Louisville 2, Tides 1

There was an appealing symmetry in Louisville’s 2-1 win over the Tides last night. The difference in the game was that, in the Louisville fourth inning, Neftali Soto hit a double down the right-field line immediately before Mike Constanzo homered to right-center field; and, in the Tides eighth inning, Ryan Adams hit a double down the left-field line immediately after Joe Mahoney homered to right-center field. Double before home run — two runs and a win; double after home run — one run and a loss.

Most of the time, while I’m scoring a game, interesting trends or unusual events come to my attention. That’s because the games move slowly enough to give me time to review the scoresheet. Last night’s game moved quickly indeed; the nine innings were completed in less than two hours. Partly, that was because both starting pitchers — Jeff Francis for Louisville and Steve Johnson for the Tides — were very good; the Tides got eight baserunners off Francis and reliever Josh Judy and Louisville got six baserunners off Johnson and reliever Miguel Socolovich. And, perhaps because there weren’t runners on base, Johnson worked quickly and Francis worked very quickly. As a result, I had to stay focused on the immediate events on the field and couldn’t look back for interesting things.