Starting Lineup
Crawford LF
Lugo SS
Huff RF
Phelps DH
Lee 1B
Cantu 2B
Singleton CF
Gonzalez 3B
Hall C
Bell P
That looks like a good setup for the Opening Day lineup. You could put Restovich in LF and Crawford in CF instead but what I liked most was where Cantu and Gonzalez were batting. Not having Sanchez was great too though that luck will end if he gets healthy.
Pitching Lines
Bell: 6 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 5 K, 0 BB, 1 HR, 1 WP
Cromer: 1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 K, 0 BB, 0 HR
Corcoran: 2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 K, 0 BB, 1 HR
Oddly enough the 6th inning was both Bell's best (three strikeouts) and worst (five hits, three runs, one home run). He had three groundballs in a row go through the 2B-1B hole, all just out of Cantu's reach.
Overall he pitched fairly well. I missed the first inning so I don't know what happened (it was a 1-2-3 inning) but in the 5+ innings of his that I did see by my count he had ten groundballs to only five flyballs and two line drives. As for Cromer and Corcoran, who cares? Neither will be on the roster on Monday.
Notes
The game ended when Crawford singled with the bases loaded in the ninth and Gonzalez was thrown out at home trying to score the tying run. It was a pretty close play, credit Washington's CF for a perfect throw to nail him.
Saw a couple people wearing Greg Vaughn jerseys. Wasn't sure what to think of that.
Tidbit for Jay - between innings the PA announcer had an applause poll for who would win the Final Four. North Carolina won.
Another lackluster offensive performance. Only one extra-base hit (Lugo doubled) and the only walks were by Cantu, Gonzalez, and Restovich (hitting for Hall) in the ninth off a guy that obviously had no control.
Stupid mangerial decision of the day: Sending "speedster" Josh Phelps on a 3-2 count to Lee. Lee struck out and Phelps was only saved by a bad throw that skipped into centerfield.
Lee had a couple nice diving stops as usual and Gonzalez made a good play on a slow grounder to third. Lugo had a great double-play, scooping the ball, stepping on 2nd, then leaping straight up in the air while throwing to first. On a disappointing defensive note, Vinny Castilla (who was loudly booed as always) had a bloop single fall in between Crawford and Singleton; Crawford should have had it easily but he seemed hesitant and unsure of how hard he needed to run.
Stadium Changes
The new out-of-town scoreboard looks great, it's a video screen now. There weren't any OOT scores shown today, it just had the next three batters up most of the time. It also flashed the standard cheering stuff like Make Some Noise, Twin Killing, etc.
They removed the Southwest Airlines seating areas. They aren't finished renovating it yet but it appears that they're going to put tables there like they have in the bullpen party areas.
Other than those two things I didn't notice anything significantly different though there might be more of the walls painted green now; I don't remember what was and wasn't painted last year to be sure. They didn't do anything with the turf which still looks like it has been trampled by elephants all over.
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