Isotopes beat the heat, Chihuahuas
Fans perservere despite 101-degree first pitch
Richard Ruble has been monitoring Isotopes Park’s Lot B the past two years. Thursday evening, Ruble said, was the hottest day since he started the job.
Ruble typically arrives three hours before game time, and stays at his perch — on the left side of the parking lot entrance under a small tree — until the second inning.
“It’s about 3½ hours (of work),” Ruble said of the early-evening shift. “But I have my tree, and I have my
water.”
Although, Ruble said, Thursday might be a two-water-bottle night.
The Albuquerque Isotopes were returning home from a four-day road trip in Sacramento, where they left seasonably warm temperatures.
The host Isotopes, playing in 101-degree heat at first pitch, topped visiting El Paso 8-1 before an announced crowd of 4,224.
Albuquerque pitcher Barry Enright wasn’t as concerned with the heat as he was with producing a quality start.
Coming off a rocky outing last week against Fresno, Enright (4-1) turned in one of his best performances of the season, allowing just one run and two hits over seven effective innings. He struck out five and walked two.
“You’re not really thinking about the outside elements,” Enright said. ”The minute you let the ballpark affect you or the heat affect you, you’re kind of already losing. I go out there and give it the best I can, pound the strike zone and live with that.”
Early attendance was sparse for Enright’s gem, but that didn’t seem to slow the patrons at concessionaire Mary Tafoya’s station.
Tafoya, who has operated a beer and chips concession for five years, said business was booming, in large part due to the weather.
“It’s hot for me, but we like days like this,” she said. “We like the sun.”
Jamie Marcotte had seats with friends under one of the eaves of the upper deck behind home plate. He was carefully handling an adult beverage walking down steps toward his seat.
“I’m not a season ticket holder, I just came out to be with friends, drink some beer and have some fun,” Marcotte said shortly before game time.
Marcotte was all in for the ’Topes’ series opener with the Chihuahuas, despite a triple-digit reading on the thermometer. Marcotte said the only thing that would have kept him from the game was rain.
“I play golf in this weather all of the time,” he said. “I was definitely coming (tonight).”
Playing in the Pacific Coast League, Isotopes vice president and general manager John Traub pointed out, Albuquerque encounters hot conditions in many of the league’s host cities.
The temperature in Sacramento earlier this week reached 100 degrees, and the ’Topes could see more of the same when they travel to Fresno, Calif., next week.
Having traveled to ballparks across the country, Albuquerque weather is almost ideal for night time baseball, Traub said.
“The good thing about here,” Traub said, “is compared to so many other places, here in the evening it becomes so comfortable at night. It might get into the low triple-digits in the day, but by the time the game is over, it’ll be in the 80s. When you’re in those hot places with the humidity, you just can’t catch a break.”
SHORT STINT: Longtime Major League starter Jered Weaver made a rehab start for the Chihuahuas on Thursday. Weaver won 150 games over 11 years before signing with San Diego in the offseason. He was 0-5 in his first season with the Padres before landing on the disabled list. Weaver was limited to 54 pitches over three innings giving up three runs — all earned — on five hits to take the loss.