I was at that game. Hellacious good fun, especially since the Cards pulled it out (I wish they could have gotten two games out of the series, but at least they weren’t swept … and that would have been baaaaad).
I was :dubious: with the plunking of Braun. Yeah, Saito was going up and in to Pujols, but he wasn’t trying to hit him … not with two outs and two on in a tight game. Having Motte respond by nailing Braun (to put the go-ahead run on base to lead off the inning! What!) didn’t seem like good strategy. And oh, yes, despite what LaRussa and Molina and Motte say … they meant to hit him. At least he didn’t score … there were three consecutive half-innings with the bases loaded with one or none out, and only one runner scored. That was weird.
I was sitting just to the first-base side of home in about the 11th row .. it was interesting to see Molina blow up at the home plate ump when he got ejected. You could tell the ump was having real problems with a consistent strike zone all night. Yadi had to deal with it catching for half the game, so when he got punched out on an inside pitch (probably a ball), you could tell he was really fed up. Obviously.
Went to the game on Wednesday, too. Not such a good outcome for the Cards. I was hoping for another good outing from Edwin Jackson, but he gave up two homers in the first … and ended up giving up three home runs to Casey McGehee (who had one-third of his season total home runs in this game alone). Then St. Louis got two runners on in the ninth with Pujols up and Holliday on deck, which could have been interesting … but Albert fanned. Plus I was sitting next to a really huge guy and had no room at all to be even a little comfortable.
The Brewers come to St. Louis next weekend, I think. That could be fun … or it could be the beginning of the end for the 2011 Cardinals. Of course, if the Redbirds could stop dropping games to the likes of Houston and Chicago, they might not be in such a pickle … but I digress.
Oooh, I totally forgot about the heinous stupidity of pinch-hitting Darnell McDonald for Reddick. I’m a big Francona fan, but occasionally he pulls some real duds and that was one of them. I often follow game threads on other sites and most people smelled it coming. He gets irrationally fixated on lefty/righty and tiny sample sizes for matchups. Which I guess most managers do. The fact that McDonald is still on the team instead of DFA’ed is an indictment of Theo, not Francona, but still, that was really bad.
I’m a full believer in the Earnest Ragging Principle. We went to Lackey’s July 9 start and I spent the top of every inning making snide remarks about him and insulting him. Of course, he threw a bunch of scoreless innings and they won 4-0. We’re going again on Saturday and somehow got stuck with Lackey vs. Sabathia, for which I have little hope, but I’ll try it again.
Tito’s the best Red Sox manager of my lifetime. I’m a huge fan of his. But yeah, sometimes he makes moves that just blow my mind with their short-sightedness. Admittedly, this is probably true of every manager out there, and many far worse than Francona (LaRussa, I’m lookin’ at you).
I seem to have a particular knack for it. The important thing, as Brisbee’s article notes, is that the ragging has to be in complete seriousness. You can’t purposely diss a player in hopes that he’ll subsequently do something awesome. You have to rag him for real, with the full expectation in your mind that he will do nothing useful. Only then will the gods of Earnest Ragging turn him into Cy Young or Ted Williams in the clutch.
Two days ago a guy in the office casually mentioned that he had two tickets for tonight’s Sox/Yankees game that he needed to get rid of. It’s also the one year anniversary of my first date with my girlfriend, and she’s thrilled that this is how we are celebrating.
The Reds…have less than graciously bowed out of the race due to not being able to score with RISP, Dusty Baker’s incompetence with pitchers, and the lack of movement during the trading period.
Nice 2010 Reds…mediocre 2011. Fucking A. Too many teams and too little time to overcome. They sweep the Giants and give me one last fals hope…then lose two winnable games to the AAA Astros and the first game of the series against the Cubs, another winnable game. Poor Dontrelle Willis. He has pitched well for us and even hit a homer to give us the lead in the last game against the Sinking Fastros and we can’t close the deal.
Jesus Christ Dusty Baker does NOT know how to manage his pitchers, let alone a team. Doesn’t know when to sit them down, put them in, who to play, crazy lineup cards…fuck him.
I know it’s early, but Trayvon Robinson has made a good first impression in his first two games for the M’s. He made a HR-saving catch in his first game and hit a HR in his second.
This season, the Rockies traded their #1 starter (Ubaldo Jimenez) at the tading deadline, lost their #2 starter (Jorge de la Rosa) in early May to a torn UCL (Tommy John surgery), their #3 starter missed the first two months of the season recovering from a broken leg suffered from a line drive back up the middle, and last night lost top pitching prospect Juan Nicasio with a broken neck (!) also from a liner right at him.
Those prospects they got from Cleveland for Jimenez must be quaking in their boots.
I heard an interview with the Rockies GM today and it seemed that he was happy to see Jimenez go. He didn’t like his attitude (too happy-go-lucky) and thought that his loss of velocity since last year’s All-Star game is a permanent thing.
Nobody knows. He only broke one vertebrae, and he is not wearing a cervical collar, so it is not as bad as it could have been, but it just isn’t an injury you see in baseball, so there is no history to go by. He is the test case.
There was no damage to his spine, and the Rockies’ team doctor seems to think it’s possible Nicasio could pitch next spring if all goes well. That’s the optimistic prediction and nobody really knows what his recovery will look like.
In the UK, we get a game a night (maybe a second post midnight) on ESPN America. Tonight it is the Phillies at the Dodgers, which has just started.
Vin Scully is commentating. I’ve never heard him before - not caught the Dodgers in their games that have been on British TV this year and they weren’t on loads last year either. Holy shit, this guy is good. The sheer ability to provide info at an almost constant rate - totally on top of everything, accurate and descriptive. He’s so much better than the other guys I have heard commentate on baseball, it’s almost funny.
I understand that this is like saying “Oxygen is good” in some senses, given Scully’s reputation. But yeah, I’m impressed. I can only wonder what he was like when he wasn’t 80+.
Even better. In the last five years, I’ve started to notice more mistakes here and there, but he’s still far better at 82 than most announcers are in their prime. And his great story-telling hasn’t missed a beat.
And you just reminded me that I need to tune in to the game.
I know these allegations have been made before, but this one today is a new one and the ESPN article has some pretty convincing (at least in my view) statistical evidence and eyewitness accounts. There have also been enough of these rumors about the Blue Jays now that I’m starting to buy into the “where there’s smoke” theory. I mean, what is the innocuous explanation for this?
The obvious counterargument is “Well, their record isn’t that good anyway, so if they were stealing signs, it would be helping more!” but that could just mean that knowing fastball vs. breaking pitch isn’t all that helpful for hitting aside from improving HR rates, which it seems to be doing.
You’d think they would steal signs for everyone on the team, not just Jose Bautista. Why aren’t they trying this when Aaron Hill hits? He could use the help.
The Blue Jays do hit better at home, but not to an extent that’s at all unusual. The Red Sox have a vastly better home field advantage with the bats. The Brewers are a completely different team at home than on the road.
You hear this every now and then from teams upset when they lose.
ETA: And Hill strikes out with the bases loaded. He should watch the white shirted man more closely.
It’s also the one year anniversary of my first date with my girlfriend, and she’s thrilled that this is how we are celebrating.