Baseball: They were supposed to play a day game, then the sun went out
LINCOLN, NEB.— Baseball fans in more than a half-dozen cities from Oregon to South Carolina crowded into minor league ballparks Monday to watch the solar eclipse at game-day viewing parties.
The Lincoln Saltdogs wore special black-and-white jerseys and stopped their game just before 1 p.m. to watch the eclipse darken the sky. Spectators erupted in applause at 1:02 p.m. as the moon crawled in front of the sun until the whole sky looked like a late-evening sunset. The air turned chilly and went still.
“It made me all teary-eyed,” said Robyn Mason, who watched with her husband, Greg, from a grassy embankment near the third base outfield. “It was just so momentous. Just really cool — and very pretty.”
Other teams hosting events included the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in Oregon, the Idaho Falls Chukars, the Bowling Green Hot Rods in Kentucky, Tennessee’s Nashville Sounds and the Greenville Drive, Columbia Fireflies and Charleston RiverDogs, all in South Carolina.
The Volcanoes’ game against the Hillsboro Hops started late because the Hops got stuck in traffic. The game stopped briefly in the first inning as fans and players paused to watch the eclipse. Many players donned disposable protective glasses and sat in the grass in front of each dugout. At one point, the sellout crowd chanted, “Let’s go science!”
HOME AT LAST: Jay Bruce finally made it to Cleveland. Bruce, who was acquired from the New York Mets on Aug. 9, made his Progressive Field debut Monday night against Boston. The Indians began an 11-game road trip the day following the trade. Bruce hit .375 with three homers and 12 RBIs as Cleveland went 8-3 on the trip.
“You kind of forget this is his first game here because he’s been with us so long,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “That was a long road trip.”
The Mets were in Philadelphia when the trade was announced. Bruce joined his new teammates the next day in Tampa, and the trip continued to Boston, Minnesota and Kansas City.
“Packed for four days, on the road for 11, recycled a lot of shirts and pants, but it’s all good,” Bruce said.
Bruce was happy to finally set foot in his new home ballpark, where he had hit .384 (33-for-86) with four homers and 12 RBIs in 23 career games. He singled in his first at-bat Monday.
NOT MILLER’S TIME: Andrew Miller aggravated a right knee injury and was pulled from Monday’s game, days after Cleveland’s relief ace returned from the disabled list.
Miller threw seven pitches in the seventh inning before leaving a game against the Boston Red Sox. It was his second appearance since spending two weeks on the DL with patellar tendinitis in his right knee. Cleveland said he left Monday with the same injury.
Miller began the seventh by walking Boston Red Sox star Mookie Betts on six pitches — including a number of fastballs that failed to reach 90 m.p.h. — and then threw one pitch to Andrew Benintendi before walking off the mound.
Indians manager Terry Francona and a team trainer had a brief conversation with Miller, who then left the field.
The left-hander is 4-3 with a 1.65 ERA and has 79 strikeouts in 54 2/3 innings.