Texas Rangers @ Baltimore Orioles (1)

My first full day, and thankfully it was a lot cooler today, a much more manageable 24C/75F.

I wandered around the Inner Harbor area today, but it felt strange - perhaps it's because it is after Labor Day, but everywhere seemed rather run down and empty - not what I remember of the Charm City at all.  There's lots of renovation work going on inside the Pratt Street pavilion, so there's hardly any shops open at all, although most of the restaurants are still open - if you can find the entrances.

I did find some pirate boats - although they were closed.  The Water Taxi system has been really scaled back, again because it's now on the "Winter" schedule - and only runs Thursday-Sunday, which is OK for me, as I'm here Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Many of the information signs around the edge of the bay are so faded, you cannot read them any more.  There are some interesting floating islands of plant life around the harbour, which is an attempt to fix the water quality problems caused by lining all the edges of the harbour with concrete.  I couldn't see any of the wildlife, though - sadly, just plastic bottles floating on the edges.

On my way out to dinner at The Rusty Scupper, I dropped by the box office at the ballpark and bought my tickets for tonight and tomorrow night's games.

Each ticket cost $60, to sit in the club level near the centre, next to the Press Box.  I could have bought them from my hotel room, but I just found the available seats myself and then went down there to buy them in person, thus avoiding Ticketmaster's $11.75 per ticket convenience fee, plus whatever the "delivery fee" was going to be.



Sadly, the Baltimore Orioles are not having the greatest of seasons.  45 games back of the division lead, they were mathematically eliminated from postseason contention some time ago - and realistically eliminated longer ago.  The Texas Rangers are "only" 22.5 games back, which still makes them also-rans in the AL West.


It is quite common for ballparks to empty before the game has ended if the visiting team are a long way ahead.  Sadly, the place was mostly deserted throughout the game, with little response to scoreboard encouragement to clap and cheer.

Put together, this didn't create a packed ballpark with a great atmosphere.  It was strangely reminiscent of the Miami Marlins games I've been to, but less echoey given it's an outdoor stadium.  I nearly got a foul ball in the early innings - but it was past too quickly and bounced back down to the lower tier.

Eutaw Street, alongside the stadium, after the game.

There were few hits, no extra base hits at all, in the first half of the game.  Eventually, Baltimore got a run across the plate on a sacrifice fly in the 6th inning, only for Texas's DH to hit a 2-run home run in the top of the 7th.  The Baltimore starter, John Means, didn't really deserve to lose this game, but he was the pitcher of record.  Texas added on another run in the top of the 9th, the game descended a little into farce, with a runner being caught off 2nd base - demonstrating how the Orioles have come to be 45 games back.


The game went very quickly - particularly for an American League game (where the pitcher doesn't bat, and thus there's a much better hitter batting instead).   At the two hour mark, we were well into the 8th inning, but with all the strange base running and late signs of life, the last couple of innings were strung out for 40 minutes.  Baltimore did get the winning run to the plate, but a meek out wrapped the game up for the Rangers.