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A midweek matinee in El Paso

It is a beautiful day in El Paso and a nice crowd with long beer lines suggesting a lot of hooky being played from work–or better yet perhaps people can have their teambuilding events at the park today. Marco Gonzalez pitching for El Paso with 170 MLB appearances at 34 years of age and a very serviceable career ERA of 4.16 but hasn’t appeared in more than 10 games in the majors since 2022. His counterpart on the day for Isotopes is 28-year-old Tanner Gordon who has 23 career MLB starts but an ERA over 7.00 to show for it. To be fair, he was playing in Denver for those home games and did register eight quality starts during his combined time in the majors. Also to be fair, his ERA is over 5.00 in both AAA and AA in 74 games. AAA is an interesting place–something I will write more about in subsequent posts.

Cole Carrigg led off the game and another groundball this time at third that the fielder, Mason McCoy, lets himself get eaten up. Somehow this play was originally scored a hit but definitely an error as he had plenty of time to charge the ball and throw out Carrigg. Instead, he had some hesitation and didn’t handle the chopper well and he made it harder on himself to cleanly field it and make a play.

Ryan Ritter looked good with a solid hit off Gonzalez continuing to impress me. Gonzalez may be over the hill but he is still an MLB veteran and being able to hit off someone like that is worth something.

Condon hit a chopper to third that would’ve been a double play had the fielder thrown to second instead of trying to tag the runner going to third that he missed. I get that the runner was near him, but this goes back to always knowing what you’re going to do with the ball when it is hit to you. The strong fundamental play is throwing immediately to second and trying for two when it is the first inning–later in the game would be understandable to make the tag play. At the AAA level this should have been a double play.

Veen struck out on a good pitch that Gonzalez had him waving at, the established veteran showing some of that guile.

Tanner Gorden started out with a nice K on Samad Taylor. Couple of fly outs afterwards, one altitude aided to CF warning track.

Amador with a nice liner off Gonzalez at the CF, today Jase Bowen, that was an out but was another adventure. The Bowen came in on the ball and had to backtrack and then jump to make the catch to save what may have been an inside the park HR if it gets by him at that point.

Chad Steven’s with a nice rocket to right center for a double for the catcher in the nine hole. Following that rocket was one by Carrigg off the LF wall that just missed being a HR. The Isotopes went from making solid contact off Gonzalez in the first inning to hard contact in the second. This bodes really well for some of the aspiring Isotopes, who in contrast to El Paso have some promising youth. The 1-5 hitters of Cole Carrigg, Ryan Ritter, Sterlin Thompson, Charlie Condon, and Zac Veen are all 25 or 24. That will be an interesting top half of the lineup to watch.

Condon’s second AB he hit a grounder down the third base line. Mason McCoy, to his credit, made a nice effort to get to the ball and attempt a throw. An on target throw would’ve gotten Condon but he threw over the first baseman’s head and into the dugout. Another misplay for him and we are only in the third inning.

Veen’s second AB is a soft liner that he pulls down the line for a 2-rbi double.

A few nice plays in the bottom of the third by the Isotopes. First baseman Condon tried to backhand a hot shot grounder that bounced off the heel of his glove and straight up in the air. He managed to catch his own upward deflection and throw to the pitcher Gordon covering first for the out. Then a line shot that the third baseman Chad Stevens laid out for and got the line out. That keeps Gordon without yielding a hit through three.

In the fourth Carrigg rips one down the left field line for a double. Nice to see the youngster turnaround a veteran major leaguer like that although there have been plenty of hard hit balls against Gonzalez today.

Gonzalez tries picking off Carrigg off second a few times, and Carrigg did attempt to steal on a foul by Ritter. But on the second pickoff attempt, Gonzalez threw the ball into CF and Carrigg after diving into third unaware of the ball being in center ended up scoring anyways. Another error.

Ritter with another hit off Gonzalez.

Thompson with a single to left that was misplayed by the leftfielder Carlos Gonzalez. That is ANOTHER error on the board for the Chihuahuas.

Condon with a seeing eye single through the right side.

El Paso second baseman Clay Dungan commits the FIFTH error of the game for the Chihuahuas on a grounder. I saw things I didn’t like in the field right away for El Paso the previous night. They only were debited one error that night but there was an approach that just wasn’t good all around. This game, it really came to a head with official errors. Errors have become harder for official scorers to give in this day and age but there was just no avoiding it on this day.

Andrew Knizner fought off some tough pitches and took a close pitch low for a ball. Then he ripped one down the left field line for a three run shot. Gonzalez’s day finally comes to a painful end after 10 runs. Only half ended up being earned but he also wasn’t fooling too many people and even five earned runs in 3.2 innings isn’t a good

Sung Mun Song gets the first hit for the Chihuahuas in the fourth with a soft liner to RF. It is his first season in the US after 9 years in the KBO. He seems to be a bit of a late bloomer–perhaps fitting in well with the rest of his El Paso teammates. He is 29 but only his last two seasons in South Korea were noteworthy with OPS marks over .900 each of those past two years after not being over .697 every other year but one half year in 2018.

Solak with a nice hit the other way off of Gordon. A few hitters later Mason McCoy made up for some his miscues with a three run homer. McCoy is 31 and is below the Mendoza line in his 84 games in The Show. Perhaps this can be the beginning of a streak that can get him back there because his fielding doesn’t seem to be much of an asset.

Veen hits the ball hard in a sharp line out to CF. And that will do it for me at the park today as I have to leave after six innings to head back to Duke City.