SKUNK!

A skunk wandered onto the warning track during game 2 of the doubleheader in the top of the seventh inning.

Danny Perales, the LF for New Hampshire, didn't appear to notice it at first, but once he did, I had to think it was a little distracting for he and Anthony Gose, walking back and forth between left and center. At one point, Tyler Moore hit a double to left-center, scoring a runner and extending Harrisburg's lead, which they would hold.

I can't be sure if the stinky interloper affected the play one way or another. One, who can ever tell; and two, I was too busy trying to get a shot off in case somebody got sprayed (it's tough up in this blogging game) to see exactly what happened.

Thanks for the memories, Shairon Martis

Last night the Fisher Cats pre-poned a game with the Senators and played a doubleheader. Shairon Martis got the start in game one.

He pitched a 1-2-3 first inning on 13 pitches. When he struck out the 4th, 5th and 6th batters in the second I thought to myself, "he must be feeling pretty good today."

Martis walked the leadoff man in the third, and I thought "no perfecto today" and didn't think much more of it. Even though I was scoring the game, it took a quick glance at the scoreboard in left field in the 5th for me to notice the goose-egg. I almost said something, but who wants to be called a jinx, regardless of the insignificance of idle chatter. Superstition is nonsense, but there's no harm in playing along, especially if it's more about tradition than metaphysics.

Minor League Baseball doubleheaders are typically 2 seven-inning games, which unfortunately means this game will be referred to forever with a qualifier before "no-hitter."

Asterisk'd.

But it's official nonetheless.

What's especially personal to me about this game, is that it means Martis has now been involved with two of my indelible baseball memories: this no-no, and a grand slam that he gave up to Ryan Howard in 2009 that reached the right field Powerade sign in the third deck of Citizens Bank Park, about 480 feet from home plate. I was sitting in 316, between home and first, opposite the scoreboard. Never saw a home run hit as high or far before or since.

I'm getting all misty (fart noise).

So here's the final out caught shakily on video. You'll be able to ascertain from the shoddy camera work that Martis puts Kevin Howard into a 2-1 count pretty quickly. You won't be able to see the bloopy liner Howard hits to 3B Tim Pahuta to complete the historical* game. Also, you'll hear me making stupid noises, so feel free to rip me in the comments or on Twitter.