Before I get into the Red Sox game, “David from Cal” left a comment
about the play a few weeks ago where Austin Romine was not able to tag the runner
out on a play that the ball beat him.
Romine played that terribly as he took the throw behind home plate
instead of catching it almost on the runner (I assume this is the play you are
referring too and if not please leave in the comment section). This is no different than if a SS took a
throw on a steal on the OF side of 2nd base (or when sometimes they
take the throw far in front of the base and don’t let it travel almost to the batter. It was a very poor play by Romine and it wasn’t
as if the throw caused that issue. This
was one of the plays I wanted to comment on, but I simply have not had the time
to write many of the notes I take when watching a game (even mental notes).
Onto the Red Sox game…CC looked as good as he has in a
while. The Red Sox didn’t swing too
well, but CC didn’t center many pitches and he actually hit 94 once and hit 93
a bunch of times. His curve was sharp
and his changeup was effective.
Gardner
had a lot of good AB’s, but man I wish he were better at reading pitchers. In the first inning, we had a great chance
with Gardner on 1st and Youk up and
after a 5 pitches of gauging Lester’s move Gardner
went on a 3-2 pitch and Youk did a terrible job striking out and Gardner was thrown out. The replay showed how poor a jump Gardner got and he still
was barely out. This was a hit and run
so Youk gets the blame, but still.
Gardner
did get a big hit later.
Robby Thompson needs to know that his job is not just to
wave the runner at 3rd home he needs to put the brakes on Stewart
when he runs into the 3rd out of an inning (at 3rd no
less) instead of 2 outs and 2 guys on. Bad
play by Stewart, but again that is why a coach is there and Thompson needs to
move quickly once he sends his runner home (who was easily safe).
Girardi argued a play that live I thought he was right on,
but on replay the fielder kept his foot on the bag and he was out. Earlier another similar play happened and
Pedrioa did a great job of keeping his foot on the bag and I think Girardi thought
one of them was called wrong, but neither was.
I think he wanted to get thrown out. I still think the coaches’ arguing
is stupid. I would be OK with IR because
it would stop the arguing and probably speed up the game. The umps check with another ump on a check
swing, why not on a close play?
I didn’t like the ump behind the plat on some of the outside
pitches, but I realized he just had a wide outside strike zone against lefties,
but when a righty was up he didn’t call the inside pitches the same way…kind of
odd, but he was consistent.
Robertson looked good again.
Rivera actually didn’t look good as he made some very bad
pitches, including the 0-2 pitch to Napoli
that he fouled back into Stewart’s glove and the first out to Gomes. The speed was
good, the movement was average but the location was very poor for Mo…but he got
the easy save (Tex
should have gotten that grounder by Ortiz)