Pittsburgh Pirates’ Corey Dickerson is hoisted by Adam Frazier after driving in the game-winning run with a sacrifice fly off Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel in a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, July 3, 2019. The Pirates won 6-5. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Here in New England, especially northern New England, we don’t get to see the National League games often. We cannot appreciate the major differences in baseball as played in the two different leagues. We watch an occasional National League game on ESPN or one of the other major networks, but, for the most part, our viewing is limited to the Red Sox.

If you read this column regularly, you know that I am an old-fashioned baseball fan. By this I mean I like my baseball the old-fashioned way. You can have the rule changes made to make the game more entertaining. The changes that have been made to speed up the game and make it safer and more entertaining, have accomplished little for either purpose. The game is a not appreciably faster than it was before they started tinkering with it and, while it may be safer for the ball players, the changes have taken a lot of the entertainment value out of the game.

Carl Johnson

This past week, I was in Pittsburgh on Monday night to see the Pirates host the Cubs at PNC Park and in Cincinnati on Tuesday to see the Reds and Brewers at Great American Ball Park.

I was anxious to see these National League teams play, particularly Joe Maddon’s Cubs because Maddon is the innovator, the man who popularized the extreme defensive shifts we are seeing today and who, from what I have seen of him both at Tampa Bay and Chicago, will try anything, no matter how radical, to win a game.

The National League version of baseball, without the designated hitter, requires a different type of strategy than the American League where pitchers don’t bat. It has always been my contention, and that of many others, that National League games are generally more interesting, mainly because of this.

I started to write this column before getting to Pittsburgh for the first of the two National League games, with the idea that I would finish the column using examples from those games I was going to see to illustrate the differences in the style of play and explain why I think it is a more interesting game the way they play it.

You know what they say about the best laid plans? As it turned out, in the first inning, of the first game that I saw, the first four batters that came to the plate, for the home team Pirates, scored before the Cubs starter 24-year-old Adbert Alzolay recorded an out. The last three runs of that inning scored on Josh Bell’s first home run of the night. In the last of the second, Bell added a two-run homer and the Pirates got three more to make it 7-1 after two innings.

They added three in the fourth, two in the fifth and one in the sixth to lead 13-5 after six innings. As the game went to the seventh inning, for the first time in the game, Madden had to strategize and, as always expected, he came up with an innovative idea.

He brought in Daniel Descalso, a second baseman, to pitch, the first time I have ever seen a position player take the mound that early in a game. Descalso, to his credit, rode his 80 mph fastball to a quick two outs, making Madden look like a genius. Unfortunately, he then gave up a two-out double to Colin Moran and a homer to Jung Ho Kang and it was 15-5.

Never one to be shy, Madden decided this would be a good time to give old Boston favorite Craig Kimbrel a chance to get some work in as he had only had one opportunity to pitch, a successful save opportunity, since joining the team.

So, in came Kimbrel, to shouts of “Please, come back to Boston” from the few Red Sox fans in the audience, including my son, Carl. He looked like the old Craig Kimbrel until the fourth pitch, which Jose Osuna, a pinch hitter, hit deep over the center field wall to make it 16-5. Then, Adam Frasier doubled to center, his fourth double of the game, tying the Major league record and, after Kimbrel got two outs, Bell crushed his third homer of the game making the final 18-5. No one was asking him to come back to Beantown after that.

Needless to say, this game was not the type of performance which will strengthen my position that baseball should eliminate the DH because National League games are more interesting without it. Who needs a DH when two teams can produce 23 runs and 36 hits with the pitcher batting?

At some point in the future, I will probably go back to try to explain my feelings about the differences in the two leagues, but this game was not the best example.

The next night, in Cincinnati, we watched the Reds and Brewers battle to a 4-4 tie for nine innings, before the Reds pulled it out in the last of the 11th. This game had a Red Sox flavor to it as well. Matt Albers, a former Red Sox failure, now with the Brewers gave up the tying run in the eighth inning on a double by Joey Votto.

And then, in the last of the 11th, Jose Iglesias, another former Red Sox player bounced a double over first baseman Eric Thames into the right field corner and Yasiel Puig scored all the way from first on right fielder Christian Yellich’s throwing error to give the Reds the win.

For what it’s worth, and for you trivia buffs the game-ending hit by Jose Iglesias gave the win to relief pitcher Raisel Iglesias and they are the only two players in the history of baseball with the surname Iglesias.

Carl Johnson is a noted baseball lecturer and author. His books include the popular series “THE BASEBALL BUFF’S BATHROOM BOOKS” and “THE BEST TEAM EVER?” which chronicles the Red Sox 2018 World Series win.