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Fireworks explode while the Grizzlies implode on the 4th of July
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Anything can happen in the world of baseball. Emmanuel Burriss had won the job of starting second baseman for the San Francisco Giants before the major league season started, but his performance was disappointing enough for the Giants to send him back to Fresno and bring Matt Downs up in his place -- before sending him back down following Rich Aurilia's return from bereavement.
As I speculated in an earlier column, Downs did indeed start tonight’s 4th of July game for the Grizzlies against the Las Vegas 51’s – the last place team in the Pacific Coast League’s Southern Division. But Downs started in right field, not at second base. Burriss started at second base.
So think about what Downs’s season has been like this year. For a few days, he was the starting second baseman for a major league club. Today, he has been beaten out for second base at the minor league level by Burriss – the man whom he recently replaced at the major league level.
And Grizzlies starting pitcher Matt Kinney threw nine innings in his last outing – a 7-1 complete game victory over the Salt Lake Bees. Today, he couldn’t even get out of the first inning. Las Vegas second baseman Joe Inglett led off with a single up the middle for the 51’s. Kevin Howard hit one over the right field fence, and the 51’s were up 2-0 before the seats were warm – and it was a hot day in Fresno.
Randy Ruiz then hit a routine fly ball to right field. It should have been an easy out, but the sun – disappearing over the roof at Chukchansi Park at around 7:00 p.m. on a summer evening -- is always the most troublesome in the first inning of a Grizzlies game in Fresno. From the outfielders’ standpoint at this time of the evening, the ball comes in their direction out of the shadows at home plate and into the still-bright sun that shines on the outfield. And there were no “angels” in the sky – i.e., clouds that the outfielders could have used as a backdrop with which to track a fly ball.
Bottom line is that the ball fell safely in front of Downs, who probably never saw it and who was not playing his normal position anyway. The official scorekeeper spared Downs any blame, as Ruiz was given credit for a double, but Downs would later make an error on another play later in the game.
Kinney then responded to the adversity of his defense falling apart behind him by surrendering another home run – this time to former Grizzlie, Brett Harper. The 51’s were never sidetracked after that, though Fresno did rally in the 4th inning from a 9-0 deficit to close the margin to 9-4 with the help of successive hits from the heart of their order – John Bowker, Jesus Guzman, Joe Borchard, and Downs. Steve Holm hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded, and Eugenio Velez singled home a run.
But the 51’s got all of those runs back with a four-run rally of their own immediately afterward and ended up winning 14-4. Inglett was the star performer of the game for the 51’s. He went 5 for 6, including a double and a home run, with two runs scored and six RBI’s.
Right now, Grizzlies fans must feel as Francis Scott Key felt after watching the bombardment of Fort McHenry. Only it’s not clear that Fresno's flag is still flying proudly.
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