Saturday, May 01, 2004
Throw a Strike!
For the second time this season, I watched a team lose a game by walking 4 batters in an inning, not give up so much as a scratch single, and walk the winning run in. It happened earlier this season in Camden Yards, April 8 to be exact. Bobby Jones couldn't find the plate no matter how hard he tried, and the Red Sox lost that game in 13 innings.
Last night I watched the Cubs bullpen suffer an absolute meltdown, as the Cards benefitted from four base on balls (and a sac bunt thrown in there) to plate the winning run in the 9th inning.
I'm not a fan of either of these teams, but I can't imagine a more gut-wrenching way to lose a baseball game. Four walks and nothing else.
You can't say Dusty didn't try his best to prevent it. Unlike Francona back on the 8th who was in extra innings, and really had nowhere left to turn, Baker had the full pen at his disposal. Kerry Wood, by the way, was awesome last night: 8 IP, 5 H, 2 ER (3 R), 10 K, 0 BB.
He started with Farnsworth, then went to Mercker and finally LaTroy Hawkins.
Hawkins had Matt Matheny down 0-2 and looking incredibly not up to the task of delivering with the bases loaded and two outs. But Hawkins never threw another strike (the last pitch was very close), and the Cards had a win, the first meeting of the season between the two rivals.
Before I leave this game behind, I thought it was interesting to see both Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen bunting. Maybe it's because I'm so used to watching Boston and New York, both of whom would never have bunted in that situation: winning run on first, no outs, thumpers coming up. Even the WGN announcers (Carey and ?) were pretty sure that Edmonds wouldn't be bunting. With Puljos on first and no outs, he bunted the first pitch foul; it was a ball that hugged the line more than three-quarters of the way up before the third base bag, and then barely rolled foul. He showed bunt again, but eventually walked.
Rolen was the next batter, and his bunt was perfect down first, and replays showed that he actually may have avoided the tag with a dive towards the bag. That put runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out and the Cards walked Renteria to face Reggie Sanders. Sanders, unable to handle Hawkins fastball, popped up to first. And then the Matheny walk ended it.
I've been brought up so long thinking that the bunt is the right play there, that it's hard for me to argue with LaRussa. However, Matheny was damn close to striking out. If Hawkins throws him a strike, he's not handling it. With all the bunt attempts (and I understand Edmonds walked), he ended up putting game in the hands of Reggie Sanders and Matt Matheny, instead of letting his big guns do their thing. Supporters of the strategy are going to say 1) It worked. They scored the run and 2) Reggie Sanders has to deliver with the winning run on 3rd and less than two outs.
I would say it's awfully tempting, too tempting for a couple of teams I know of, to let Scott Rolen (.337, 8 HR, 27 RBI -- 1st in the NL) up there with a chance to win a game, try and drive in the run himself.
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There were three rainouts last night in MLB, including two that I lost a chance to watch: Boston/Texas, Atlanta/Colorado. I heard Denver got nailed with a snowstorm yesterday... And I didn't know it rained in Texas...
What I did see was Javier Vazquez look brilliant against the flailing Kansas City Royals. He threw one real bad pitch, a hanging curve reminiscent of the one he threw Manny on Sunday, that ended with the same result. This time it was Ken Harvey who deposited it into the left field seats.
But that was it. His fastball looked nice and crisp, his breaking stuff was sharp all night.
The win put the Yanks over the .500 mark at 12-11, and ensured them of their major league record 13th consecutive winning month of April, a record that was news to me.
As I'm perusing the late scores I see the Mets collapsed in a similar fashion to how they did two weeks ago on the same night vs. the Pirates. This time they squandered a 5-0 lead to the Padres.
And the Marlins didn't hold on to their early advantage either, blew a 9-2 lead and lost to the Giants 12-9.
Series to keep an eye on this weekend: Anaheim at Minnesota.
May be settling into reality: Detroit and Baltimore
For the second time this season, I watched a team lose a game by walking 4 batters in an inning, not give up so much as a scratch single, and walk the winning run in. It happened earlier this season in Camden Yards, April 8 to be exact. Bobby Jones couldn't find the plate no matter how hard he tried, and the Red Sox lost that game in 13 innings.
Last night I watched the Cubs bullpen suffer an absolute meltdown, as the Cards benefitted from four base on balls (and a sac bunt thrown in there) to plate the winning run in the 9th inning.
I'm not a fan of either of these teams, but I can't imagine a more gut-wrenching way to lose a baseball game. Four walks and nothing else.
You can't say Dusty didn't try his best to prevent it. Unlike Francona back on the 8th who was in extra innings, and really had nowhere left to turn, Baker had the full pen at his disposal. Kerry Wood, by the way, was awesome last night: 8 IP, 5 H, 2 ER (3 R), 10 K, 0 BB.
He started with Farnsworth, then went to Mercker and finally LaTroy Hawkins.
Hawkins had Matt Matheny down 0-2 and looking incredibly not up to the task of delivering with the bases loaded and two outs. But Hawkins never threw another strike (the last pitch was very close), and the Cards had a win, the first meeting of the season between the two rivals.
Before I leave this game behind, I thought it was interesting to see both Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen bunting. Maybe it's because I'm so used to watching Boston and New York, both of whom would never have bunted in that situation: winning run on first, no outs, thumpers coming up. Even the WGN announcers (Carey and ?) were pretty sure that Edmonds wouldn't be bunting. With Puljos on first and no outs, he bunted the first pitch foul; it was a ball that hugged the line more than three-quarters of the way up before the third base bag, and then barely rolled foul. He showed bunt again, but eventually walked.
Rolen was the next batter, and his bunt was perfect down first, and replays showed that he actually may have avoided the tag with a dive towards the bag. That put runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out and the Cards walked Renteria to face Reggie Sanders. Sanders, unable to handle Hawkins fastball, popped up to first. And then the Matheny walk ended it.
I've been brought up so long thinking that the bunt is the right play there, that it's hard for me to argue with LaRussa. However, Matheny was damn close to striking out. If Hawkins throws him a strike, he's not handling it. With all the bunt attempts (and I understand Edmonds walked), he ended up putting game in the hands of Reggie Sanders and Matt Matheny, instead of letting his big guns do their thing. Supporters of the strategy are going to say 1) It worked. They scored the run and 2) Reggie Sanders has to deliver with the winning run on 3rd and less than two outs.
I would say it's awfully tempting, too tempting for a couple of teams I know of, to let Scott Rolen (.337, 8 HR, 27 RBI -- 1st in the NL) up there with a chance to win a game, try and drive in the run himself.
-------
There were three rainouts last night in MLB, including two that I lost a chance to watch: Boston/Texas, Atlanta/Colorado. I heard Denver got nailed with a snowstorm yesterday... And I didn't know it rained in Texas...
What I did see was Javier Vazquez look brilliant against the flailing Kansas City Royals. He threw one real bad pitch, a hanging curve reminiscent of the one he threw Manny on Sunday, that ended with the same result. This time it was Ken Harvey who deposited it into the left field seats.
But that was it. His fastball looked nice and crisp, his breaking stuff was sharp all night.
The win put the Yanks over the .500 mark at 12-11, and ensured them of their major league record 13th consecutive winning month of April, a record that was news to me.
As I'm perusing the late scores I see the Mets collapsed in a similar fashion to how they did two weeks ago on the same night vs. the Pirates. This time they squandered a 5-0 lead to the Padres.
And the Marlins didn't hold on to their early advantage either, blew a 9-2 lead and lost to the Giants 12-9.
Series to keep an eye on this weekend: Anaheim at Minnesota.
May be settling into reality: Detroit and Baltimore
