A Rainy Night In Asheville

I got to go see my second Asheville Tourists game of the season last night and the outcome was not what I had hoped for. The Tourists took a 5-4 lead into the top of the 6th inning on the strength of a solo homerun by Shorstop Matt Wessinger and a three run homerun by Catcher Tom Murphy in a four run third inning. Starter Shane Broyles went 5 innings and gave up 4 runs but reliever Roberto Padilla could not hold the lead. He gave up 5 runs in 2/3 of an inning, including a grand slam that cleared the right field wall with room to spare by Third Baseman Shayne Houck, and the Tourists could mount any sort of a comeback after that. The play of the night had to come with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth inning. Tourists batter Juan Ciriaco hit a dribbler down the third base line that hugged the foul line until it slowly rolled into third base and bounced gently off the third base bag. It reminds me of the time when Lenny Randle playing third base for the Seattle Mariners, got down on his hands and knees and literally blew a ball foul when it was gently rolling down the third base line. At that time, there was not a rule in place to prevent such action by a player. It rained off and on throughtout the game, nothing torrential like the home opener, and the game was never stopped. The field conditions helped contribute to four errors by Augusta and one by Asheville. There was an announced crowd of over 3,000 and it was a great atmosphere to watch a baseball game. Hopefully I can go to a few more games on this homestand.