Getting to the park about a half hour before game time. [2048x1536]
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From my seat behind the plate. [2048x1536]
Ready to go. [2048x1536]
The Las Vegas bench. They're AAA Dodgers, and the uniforms look like it. [2048x1536]
Isotopes starter Matt Blank delivers a first inning pitch. [2048x1536]
Albuquerque's Wilson Valdez bats against Las Vegas starter Edwin Jackson. [2048x1536]
There were some scouts in front of me with a radar gun. I think it reads "94". [2048x1536]
And on the next pitch, the park's gun shows a 95 MPH pitch. The park gun and the scout's gun were usually the same. Jackson was consistently in the 94 range, and hit 96 a few times. [2048x1536]
All that speed wasn't enough to keep him out of trouble, prompting a visit from pitching coach and former major leaguer Roger McDowell.
Jayson Werth bats in the second. [2048x1536]
In the middle of the second, the Special Olympics torch arrived.
With a bunch of police motorcycles. [2048x1536]
And there goes the torch procession. [2048x1536]
Attempt to get the Las Vegas logo. Being behind the screen made pictures difficult. Anyway, there's an alien head inside the 5. Get it?
Another scout with a radar gun as Valdez bats again. [2048x1536]
One of the unique things in Albuquerque is the chili pepper race. Red vs. Green. [2048x1536]
They really are pretty ridiculous-looking things. After this picture, the peppers attacked Orbit.
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And eventually, they leave.
Bases loaded with Isotopes for Chris Aguila, in the bottom of the fifth. [2048x1536]
And Aguila swings and misses... [2048x1536]
At a 96 MPH fastball. [2048x1536]
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More between-innings entertainment, this time the Simpsons bean bag toss. This guy won. [2048x1536]
And for the rest of the break, we got to see baseball-related Simpsons highlights. Here's the Springfield Isotopes' own Dancin' Homer. [2048x1536]
Homer with a called shot in a softball game. [2048x1536]
And finally, Homer discovers the Springfield team's hidden store of Albuquerque Isotopes merchandise. And this before the existence of the real Albuquerque Isotopes. [2048x1536]
Blank leaves in the 6th. [2048x1536]
Ben Howard is on for the 'Topes. [2048x1536]
He strikes out Chin-Feng Chen. [2048x1536]
Another between-innings event: Orbit's Race. [2048x1536]
As usual, the kid is catching up down the stretch. [2048x1536]
But when Orbit was coming up on the plate he got in the kid's way and the kid tripped and flipped right over. He was OK and managed to get up and win the race. [2048x1536]
Orbit was so ashamed about knocking over a little kid.. [2048x1536]
But he got over it and was dancing on the dugout before you knew it. [2048x1536]
7th-inning stretch time, with Take Me Out To The Ballgame led by the La Cueva High School state championship baseball team. [2048x1536]
In the bottom of the 7th, pinch-hitter Matt Padgett's home run lands on the berm. [2048x1536]
And here he comes. [2048x1536]
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On to the bottom of the 9th, Manzanillo up against Ryan Kellner. [2048x1536]
Keller strikes out and the 'Topes win. [2048x1536]
10-4 final score.
On the way out, the postgame fireworks show began. A handful of the pictures came out OK, most were pretty bad. [2048x1536]
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And finally, the nearly-unreadable scorecard. The pencil I bought with my program wasn't very good for writing on the glossy paper. [2048x1536]