Last night was a beautiful evening for a ball game. The temperature was in the high 70′s, there was a light breeze blowing, and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately for the Tides and their fans, the game didn’t live up to the weather. The Tides jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings, but the visitors from Charlotte closed to 4-2 before scoring two runs in each of the seventh, eighth, and ninth on their way to an 8-6 win.

Beyond the bare give-and-take of the game, there just seemed to be more strange happenings in last night’s game than in a typical month. It began with the very first batter, who fouled out to the pitcher. Yes, fouled out to the pitcher. Charlotte’s leadoff batter Justin Greene hit a pop-up down the first-base line near home plate. Tides’ pitcher Steve Johnson came off the mound, tracking the ball, and crossed the foul line to make the catch when catcher Adam Donachie was slow to react.

That was just the beginning:

• Between the bottom of the first inning and the top of the second inning, the Tides present “Race Rip Tide”, in which a fairly small child will race the Tides mascot from first base to home plate. Last night, the child competitor was a too young to know what was going on, and stopped in fear and confusion after reaching second base. Eventually, a Tides on-field employee got the child running again. To make sure the child would finish properly, the employee began to follow the kid to home plate, but got a little too close. The child stopped again, and the employee couldn’t stop in time to avoid running over the child and knocking him down.
• In the top of the second inning, Charlotte’s Lastings Milledge tried to steal second base. Donachie’s throw beat Milledge by several feet, but the player covering just didn’t catch the throw and Milledge was credited with a stolen base.
• In the bottom of the second inning, Adam Donachie hit a line drive off starting pitcher Philip Humber’s lower back. The ball ricocheted toward the hole at shortstop and Eduardo Escobar was able not only to field the ball cleanly but throw Donachie out by a step.
• Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski was in the lineup on a rehabilitation assignment. In his three at-bats, he lined out to left, grounded out to second, and grounded out to third. Unless you were there and saw him allegedly run to first, I can’t describe how much contempt he displayed for minor-league baseball by his lack of hustle on the base paths. Perhaps the best way to describe it is to say that he was the anti-Kyle Hudson.
• Two Tides’ pickoff attempts sailed past the player covering the base, allowing the runner to advance a base. Ultimately, both runners scored unearned runs.
• It’s always entertaining to watch a true case of Defensive Indifference. We got to see one of those in the bottom of the ninth. With the Tides trailing 8-5, a runner on first, and two outs, the Knights weren’t holding Kyle Hudson on. Hudson started toward second on the 1-2 pitch. As if to demonstrate their indifference, Knights’ catcher Jared Price held the pitch a little longer than usual. Rhyne Hughes doubled on the next pitch, scoring Hudson to make the score 8-6.
• The next batter was Brandon Snyder. With the count 3-2 and two outs, the stadium lights suddenly went out. It was eventually determined that a power spike in downtown Norfolk was responsible. The staff turned off the lights and let them cool down before turning them back on. After a sixteen-minute delay, Shane Lindsay threw a pitch at which Snyder swung and missed, ending the game.