NERDS AROUND TOWN

Nerds Around Town: New Found Glory, patriotism, instant replay

Cory De La Guardia
Jul 10, 2019, 6:52 am
ART BY JESUS RODRIGUEZ

Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio and Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!

Hey Nerds!

Wednesday is the halfway point and we're there now. Don't let this week slide away from you, let's crush it.

GOOD DEED OF THE DAY

The Stixx and Stonez Sundresses and Summershirts party is this Saturday and they're having a donation drive, so bring socks for men, women and children as well as toiletries for the needy. It's a good cause and sounds like a heck of a party. Head out there from 3-11p and have a good time on karma's dime.

HYPOCRITE ALERT

So I've been seeing a lot of people mad about the US Women's Soccer team still. A lot of salty memes and a lot of people playing the "patriot" card on them and hating on them for their critical positions of certain things most notably asking for equal pay from US Soccer. Keep in mind many of these people have never cared about soccer ever, but now they're experts. Some people didn't like that a few of the players let the flag fall to the ground and some of the players stood on it. I'm not ok with people walking on the flag, I think that's disrespectful but I also completely respect people's right to want to make a political statement with the flag, believe it or not, America is based on people making political statements. It was a political statement that our founding fathers made when they wrote a letter to a King, it was a political statement when some tea was dumped in a harbor, and it was those political statements that eventually started a revolution that formed our great nation. Forgetting those facts discredits anyone's "patriot" card, they should argue for equal pay, hell they should argue for unequal pay in their favor, they're doing things no one else in the world is doing, and we're having a dumb conversation about revenue? Pay them.

HOT TAKE

If a sport has instant replay, and a set number of challenges per team, then late in the game you need a challenge and you're out of them and the sport lets a bad call stand, why have instant replay? Letting bad calls stand simply because one team is out of challenges or something along those lines, goes totally against the spirit of using instant replay. The NBA is toying with a limited trial run of instant replay and they listed a bunch of things that won't be reviewable like uncalled out of bounds calls, traveling at all, and uncalled fouls or goaltending. What's the point then? If you can't point out that someone went out of bounds and should have been called out or called on a travel or a goaltend that wasn't called, what's the point? This is going to encourage referees to stop games more times because better to call it and be wrong than to not call it and it changes the outcome of a game, you know? This is the wrong way to do it.

NEW FOUND GLORY

New Found Glory is playing at the House of Blues tonight, which is awesome! They were such an important part of my teen years and early twenties. They also were an odd intersection of pop culture, the lead singer married the lead singer of Paramore, then very quickly afterwards they divorced, while they were married, they played a party cruise. I have to think that was a weird party cruise if they were already having problems. Also they just released an album and they cover a song from The Greatest Showman on it, it's such an odd intersection of pop culture this band is in the center of. Anyway, check them out tonight.

NOT THAT YOU ASKED

Just a quick tip to the world, White People of the world, you look foolish when you call the cops on black people in public. It's a bad look. Also, stop complaining about fictional characters changing gender or race, they're not real people or things lost, they're fiction. Seriously. Fictional.

Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

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Houston is now 5-4 on the year

Astros pull out an extra-inning win to grab series victory against Angels

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

After splitting the first two games of the series, including the extra-inning affair on Saturday, the Astros looked to defeat the Angels on Saturday to secure the series win and leave Los Angeles with a winning record. On the mound were two pitchers looking to shrug off bad debuts to the season. Here is how the game went on Sunday afternoon:

Final Score (11 innings): Astros 6, Angels 5.

Record: 5-4, first in the AL West.

Winning pitcher: Blake Taylor (1-0, 0.00 ERA).

Losing pitcher: Jacob Barnes (0-2, 3.86 ERA).

James walks his way into trouble

After a disastrous start to his pitching season where he was unable to record an out, Shohei Ohtani was able to sit down the Astros 1-2-3 on just eight pitches in the top of the first. However, Houston would take advantage of his struggling command in the top of the second, working three straight walks to load the bases with no outs. They then would get two more walks with two outs to grab an early 2-0 lead and end Ohtani's day early yet again.

Meanwhile, on the mound for Houston was Josh James. He, too, allowed some walks but was able to work around them in the first two innings, erasing two in the bottom of the first and one in the second for two scoreless innings.

That changed in the third when he would walk the bases loaded with two outs before Albert Pujols continued his nearly twenty-year reign of being a thorn in Houston's side, hitting a grand slam, Los Angeles' first hit of the day, to put the Angels up 4-2. James would get the final out of the third, but that would conclude his day, making it two straight starts he would be unable to reach the fourth inning. His final line: 3.0 IP, 1 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 6 BB, 4K, 1 HR.

Valdez impresses as Bregman makes it a one-run game in the seventh

Framber Valdez was first out of Houston' bullpen, likely to try and eat up several innings. He would accomplish that mission, getting through the next three innings scoreless, holding the 4-2 score. It remained locked on that score despite Houston getting runners on base in each of those innings, as they would struggle to turn players on base into runs yet again in this series.

Alex Bregman gave the Astros a spark in the top of the seventh, leading off the inning with a solo home run to straightaway center to make it a one-run game. Valdez returned for yet another inning, another scoreless frame to keep it 4-3 going to the eighth.

Reddick ties it in the ninth, Astros win in extras

Houston would threaten to tie in the top of the eighth, getting a pinch-hitting Carlos Correa to third base after a single to leadoff the inning, but would be unable to score him, leaving it at 4-3. Valdez would record another scoreless inning in the bottom of the eighth, giving the Astros one more chance to tie or go ahead in the top of the ninth.

Michael Brantley led off the inning with a double and was pinch-run by Myles Straw, who would score the tying run on an RBI-single by Josh Reddick, but the Angels would hold the Astros there. Valdez remained in the game trying to push extra innings and would do so, erasing a leadoff walk.

Kyle Tucker started the top of the tenth on second base and moved to third on a sac fly by Carlos Correa to start the inning before scoring on another sac fly, this time from pinch-hitting Garrett Stubbs to give Houston a 5-4 lead. Valdez, well above his comfortable pitch count, was still on the mound in the bottom of the tenth, and allowed his first run, though unearned, on a leadoff RBI-single to tie the game again at 5-5. He would get one more out before Houston moved to another reliever, bringing in Andre Scrubb.

After an intentional walk to Albert Pujols, Scrubb would walk the bases loaded before getting a popout, then Houston would turn to Blake Taylor. Taylor would come through, getting a big strikeout to send the game to the eleventh. Springer started on second in the top of the inning and would score and put the Astros back in front on a one-out RBI-single by Alex Bregman. In the bottom half, Taylor would get through the inning, giving Houston the win and series victory.

Up Next: The Astros will have a day off tomorrow before picking up a three-game set with the Diamondbacks in Arizona on Tuesday. The opening game of that series will be at 8:10 PM Central. While Arizona is expected to start Madison Bumgarner, the Astros will have to pivot as they had Framber Valdez slated for that start, who made a lengthy appearance out of the bullpen on Sunday.

astros recap mlb astros vs angels shohei ohtani josh james albert pujols astros

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