On the Mound

Andrew was the starting pitcher today in the Chatsworth Padres vs. Pirates game. He's a Padre. That's the second game he's started out of five he's pitched in this season. Usually he's been the reliever and they're already losing by the time he gets the ball but they won for the first time this season today. One game was close but the others have been blowouts.

Andrew doesn't normally pitch but it's fall ball and his team is really undermanned. It's age 16 to 18 so if you are 18 you can't pitch. There are three kids on the team who are 18 and there's only 10 total. Two of the kids have never played organized baseball before so now you're down to 5. Only one of them can catch so he's needed behind the plate. Another hurt himself and he can play but he can't pitch.

So by default everybody else has to pitch because no one player can pitch more than three innings and they play seven innings. Andrew pitched when he was younger but not for the last three years and he doesn't like the position. I was happy when he stopped because I thought he was always too hard on himself if he had a bad game.

He did pretty good today though. He gave up only one hit, one run and he walked two. Best of all he didn't hit anybody. Last week he hit one batter and he felt so bad about it. The other player of course knows you didn't mean to hit him but it still hurts like hell.