by 
A few weeks back I was able to take in a Reds game from the confines of T-Mobile Park, formerly Safeco Field, in Seattle. For most of the year I was dead set on going since it was the closest to Portland that the Reds were playing. Also, just around the time of #SneakOnIn, I was excited to potentially witness some important games down the stretch, even if playoff chances were unlikely. But the Reds, being the not good team that they are, were sure to not let it get to that point and were decisively out of the race when the travel day to Seattle arrived. I was really torn about whether to make the trip.
My favorite part about making decisions (I hate making decisions) is when I am truly 50/50 and I decide to leave it up to a coin toss. In this particular situation, I would have to take a half day off work, drive 3+ hours from Portland to Seattle, park at my friend’s apartment, find my way down to the stadium, get home around 11pm, and then leave by 5am in order to get to work. All just to get to see a bad baseball team (that I have watched all season) play another bad team in person. Considering how closely I follow the Reds, it is amazing that it came down to a coin flip. I guess that is what happens amidst worst stretch in franchise history.
So I flipped a coin and the winning side indicated that I was going to make the trip. My wife reassured me that I would not regret going, which made me feel a bit better. So, after a three hour and forty-five drive followed by a forty-five minute Uber, I found myself at the SeaPine brewery about a half mile from the stadium. I already did not regret it.
Beer is good wherever you live, and it is particularly prominent in the Pacific Northwest where a vast majority of the world’s hops are grown. SeaPine Brewery had a great vibe and good beer, so I indulged in several varieties, including the flagship IPA, a saison and a sour. All three were phenomenal and put me in a great mood to watch baseball.
By the time my friend and I made it to the game, I had already made a bit of a mental switch. I was no longer only focused about the specifics of the game, whether it be intently watching every single Sonny Gray pitch or tracking each Aristedes Aquino swing and waiting for another home run. Maybe this was the beer talking, but I was more there to enjoy a beautiful night at a great stadium and just be a baseball fan. It was, after all, my first and only MLB game of the year.
Another factor in not worrying so much about the details was the lineup itself. September lineups are never what you expect them to be at the beginning of the year, but even with that in mind, the Reds lineup that Wednesday in September did not exactly inspire confidence in the direction of the club.
Getting Blandino back from injury was nice, and Votto and Suarez are always fun to watch (one of the few bright spots was an RBI double by Votto), but the rest of the lineup was iffy at best. Aquino had already begun his September drought and, aside from an incredibly rare feat, is still nothing more than a high-ceiling prospect. Jose Iglesias, Freddy Galvis and Jose Peraza are all similar players that do not add much value offensively, which figures given how badly the Reds offense struggled. Phillip Ervin and Curt Casali played well at times, but if the Reds truly want to contend, neither of those players should be starters. But I tried not worrying about that and shifted my attention elsewhere. First up was finding a good seat.
The early innings were when my friend and I explored a bit and tried to find some empty seats down low. While finding them was not hard at all, the ushers were on us no matter where we tried to sit, despite probably 30,000 empty seats. We were resigned to the left-field beer garden, which turned into a pretty decent spot to watch the game. We also found a super cool bat sculpture.
As the game waged on and the Reds took a 2-0 lead out of the 4th inning, I began to get more focused on Sonny Gray given the fact that he was working on a no-hitter. I made sure to talk about this fact with my friend and claim the “reverse-jinx” would somehow help, but I definitely just made that up so I didn’t have to avoid talking about it. Gray took a grounder off the leg in the 5th but didn’t let that get to him and quickly brushed off the coaches and trainers. He had more work to do. Below is my attempt at a picture of this.
Once Gray made it through six innings, that was when it really became fun to think about seeing a no-hitter in person. I can distinctly remember watching both of Homer Bailey’s no-hitters on TV and always thought it would have been so cool to see it live. This could be my chance! And to think I almost didn’t make the trip…
In the end, the idea of the Reds All-Star pitcher, who was deftly acquired this off-season and transformed into a front-line starter, taking a no-hitter to the 7th inning and then not only losing the no-hitter but also giving up the lead via a homer by a top prospect for a bad Mariners team was a poetic checkpoint in the Reds 2019 season. The game had built my hopes up and captured my full attention, only to give me another missed opportunity by our beloved Redlegs.
Once Kevin Gausman had allowed a couple more runs in the 8th, we called it and decided to head home, considering I was only looking at a handful of hours of sleep that night. As we taxied home, I could do nothing but laugh it off and not worry about the loss. I really was just there to enjoy baseball and there were some things to look back fondly on. Votto’s double and Ervin’s dinger were fun to see, as were Gray’s dominant first six innings. It was also cool to see Mariners fans as excited about top-prospect Kyle Lewis as Reds fans are about Nick Senzel. Maybe they are hoping he could be the next Ken Griffey Jr. (or realistically just half as good would work), whose jersey was in no short supply among the 10,147 in attendance. In seasons as bad as the Reds and Mariners had gone, there was not much else to do than look back to the past or forward to the future. And as I found that night, drinking a few beers also helps.
