My Trip to Scranton

I have not been posting for the last few days as I have been in Moosic, PA watching the AAA Yankees. This trip had been planned out for a while and I lucked out when I discovered that I would be seeing Hughes and Ohlendorf pitch. I live in the middle of Long Island so it was about a 3 and half hour trip which isn't bad all things considered. The trip went very smoothly and wse did not hit much traffic even going over the GW bridge. It really is a nice area that is pretty rural, until you get to the area where the stadium is. In a very small radius around the stadium, their is a full town. Their is a HUGE shopping outlet that has almost every kind of store you can think of, a nice Marriot hotel, a really nice movie theater, and 4 or 5 restaurants to eat at. This is all within 30 seconds of each other. So needless to say, their is plenty to do for 2 days their.

After we arrived at the hotel, we checked out our room and rested up. We knew it was going to be very cold outside so we dressed warm and went out. After the 30 second drive we got to the stadium and went in. I noticed that the merchandise was still grossly overpriced as I thought it would be cheaper because it is a AAA team. I still bought a hat anyway. Nice Logos. We did have good seats, but it is not that bug of a stadium so there were not really bad seats. Their are 2 decks, upper and lower, the lower seeming about 3/4's full and the upper seeming about 1/4 full. I was in the upper. Phil Hughes was pitching this game so I didn't care about the seats. Hughes came out to a huge ovation. People got really charged when he would K someone or just get an out, myself included. In 5 innings, in almost freezing weather, he pitched 5 innings giving up 2 hit and runs while K'ing 6. The 2 runs were scored the same way. He either walked or hit the batter. The runner advanced to second and the were driven in with a single. The interesting thing was the same guy got both rbi singles. Hughes couldve pitched more as he was only at 74 pitches , 50 strikes, after the 5th but the Yankees decided to pull him because of the cold. In the bottom of the 5th Eric Duncan hit a huge homer to put Hughes in good position to win. After that the bullpen finished them off going 4 innings with only 1 run aloud. Chris Britton got the save. Other notables were Alberto Gonzalez going 2 for 3 and the latest callup, Kevin Thompson, had 2 hits and 3 stolen bases. They won 6-3.

The next day it was Ross Ohlendorfs turn to pitch. I was excited to see the new young arm who was an important part of the RJ deal. Before the game, a bunch of others and I were waiting for autographs on the third base line. You could tell everyone was pulling for Hughes to come out and sign but he never did. Most of them didn't. The autos I got were Shelly Duncan, Alberto Gonzalez, and Ben Kozloski. Eric Duncan ran right passed me so I was a little disappointed he didn't stop to sign. Ross looked shaky off the bat. His control wasn't there and it didn't seem like his sinker was very effective. On the bright side he was throwing with good velocity, constantly sitting between 90-94. He managed a line of 5 innings 7 hits 3 runs. A little disappointing but not horrible. The big hit came when Eric Duncan hit another big homerun over the right field wall. The crowd went crazy. The crowd also seemed to go crazy when any player who has spent time in the ML came in. Guys like Kevin Thompson, TJ Beam, and Andy Phillips all got huge cheers. Especially from the one woman who seemed particularly enamored with Andy Phillips, constantly yelling his name. The bullpen did good once again as Justin Pope and TJ Beam pitched 4 scoreless innings. Scranton won 5-3.

Overall, my trip was a a lot of fun. I would suggest to you who like to see the young guys play to take a trip to Moosic. Their is plenty of things to do their and you are sure to have a good time. I would suggest you go when it is a little warmer though.