Texas Rangers @ Baltimore Orioles (2)

The sun finally came out!  It's been cloudy the whole time I've been in Baltimore, but just before sunset, we got some brightness which shone beautifully off the old warehouses along Eutaw Street.

I spent quite a while chatting with Dan, the usher in my section, about the Orioles, baseball and Scrabble.  When it comes to this time of year, and your team is no longer in contention, talk tends to turn to reminiscences of past glories and future prospects.  Tonight's game marked the anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive games streak.  This was Ripken's 2131st game in a row, and after continuing the streak for over 3 more seasons, finished the record at 2632 - over 16 seasons worth of games!

This was the second of two games in Baltimore, and I was in the front row of section 244.  We spread out as there was so much space, with very few people in again.

This game had loads more runs than yesterday's game though.  Lots of home runs.  Calhoun hit a solo homer in the first inning, and next time up hit a 3-run homer to put Texas in front after Baltimore had had its own 3-run home run courtesy of Santander, but the O's tied the game once more at 4.

All players have their own walk-up music, to be played whenever it is their turn to bat.  I think Baltimore's Mason Williams would do better to have Classical Gas as his music, as whatever it was he was using, didn't seem to help much! 

Baltimore were leading 6-4 when the wheels finally came off again, with a 3-run inning for Texas which put them on top 7-6.  Despite getting the tying run to 3rd base, and the winning run to 2nd, with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th inning, neither Mancini nor Santander were able to drive a run home and the game was lost.

It was actually getting rather chilly by the time the game finished just after 10pm, which is a foretaste of my next game which will be a night game in San Francisco on Monday between the Giants and the Pirates.


Location: 333 W Camden St, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA

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