To rout, or not to rout

There were a couple of baseball games played last week that were significant because of the amount of runs scored by one of the teams.

In the Major Leagues, the Los Angeles Angels unloaded on the Colorado Rockies in Denver, 25-1, with a barrage of home runs.

Certainly, a laugher if you are an Angels fan. If Colorado is your team and you only get to see one game a year and this was it, then it couldn’t have been a lot of fun for the price of admission. I remember several years ago when my brother, Larry, and I went to a Seattle Mariner game.

The Mariners finally got on a roll and they had won something like six games in a row and were finally looking like they could be turning their season around.

The Mariners took a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning and we were excited. But the Cleveland Indians had other ideas and would finish off the Seattle nine 10-1. We lost interest early on but hey we got to see a Major League game.

Getting back to the Rockies-Angels game, that was a true rout.

I’m sure Colorado started forgetting about the outcome before they started the showers.

What about the Angels? Were they thinking they were world beaters and that they could get the bats rolling whenever they wanted?

Well, the very next day, Colorado defeated the Angels to take the series, 2-1. Sure they were out-scored by a bunch, but they don’t add the total scores for a series to determine winners and losers only the score per each game.

So, who got the last laugh?

The College World Series was also interesting with the LSU Tigers battling the Florida Gators. LSU took the first game in extra innings, 4-3. The very next day, Florida unloaded their frustrations by routing the Tigers, 24-4.

Home runs were flying into the Omaha, Neb., sky that night. The Gators were feeling good and were looking at taking the championship with one more similar hitting game.

These two South-eastern Conference rivals loaded with talent had played each other on several occasions and there were few if any secrets that could be utilized in the championship final.

Florida scored first and led 2-0 and many thought that this game would be a replay of the previous night’s game.

But LSU had other plans and would score 6 runs of their own.

As the game progressed the LSU nine didn’t let up and would lead by double digits.

When the smoked cleared, the Tigers would secure another College World Series Championship with a rout of their own smacking the Florida Gators, 18-4, which can only lead one to think how can that be?

It’s simply baseball.

It is a strange game to say the least. A team can do no wrong one night and the next they can do no right.

If you watched the teams and the coaches each night, there was no doubt that the games were routs and not very exciting once the scoring became uncontrollable.

It was as if the bats had been switched overnigh,t but it’s the players not the bats that are in control.

What effect did the big win have on Florida? LSU had already forgotten about the embarrassing loss before their heads hit the pillow. And that is how it has to be approached.

You can’t let it sit and stew because it is only one game.

Did Florida players think the series was theirs because they scored so many runs in the game to even the series?

These kids are mostly 19-23 years of age. So, who knows what they thought of the record setting amount of runs scored in a single game.

It is difficult to not enjoy a game like that but they have to forget the ease of the win and understand the next one will be more difficult and boy was it.

Teams can’t carry over excess runs when they need them in a day or two.

If they only knew how to save those runs when they need them but that isn’t how life works.

If it was then the Angels would have swept Colorado and Florida would be NCAA baseball champs. But not all routs are created equal.

— Dale Anderson is a Ritzville-based sports columnist. Email him at editor@ritzville journal.com.