verdugo288

The General and I loaded up his truck with the Verdugo gear and made the drive that morning out to Taft High. The site of “the dogpile” in 1990. Not much was said on the drive out. We knew what we had to do….

They can celebrate all they want over that one…..we only had eight guys on the field the last four innings. We proved we were the Kings that day and all I knew for today was we were gonna have nine guys on the field the whole game (barring the unexpected) so I was looking forward to this one.

Not all the guys we had on our roster knew what happened here in 1990 but by the time the game got going everybody had heard about it.

East had a different coach. Matt Borzello was the coach there in 90-91. His son eventually ended up as one of the bullpen catchers for The Dodgers.

The new coaches were a couple of twins…yeah….I’m guessing in their early to mid-twenties? Who they were I don’t know and I don’t really care….certainly before the game we briefly met and exchanged “pleasantries”….and our lineup cards for the day.

The place hadn’t changed much and just looking around kind of made me sick to my stomach. But we had a ballgame to play and even though to this VERY DAY I still haven’t let go of that loss….I at least let it go while we were there on this day in history.

We only had eight hits on the day. Five of those hits were off the bats of Jon Gabrielson (3 singles) and Hack Workman (a triple and a home run)

Hack drove in five. Scored twice. Gabe scored twice. The Wiley Jackson (who DH’d that day for Vo) scored twice and picked up a base hit as well. Robb Turner had a base hit, and Lance Evans padded our 6-2 lead to 7-2 in the top-of-the-ninth with a solo shot home run that was pretty much the final nail in their coffin. Both home runs we hit that day were DEEP. The kind of drives where the outfielder maybe takes a step or two back and then just kinda says “no way”…..and stops and just watches it.

It was a nine inning game. Jim went all the way on 112 pitches…..scattering eight hits. Struck out six, walked two and the two runs they scored were both earned.

East’s lead-off hitter started things off for them in the first with an inside-the-park homer. I kinda wanted to be pissed when that happened but I didn’t….and just kinda thought to myself…..”God I hate this fucking place” ….and chuckled.

The same hitter led off their third inning by reaching base on an error. The next hitter grounded out….which moved him to second. Jim hit the next guy with a pitch and we had a passed ball that advanced everybody 90 feet.

Up steps Gabe Kapler. Yeah….Gabe Kapler. He’s now the manager of the San Francisco Giants. Kapler ripped a base hit to left….

The runner on third easily scored. Hack was in left….fielded it cleanly and came up crow-hoppin’ and FIRED a bullet to Thunder and gunned that runner down. The next batter grounded out ending the threat.

And that was about all the noise their bats made the whole day.

Trailing 1-0 in the third, Wiley drew a walk. Gabe then stroked a little bay-hee (base hit). Hack came up and tripled deep into right center, clearing the bases. Hack scored on Ivan Moreno’s ground out.

Leading 3-2 in the fifth. Gabe led off with another base hit. Up came Hack. Hack bombed one outta there deep into the weeds and it was 5-2 Verdugo.

Wiley led off the 6th with a base hit….got BALKED to second. And Gabe stepped up and ripped another base hit. We held Wiley at third. Hack drove in Wiley with a sac fly.

It remained 6-2 until the ninth when Evans unloaded. Deeep into the weeds. 7-2 Verdugo.

We finished ’em in the bottom of the ninth on a 4-6-3 double play. We turned a 6-4-3 DP in the eighth inning as well.

Those guys may have had Gabe Kapler….but we had GABE!!!!

Gabe played a great game for us!!!!

They got some guys on base but Parque was solid. Just kept going at ’em. We played great defense. Turner with 4 assists from third that day….Evans with 5 assists from shortstop. Moreno was in center and hauled in three fly balls. We had two double plays. Hack gunning down the runner at the plate from left field. They tried to steal a base on Thunder in the 6th inning and ‘Ol Thunder mowed him down.

Just a great victory. We made it look easy.

This certainly didn’t sweep their dogpile from 1990 into the trash bins of history….but it felt good. All the coaches and players who were there for that game in 1990 were happy with what happened on this day in history.

This was big. This proved Vo was ready. I was hoping for 5-6 innings from him….but his pitch count was low and while 112 was pushing it a little…he handled it.

We’ve had this blog a long time. You guys all know how I enjoy writing about all of you. The rookies we have every year are important. This was a great rookie class we had….Jim….Thunder…Hagge….Bir.

As we go through the season here I will stop and write some fill-ins about everybody at some point….in addition to what was going through my head in our drive to the playoffs.

Everybody contributed this season. It seemed like there was always a new guy or guys stepping up. Today it was Vo…Wiley….and Gabe. We all played great this game…but those guys definitely stepped up.

Workman? Commanding day at the plate!

Evans? The homer in the ninth HURT those guys….it was hit THAT hard.

We’re 6-1. We bounced right back from a tough loss. We let it go and got back to work. We got Woodland Hills West tomorrow. At home on Father’s Day. We got Bull ready to go again with another one weeks rest under his belt.

What could be better?