Well, I HAD to find something good to say, right?
Couple of comments – it makes perfect sense that Roy would need to send a message to a backup catcher hitting less than any of my children’s weight in order to intimidate him. Seeing as how La Rue hit a piddly single off Roy in both April 05 and April 06, I can see how he would need to hit the guy to intimidate him. Yep. ESPECIALLY leading only 1-0 in the 3rd with 2 out already.
Which is, of course, Why Wainwright needed to throw a FB BEHIND Ausmus. Yep. All yall who want him off the team for a backup catcher who can hit better than Ausmus even did LAST year – yall need to see how much the opposition NEEDS to intimidate the guy.
Yep. So THERE.
Oh yeah – and LaRue played in 66 games last year and had a .513 OPS as a backup catcher. The year before, he hit .195, had a .663 OPS. How many great hitting backups do all yall think are floating around out there?
Also, a few words about defense – winning a ballgame means that you have to create more runs than you give up. Losing a ballgame means that you gave up more runs than you created. Walks and homers are entirely the pitcher’s fault (well, sometimes the walks are an ump’s fault too, but let’s not go there for a minute.) Hits? Well, sometimes they are the pitcher’s fault, but fielders not making plays that could be made also allow runners on base AND allow runs to score.
I really wish all those fantasy games would force the players to factor in defense – I really blame fantasy ball for getting so many people to think that defense doesn’t matter one little bit, unless you are talking about errors.
I’m not just talking about Carlos Lee being unable to come up with Schumaker’s hit in the 9th. How about Michael Bourn in the 3rd, making a rare misjudgement of a ball, breaking the wrong way so that Duncan’s ball fell in for a single instead of being an out. Schumaker would certainly have scored on Albert’s double in the gap, but it would have been ONE run in, not 3. Troy Glaus would have been out, and it wouldn’t have been a sac-fly.
We’re talking 2 runs here that scored because one single fell in.
And speaking of fly balls, lack of communication between the OF is what allowed Glaus’ fly to score a run – Bourn was camped, waiting for the ball, and Pence runs into him AND doesn’t have a good angle for the throw. Bad communication leads to a run. Maybe they wouldn’t have thrown out the runner, but there sure would have been a better chance.
And Michael looked VERY rusty today – took the sombrero. Really, only Matsui, with his homer in the first, and Lance, with his 2 long homers, got good wood on the ball.
You notice that with 2 out, 2 on in the top of the 9th and Hunter Pence up, Dave Duncan went out to Wainwright and said a lil something. I’ll tell you what it was – he said – you throw this guy ONLY sliders. If you even THINK about throwing something else, I’ll (edited for language) skin you alive. He can’t hit em, can’t lay off. And sure enough, Pence saw ONLY sliders and proceeded to get himself out. I mean, I luuuvvv the boy, but it won’t be long before the only pitch he ever sees is a slider unless he faces a pitcher who can’t throw one. I have no idea what Sean Berry is doing with him, but he best learn to hit/lay off sliders…
Tomorrow afternoon, it’s Backe vs Lohse.
This year, Brandon is 1-2 in 5 GS: 26 IP – 30 H, 4 HR, 15 BB, 18 K: 4.15 ERA, 1.73 WHIP, .283 BAA. Brandon had that terrible 3 inning 5 ER game against Philly, 2 starts of 5 innings giving up 0 and 1 ER, 2 QS – 6 IP with 2 ER and 7 IP with 3 ER (the bullpen blew them both.)
vs St Louis: 2-1 in 5 GS and 5 in relief: 30.1 IP – 40 H, 6 HR, 14 BB, 16 K: 5.64 ERA, 1.64 WHIP, .331 BAA. Unfortunately, his 1 hit no run 8 inning masterpiece in Game 4 NLCS 2004 doesn’t count.
- only 1 Cards hitter has ever hit a homer off Backe – in fact, he’s hit all 3 all three of his hits he has gotten off Backe are homers. You’ll NEVAH guess who that might could be (hint – not Aaron Miles…)
Kyle Lohse, RHP, age 29
Drafted in the 29th round in 96 by the Cubs, traded to the Twins for Rick Aguilera (my GAWD was he still playing???) and Scott Downs. He came up with Minnesota in 01, appeared in 90.1 innings with an 80 ERA+, then pitched around 180-200 innings a year for the next 4 years with ERA+ of 105, 98, 89, 106. In 2006, he had pitched 63 innings, starting and relieving of 63 ERA+ innings, so he was traded to the Reds in the limp bat NL Central. He threw 63 innings of 105 ERA+ and then in 07, he threw 21 decent starts for the Reds of 105 ERA+ ball, and then was traded to Philly at the deadline for minor leaguer Matt Maloney. He had 11 starts and 2 relief appearances over 61 IP with a 98 ERA+ and let me say, in a nice kind way, that he didn’t make a good impression in his post-season relief appearance against the Rox.
This offseason, Scott Boras, his agent, was unable to obtain a high priced multi year contract for him, and the Cards signed him just before ST for 4 mill. By the way, a lot of Astros fans want to know why the Astros fans didn’t try to sign him. Like Jerry Reinsdorf, Drayton McLane won’t do business with Boras (after the Beltran debacle, I don’t blame him.)
Career, he’s 65-74 in 200 GS and 23 in relief: 95 ERA+, 4.77 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, .284 BAA. 1.21 HR/9; 2.82 BB/9; 5.86 K/9 IP.
This year: 2-0 in 5 GS: 28.1 IP – 28 H, 0 HR, 7 BB, 11 K; 2.54 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, .254 BAA† In his 5 games this year: 0 ER/5; 0 ER/7; 2 ER/5.1; 2 ER/7; 4 ER/4 IP
VS the Astros: 1-4 in 4 GS and 1 in relief: 27.1 IP – 28 H, 1 HR, 13 BB, 13 K, 3.95 ERA, 1.50 WHIP and a .280 BAA
Tags: Houston Astros, MLB, St. Louis Cardinals
i would say pence!s line shot to the ss and ausmus low cloths liner to cf were very well hit balls and pence first grounder to ss was also pretty well hit, they just didn!t fine a hole. but thats baseball.
Just before LaRussa left Houston, on the day Backe and Pujols jawboned, Izzy plunked Towles in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and the pitcher coming up. LaRue was the response. Roy had the kid’s back.
Yeah, seven sliders, he swung at four, and three of those were in the dirt. Sheesh. He should take batting practice off a pitcher with a great fastball/slider combo and get an electric shock every time he swings at a slider. Maybe that would help.
And while we’re at it, Oswalt really struggled today — he simply could not put guys away. He’d get two strikes and then have to throw a lot of pitches. He still pitched a game we should have won, but still — it’s concerning.
Lisa,
You’ll be proud a fantasy-baseball player like me, I actually ranted about DEFENSE and I was just generally negative. Something just feels wrong, but I’ll just accept it.
–Stephen
charles,
agree that pence’s liner was well hit but the grounder, not so much. ausmus did get unlucky too, i think.
steve,
agree bout pence. the way he’s going, might as well sit him against pitchers who have a good slider. funny, he didn’t do this last year.
and with roy,
he’s reminding me of how he was like 5 or 6 years ago – he’d get frustrated whenever defense didn’t get a catchable/playable ball, then not put the next guy away. and you are right about strike 3 too.
i know roy calls his own game – he and ausmus NEED to discuss the way they doing things. seems that ausmus IS gonna be his personal catcher, no matter what coop said…
stephen,
it is because you are statty enough to understand what “runs allowed” means and you KNOW it does not all come from home runs…
bruce,
well, i would agree except that i would think that the timing was lousy – only a 1 run lead – and that roy, IF plunking, would have made sure that the ball actually HIT larue