SD - Game 2

They played through a lot of rain and I am convinced the SD manager made so many pitching moves in hopes of getting the game called for rain while they had the lead.

But, they played the entire game and the umpire behind the plate had a lot to do with the outcome.  He had a large strike zone that was very inconsistent.  He called an absurdly low pitch to Sanchez a strike in a key spot that changed the entire AB.  Unfortunately, Sanchez couldn't finish the AB while he still had a strike as he feebly and defensively swung at a slider that was a strike.  It was 1st and 2nd with 1 out and the 2-1 pitch was called a strike; instead of 3-1 it was 2-2.  Sanchez needed to get his head back in the game and clearly, he didn't as I have no idea what he was expecting when he got what I would have expected and had no clue what to do.  That being said, the umpire was bad and worse for us than SD.  SD had their own gripes, we just had 3 more legitimate ones.

Sanchez was up later with 1st and 3rd and 2 outs after we cut the lead to 5-4 but grounded out.  He did hit a HR (17) so it is hard to get too mad at Sanchez, but I think about how great a hitter he can be if he can manage his AB's better.  He has that "I am going to swing no matter where the pitch is" mentality at times. The result is swinging at pitches that are far out of the strike zone.

Kirby Yates, the SD closer, has had a great year this year (and last year) that started at the age of 30.  We had him in 2016 and designated him for assignment.  Honestly, he didn't look all that great last night, but his splitter has good movement and he has a plus fastball that moves.  Regardless, his numbers are outstanding and it is one of those odd things about baseball where a guy puts it together at the age of 30.

This game was really lost by Tanaka though.  While DJ had an error at 3rd base (It is hard to bounce between 2nd, 3rd and some first), Tanaka made very bad pitches in the 1st inning and SD picked up 4 runs to start the game and we were fighting out of that hole the entire game.  The big blow was a slider that was centered to the plate that Hosmer jumped all over. 

TB won and Boston lost.

One other note, I get more comments to my email (which is fine), but you can leave some comments in the comments section and perhaps some of you can debate a topic or give a thought.  My brother made a comment about the GW RBI after I mentioned it in the last post and it might be an interesting topic.