Royalty closes out the month of June with a two city baseball doubleheader!

Back on Sunday June 30th, I rented a car for eight days so I could have it for the Fourth of July weekend getaway I had planned. I wound up getting a royal upgrade when I went to pick up the car. I wound up renting a Hyundai Sonata which was equipped with XM radio from Dollar Rent a Car by LaGuardia Airport. I would have rented from Avis but it was cost effective and more convenient to go to Dollar this time.

By getting the car when I did, I was able to avoid the extra expense of the outrageous holiday weekend pricing. With that being said, it always pays to plan ahead. You snooze, you lose. That's just a word to the wise. Royalty knows the tricks of the trade all year round.

In early June, I found out that the Baltimore Orioles were playing the New York Yankees on Sunday night baseball at 8:05PM. As a result, I decided to rent a car from Dollar a day earlier than I originally planned too. That way I could drive the King and our pal Bryan Gilligan to Baltimore after we all went to Citi Field to see the Mets play the Nationals in the afternoon.

As for the Mets/Nationals game, we were joined by my buddy Tolu Robertson who stayed over to see his Nationals play again at Citi Field. After he saw the Mets beat his team Saturday, he was hoping to see them get even on Sunday. Thanks to my pal Gio Gonzalez who started the game, they did indeed. With that being said, stay tuned for a special post that I'm going to do about Gio. He always warrants & gets plenty of royal treatment on my blog.

Gio Gonzalez vs. Zack Wheeler

As for the game we saw, the Nationals whipped the Mets, 13-2. Zack Wheeler made his first home start for the Mets that day. He looked good in the first inning then the Nationals proceeded to toss him a beating much to delight of Tolu & I because Gio was the benefactor of the much needed offense after a rough beginning.

Since the game was well in hand and Gio was done for the day after he pitched seven strong innings there was no need for us to stay to the bitter end. The score was 10-0 Nationals when we checked out of Citi Field. In retrospect, it turned out to be the right move because we had some pockets of traffic which caused delays as we drove to Baltimore. I did my very best to get us there on time but that wasn't possible given the circumstances. I did drop off Bryan & the King so they could get inside ASAP. They wound up missing a few batters. As for me, I missed the whole first inning. That's the way it goes. You can't win them all. I tell it like it is so there's no need to lie. It is what it is.

As for the game we saw once we got settled in, the Orioles led 4-0. The Yankees sliced the lead in half late in the game. As a result, the Orioles called on their closer Jim Johnson who's been shaky thus far this season after he pitched so well for them last year to close it out. Thankfully for the Oriole fans on hand he was able to seal the deal without too much difficulty. By doing so, the Orioles completed a three game sweep of the Yankees. It should be noted not everyone in the building left happy. There were a good number of Yankee fans present and accounted at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Stay tuned for the special post of my latest encounters with Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman