Holy crap, I was just sitting down to catch the end of this game. I am so glad I root for his team. I can’t imagine it will last, but I am also loving the Dodgers being the best team in baseball.
All that said, the team isn’t looking all that sharp on defense today. And as I type that Gordon gives up a ground ball to the outfield to load the bases and give up a run and Kershaw gets pulled in the 6th.
And yet, another victory. 9-1 versus the Padres and Pirates. Kind of feels like the “real” season is about to start this week. I’m very curious to see how Kemp and Braun interact (and how Brewers fans react to Kemp) in Milwaukee
ETA: It’s worth noting that Dee Gordon redeemed himself with the game-winning hit.
Despite my disgust at their recent efforts I took in today’s Jays game as well, bringing the Small One with me. Obviously a 9-2 win is more like it.
This team has some damn good starting pitching. If they could stop blowing a lead every secon day or so, they could win 95 games.
Saturday night, the guys from the Pineda deal got it done. On Sunday, the guys from the Cliff Lee trade stepped up. Bleaven pitched well and Smoak had two RBI including a homer. Things are looking up. The stink of the Bill Bavasi era is starting to clear.
Yanks had a great offensive game and Nova pitched OK and Robertson great but Soriano looked bad. With 7 closers down I was wondering if Cashman would be getting calls about him but I’m sure he’ll have to show some better stuff first.
That it is. For all his flaws I love Dee. Also, has everyone seen the insane triple play from the top of the 9th?
Here’s a gif of it, but the mlb replay with the SD announcers is pretty amusing too.
It’s weird and I get why it was confusing to the players. It seems to me that the ump put his hands up accidentally and then did clearly call the ball fair, but it was still stupid.
That play was bullshit.
It’s all very well to say that “the ump put his hands up accidentally and then did clearly call the ball fair,” but the half-second or so that this took meant that the players on first and second base stayed put instead of running. Had they both taken off immediately, at least one of them might have advanced safely.
Vin Scully thought that the Padres had a good case.
Total bullshit I agree. Buster Olney tweeted about it saying that the Umps have the power to correct this sort of confusion on the field and that in his opinion they should have. It was clear to everyone that they players thought the ball was dead.
I do understand why the plate umpire might not known what it looked like though.
The Padres are owed some major baseball karma payback. I agree with Vin Scully, looked to me the ball clearly landed behind the plate off the bat. Oh well. Also, glad Vin got over his cold. Was worried they were covering for a major health issue.
I understand the issues with the gesture the umpire made that seemed like a dead-ball foul, so I have no problem with people thinking the Padres got a raw deal. But with regard to the bolded part of your statement, I don’t think the fact that the ball started foul is relevant, unless I misunderstand the rules. As long as the ball isn’t touched in foul territory, it can still wind up in fair territory, right? Which is why Ellis waited to retrieve it until it rolled fair.
Actually, i think that the final call the umpire made was correct.
The ball was bunted down into foul territory, but it rolled into fair territory, where the catcher picked it up. My understanding of the rules suggests that this should be ruled a fair ball.*
My problem with the call was that the umpire first signaled a foul ball, and then signaled it fair after it rolled forward. In a game were a tenth of a second can make the difference between safe and out, this delay was crucial to the decisions made by the Padre baserunners. The umpire should have made no signal at all until the ball stopped rolling.
The runners said that they believed that the signal meant that the ball had hit the bat and then the batter, meaning that it was a foul ball.
- I’m sure someone will let me know if i’m wrong here.
I don’t see how you’re wrong. The rules are very clear; that is a fair ball. But I’ve been watching baseball for decades and when the home plate umpire holds his hands up like that on a ball around the plate, that means “The ball is foul, dead ball.” I’ve seen that ten thousand times.
Dale Scott just plain blew it. This “I was trying to get out of the way” excuse is baloney, but even if it were true, he’s a professional umpire, and he knows what it means when he holds his arms up like that. If you’re an ump you’re supposed to know where your arms are.
As good as Verlander is he is still vulnerable to weird brain hangups. for much of his career it was throwing like a scared wuss in the first inning. I thought it was out of his system with the success last year, but now he wants to hulk out in the ninth, and change from what kicked ass n the first 8.
I don’t have any hard numbers and my Google-fu is weak, but I find it interesting how dramatic and positive the response to the Blue Jays’ new/old uniforms is.
I’ve never, not in my whole life, seen such a swamping of Blue Jays stuff in Toronto. The caps and jerseys are everywhere. A year ago it’d be almost weird to see people wearing Blue Jays stuff except at the game, but now I see it all over, and even the percentage at the games is higher than ever.
I took the Small One to the Jays Shop during the Sunday game to get her a pink hat, and the place was a madhouse. It was never like that before. Lines snaked around the store as people stocked up on Jays stuff.
It’d be easy to come up with a reason, but I don’t think it’s A reason, I think it’s a number of coinciding reasons. Now granted, I am not a marketing expert so this is all WAG, but I think it’s a combination of:
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The new/old uniforms are legitimately far more aesthetically pleasing than the dull Black Jay uniforms, or for that matter the eye-straiing blue-red combos from 1997-2003. This is easily the best kit the team’s ever worn. No contest.
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They hearken back to better days, though in fairness I see a lot of people wearing the stuff who couldn’t remember those days.
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The general sense of optimism about the team, and
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The city’s total-fed-up-ness with its winter sports teams.
They picked a helluva good time to change the unis.
Jamie Moyer is three outs away from winning his game to become the oldest person in MLB to win a game. He is 49 years old.
Moyer won the game. He has a 2.55 ERA so far, by the way.
If you aren’t a Jamie Moyer fan, you need to get to a hospital to see why your heart has stopped. Love the guy.
Meanwhile, Mark Melancon gave up another 6 runs last night without recording an out; his ERA is now almost exactly the same as Jamie Moyer’s age: 49.50!
The previous recordholder was Jack Quinn, who was a couple of months younger than Moyer. Quinn won his last game in 1932. That means Jamie Moyer just broke a record that was set by a guy who was born in the 19th century. Details here.
Here in DC, this looks like the Nats’ breakthrough year. They finished fairly strong last year to end up just shy of .500 at 80-81, and between that, their farm system, some offseason moves, and Strasburg coming back from arm surgery, there was a lot of reason to be excited about this season.
And man, is it starting off with a bang. A 9-3 start, driven by the pitching staff’s collective 1.91 ERA, something like 3/4 of a run better than the next-best team. Sure, they won’t keep that up, but still, they’re damned good. And while the hitting isn’t great, at least it’s in the middle of the pack this year, which is all they need, given the pitching.
Go Nats!!