Impressions from that delightful lil ballpark in Stockton.

Belt is the real deal.  Made the best defensive play of the night, fielding a hard grounder very deep along the line and tossing to the pitcher to just retire the runner, with 2 out and runners on.

And the recap may show Belt tagged out at third in the 4th inning, but it was the manager’s fault, throwing up a stop sign when Belt was halfway to home.  Manager probably couldn’t believe how fast Belt had made it from first, on a drive down the LF line by Biery.    The relay came right to third, where Belt was trying to retreat. Then the next hitter, Monell, homers to score 2 but it should have been 3.

The only time they pitched to Belt, he doubled off the right-center wall.  Also 4 walks, one fully intentional and the others just chickenshit.

Monell also had an opposite field hit for RBIs, but was overwhelmed by a tough lefty reliever at a critical point later.

Stoffel was hit hard and took the loss, coming in with a 3 run lead.  It didn’t help that Fairley clanked a sinking liner for an error.  

Fairley looked bad at the plate, uppercutting into 2 GIDPs, tho he probly beat out the 2nd.   Culberson and Ehire didn't look great either, tho Culberson bounced a hit thru a shortened infield for an RBI.

Surkamp relies on speed variation and hitting corners.  His stuff was slow and not moving much.  But mostly effective, except for a 3 run bomb by the #8 hitter, a catcher named Paramore.  

Stoffel was missing high with offspeed pitches, all over with the fastball, and not getting swingthroughs.