Two
games in a row we score two runs in the first inning and then zippo the rest of
the way. We either have to take
advantage of the first inning better or put together a sustained attack
throughout the game or we will have an offense as many expected of us.
Comments
from the game:
· The excitement that we felt with Beltran coming out of
his slump was diminished a little bit even though he was 1-4. His
swing is OK, but his plate discipline was awful. I counted him swinging at 6 balls in 4 AB’s.
· ARod seemed to be pulling off the ball today but he
did keep enough of his hands back to rip an inside changeup for a single.
· Where is Ellsbury’s power? He has a slug % of .396 now. I love the .417 OBP, but that slug% is very
low. He swung at ball 4 today by
checking his swing on a ball that hit the ground and then deflected foul off
his bat. He then struck out on a pitch
right down the middle.
· We need a lot more from Drew and Gregorius
offensively. Last year Didi had an OPS
of .653; I would be very happy with that (the year before was .705). He is at a horrible .517. Drew is at .624 mostly because of 10 extra
base hits. For perspective, out of all 196
major league hitters with 100 or more plate appearances, Didi Gregorius is 191st…Drew
is 163rd. Beltran is 159th
at .634. One notable is Melky Cabrera
is 173rd with an OPS of .593.
· Tex was thrown out the plate on a fairly close play
with 2 outs. I had no issue sending him
as the throw was accurate and the catcher made a very good tag to get Tex. That was the play of the game and shows you
how crucial getting that good secondary and jump off the bat is to possibly
winning or losing a game. My issue on
that play was Girardi reviewing the play and I assume asking for them to see if
home plate was being blocked by the catcher.
I say I was assuming because I watch on DVR and don’t listen to the
announcers much and Tex was clearly tagged out. The catcher gave Tex a sliding
lane and did it all perfectly from what I saw and I have no idea why Girardi
would waste a challenge in that? He didn’t
need one later but in a tight game you never know and that could have been an
issue.
· Pirella has a quick bat but he will need to learn to
drive the outside pitch the other way and control the outside part of the plate
to be successful long term
· Tampa has only one lefty in their pen. Veterans of the blog know I don’t understand
that at all. This is such a disadvantage because it gives
the opposing manager nothing to worry about in making moves late in the
game. You can leave your lefty who is a
righty killer in the game without concern.
· Back to Drew, It is like he forgot how to hit. He was up against Jepsen who could only throw
his fastball and in his one breaking ball missed badly. Drew knew the fastball was coming and he got
one right down the middle and swung through it…very frustrating.
· As for the pitching, Warren was Ok. The results were solid 3 runs in 7 innings,
but he has to get better command of his changeup. He throws it a lot and it needs to be closer
to the strike zone more often. He threw
many that were easy balls. A better
hitting team would have hurt him more tonight.
· Miller came in and threw 10 pitches…9 for strikes and
struck out the side. Nice!
Time to get back to our
winning ways or maybe we shave the moustaches soon?
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