The letters from Uncle Andy’s Baseball Camp have taken a gloomy turn.
Christian Scott looked terrific dueling Hunter Brown — at least until the sixth, when Scott ran out of gas without the warning light coming on, losing the strike zone with head-snapping speed and, as it would turn out, losing the game. Scott’s year has been encouraging, but he’s still learning how to push through the middle innings — one of those lessons a pitcher can only learn by going through it, but that’s still tough to witness.
The runs against Scott came in when Nate Lavender finally proved mortal, allowing all three runners inherited to score, though Lavender wasn’t particularly lucky: Daulton Varsho had about the worst AB I’ve ever seen result in a two-run single, not challenging a strike that was probably a ball, challenging a strike that was definitely a strike, and then somehow serving a sweeper that was almost in the dirt into right field to put Houston in the lead.
Other than that, there wasn’t really much to talk about. A.J. Ewing has a case of Resting Morose Face even when things are going well; now that he’s hitting in wretched luck he looks like a guy who’s suffered an entire country album’s worth of trials. Bo Bichette made a nifty backhand stab to start a 5-4-3 double play, which I suppose was something. Dedniel Nunez looked better than he has.
But that’s sifting through the ashes left after the game burned down. Honestly, SNY being off the air for the first inning and change felt like the baseball gods giving us a nudge not to let this fading summer pass us by. We won’t listen, though we should.
