Game 1 To The Good Guys!

I have written a few times this year about leaving a starter in that is pitching well and has low pitch counts.  I specifically have commented on Tanaka a few times about how he finishes games well and they should leave him in when he is looking good and has less than 100 pitches because he used to almost always complete games in Japan.  In fact, I have been critical of Boone following some predetermined script for each bullpen inning

Proof that Boone must be reading the blog!

Or maybe just some common sense (more likely)

After 6 innings, I could feel Boone wanting to go to the pen, this was his comfort zone.  After a weak groundout, Tanaka walked their best hitter (Meadows) on a 3-2 count and I would have been annoyed if Boone took him out, but he left him in.  Boone;s common sense, paid off as Tanaka struck out the next batter and Sanchez threw quick fast, but high to 2nd on a stolen base attempt but an excellent tag by Torres got us out of the inning.  After 7, he had Ottavino up and in the 8th he had Britton up (as he should in a 3-0 game) and in the 9th he had Chapman ready, who would have come in if the leadoff batter got on because a lefty (Meadows) was up 2nd in the inning.

Tanaka didn't give Boone a chance to make an early pull as he finished off the game (after the DP) getting all 9 guys in the 7th-9th!

Great game by Tanaka; but, to be fair he made some mistakes, they swung at a lot of bad pitches, but he also hit a lot of great spots.  Overall, he allowed 2 hits and walked one and was our first starter to go into the 9th and thus was also our first complete game of the season!  he ended up throwing 111 pitches.

I felt good about the game even after the yanks went down 1,2,3 in each of the first two innings.  6 up and 6 down yet their starter threw 31 pitches to get through those 2 innings.  Edwin Ecarnacion (EE) saw 8 pitches in his first AB.  In the 3rd inning with 2 outs DJ hit a 2 run HR for a 2 run lead.  Maybin was on 1B and Maybin was 3-3 with a dinger and this accounted for all our runs.

DJ also made a great sliding play and flip to 2nd base.

Minor quip about tagging runners out.  If you watched the game, you saw Tanaka have a good move to 1st base when Meadows was on.  In fact, he was extremely close to picking Meadows off (hard to tell on replay).  If Voit were a lefty, he would have been out as it is hard to tag reaching across your body compared to a swipe.  That being said, so many players don;t let the throw travel deep to tag runners out.  I have mentioned this many times on steals of 2nd base.  You want to catch the ball pretty much right on the runner.  The ball is traveling much faster than you can catch it and move it, therefore, if it is on line you let the ball travel to an almost simultaneous catch and tag for the best chance for an out.  Voit and righties have a tough time but if he let the ball travel farther and caught the ball on his back hand and deeper toward the runner would have easily been out.  This does carry a little bit more risk and it is harder to do but not much harder

The only negative came from Sanchez.  After 2 outs and the 2 run HR by DJ, Voit got on and was doubled to 3rd base by Hicks (who has not found his groove yet).  Sanchez was in one of his swing no matter what modes and swing at a slider that was on the corner and then chased a slider that was outside for a ball and and then a slider that was so bad it bounced and was outside to the point the catcher blocked it but the ball got slightly away from him up the first base line.  Sanchez just walked to teh dugout for the out.  My main issue outside of the poor plate discipline was NOT RUNNING TO FIRST!  I know he is pissed (he should be) and I know the chances of a throwing error are what, 2%?  I don't know those stats but I figure 1 out of 50 times the throw is off the mark or hits the runner?  Whatever it is, the chances are better than zero, so take 5 seconds and run to first as there are 2 runners who would score if they make a mistake. 

Boston (Porcello) shut out Minnesota for their 6th win in a row

Colorado played a series that broke the record for most runs in a game.  Is it fair to allow records when you are playing on a field closer to the moon?  The ball travels farther and thus will yield more runs; not sure they should play there?  There is a reason why the longest FG ever (64 yards by Prater) was kicked in Mile High Stadium and two others for 63 yards were kicked there as well.  My point is that it should not be surprising that the most runs in a series happened in Coors Field; the teams over 4 games had an OPS of 1.074!  They scored 92 runs in 4 games and hit 17 HR's.  That is embarrassing and honestly not even fun to watch; unless it was just the Yankees doing it against another team that hit normally :-)

A lot of rain the forecast!