St Louis Cardinals @ San Francisco Giants (game 2)

The weather has still not relented.  The temperature was in the mid-90s today, so it was a case of going from building to building, walking in the shadows as much as possible.  I had dinner at the McCormick & Kuleto's restaurant at Ghirardelli Square.

Diners are afforded a superb view of the bay with the way the tables are arranged there, and the food is good ... although I don't appear to have received my $25 birthday voucher from them yet.  I didn't want very much, so I had the salmon sandwich (right)


The second game of the series featured the return of Johnny Cueto from the disabled list - he's not pitched in a month and a half, but you wouldn't know it, as he threw well, leaving on a pitch count, with a 5-2 lead.  Brandon Crawford made up for last night's non-homer by crushing a ball over the 421ft mark in centerfield. 

I checked in on the At The Ballpark app as usual, and found I was one of 30 lucky app users to win a mystery prize that had to be collected from the cafe behind the scoreboard - typically, exactly the opposite side of the ballpark to where my seat was and down on the promenade level.  I made my way down there and out into the heat and picked up my mystery prize: a Giants retro bobblehead.  Hopefully, one of my work colleagues will be able to take it back home for me next week, as there's no way I can fit it in my own luggage.  Then I went up to the View Reserved level to pick up my Star Trek shirt - tonight was Star Trek night - so I also have a T-shirt which looks like the Starfleet uniforms in the original Star Trek series, but in the Giants black and orange colours.  It took me a couple of innings to go around collecting all of that!

Unfortunately, the Giants' bullpen did not function well - again.  Despite being handed that 3 run lead, 2 runs were given up the 7th, the tying run in the 8th, and then a total meltdown occurred in the 9th as the Cardinals plated SIX more runs to eventually win the game 11-6 as we got a consolation run in the bottom of the 9th inning.

One great thing about the Muni Metro vehicles is that they have air conditioning that (usually!) works.  It was a relief to actually board the shuttle metro back to Powell St.

It was a more exciting trip home than last night, as the cable car driver slipped off the handle at one point, and he also let us zip downhill faster than I've ever been in a cable car - sort of like Jaws in the cable car in Moonraker but on a ground-based vehicle instead :-)   We almost hit a car being towed across an intersection too, but fortunately, we arrived safely at Hyde Street.

It was still hot, even approaching midnight.  And I've received a heat advisory warning on my phone for tomorrow.