip to San Fran and San Diego.
See You Their!
