Thursday night at Raley Field in Sacramento was a lovely time and place for a ballgame.  The skies were an aerosol blue and there was excitement in the park, which I at first thought was because of Mr. Harden's presence, but turned out merely to be the cheap buzz of $2 beer night...

Mr. Harden threw his allotted 50 pitches in 3 2/3 innings, giving up one run (I'm pretty sure it was unearned.  Petit booted an easy one.)  He mostly threw fastballs and changeups, as has been his gameplan of late.  Of course, the Omaha hitters were late in their attempts to hit said fastball, although a lot of contact was made.  There were at least six pop fouls over the screen, mostly over the home on-deck circle.

He gave up a few hits, two of which were hit reasonably well down the first-base line. Casey Rogowski couldn't get to them.  Barton would have got one of them.  A glovesman like Swisher might have gotten to them both if he got a good jump and was positioned correctly.  I don't know if Mr. Rogowski is a prospect or a suspect, but he's slow afoot and his reaction time is subpar.

Anyway, Harden looked sharp and healthy.  He sure wasn't laboring out there.  He induced weak contact and got strikeouts when he needed them.  He'd have even struck out one more if his pitch limit were 51.  (By the way, it was super lame to pull him out with a 2-2 count on a batter.  I wish that rehab assignment pitch limits had a leeway of +/- 2 pitches, because pulling a guy right before the K just sucks biscuits.)

After Harden left, the rest of the game went by in a blur.  Dan Meyer relieved and apart from one bad inning, he looked alright.  Joe Gaetti hit the ball hard every time he was up, and the super-knowledgeable season ticket holder/self-appointed team grandma in front of me was highly confident that he's a legit prospect , which makes me happy because I loved watching his dad, and I like seeing my childhood heroes' kids make it, too.

Powell hit a 2-run dinger in the bottom of the 8th to break a 3-3 tie, and Ziegler looked super sharp with a strikeout, walk, and double play grounder to end it.  I'm not a trained scout, but I think Ziegler's almost ready for the Show.  His stuff seemed to have a lot of sink.  I think you'd need a 3-wood to hit one out off of him.  He sure reminds me of Bradford, although with a bit less knuckle-dragging.

Hopefully, Mr. Harden will have another good outing on Tuesday, and be ready to go in Texas when it's his turn.  (I also hope that Mr. Smith doesn't get sent down in the process, because I've taking a hell of a liking to that guy.  He pitches like he's got 15 years of experience, and I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being in the bigs for a long time... A Maddux or Moyer type...)

Peace, we outta here!