1.5 An Entertaining Defeat

The Ballers fell to the Range Riders on Saturday night, 3 to 2, with the tying run stranded on third in the final inning. As a fan, I have mixed feelings about this — it was an entertaining game with a close finish and exciting plays. So, I definitely got my money’s worth. That said, a victory would have given the Ballers a winning record and kept them ahead in the series. And unlike the last two games, there were a number of small things that could easily have gone the Ballers way and given them the win.

One such play happened in the bottom of the fifth with two outs and a Glacier runner on second. The play-by-play summary for it reads: “C. Kirtley doubled to right field, RBI; M. Dinesen scored.” Seems pretty straightforward, right? But in reality, that “double” was a weak pop-up behind first base. It’s a little hard to tell from the broadcast, but it looked like it just managed to bloop down in fair territory, and/or the first baseman lost it in the sun. Either way, I’d call it a fluke hit. But fluke or not, it resulted in a run.

What wasn’t a fluke was the pitching of Carson Lambert for the Ballers. He scattered 7 hits across 6 innings of work, but most impressively recorded 9 strikeouts against 0 walks. Yeah, the Glaciers touched him for two home runs, both solo shots, and there was the cheap run they got in the fifth, but Lambert seemed in command. And giving up 3 runs to a team that scored 36 of them in the past two games is what I’d call “progress.” Lambert worked two innings in relief in the first game, and maybe it was always the plan to have him come back and start game 5. But on the evidence of these 6 innings (an admittedly small sample size), he looks to be a reliable started.

More generally, I hope this game — while a tough defeat — gets the Ballers back on their stride after two blowouts. Even if the outcome wasn’t what they wanted, I have to think this game was a lot more fun for them. It certainly was for me.