Yeah, I know the last post was short – but I had to go off with Husband and kids the second the ballgame ended and therefore I am kind of continuing things here.
Roy pitched an awesome ballgame, especially considering that the HP ump didn’t give him the corners or the low strike. The wind blowing in sure nuff helped, too. Roy went 7 IP – and he didn’t go longer because he had to throw a lot of extra pitches when Feliz didn’t get to a bloop popup that Berkman would have gotten in his sleep – looks as if 1B is tougher to play than people give the fielder credit for, when the ump didn’t give him strike 3 on DLee in the 4th – was RIGHT down the middle and when Feliz let an easy grounder clank off his glove in the 7th. It adds up to 16 pitches…
Let’s talk about hitting:
Clank went the other way with an outside pitch in the 2nd, hitting a clean single to right. He hit a ball very hard and very squarely to left in the 3rd, but the wind knocked it down – the wind giveth and the wind taketh away. He actually went to a 3-2 count (???!!!) in the 6th, but popped it up and then had a routine FO in the 8th. This is actually good, because he didn’t flail helplessly at whatever and at pitches out of the zone. He also wasn’t swinging at the first pitch, no matter where it is (like not a strike) and hopefully, this means he just might could be coming out of his slump.
Pence also went the other way with an outside pitch for a single to right – not trying to hit a homer every time up. He also slid to break up the DP, so Chris Johnson’s FC grounder drove in a run. Good job. Unfortunately, he didn’t show any patience at his other ABs and hit 2 routine grounders and an easy FB. Doesn’t look real too good right now.
Keppinger had 3 groundouts and an RBI single.
JR Towles had a great night though – 2 solid singles to right and a homer high off the foul pole in left – amazing considering the strength of that wind – so he drove in 2, scored 2 and went 3 fer 4. He is now outhitting both Pence and Clank, but is trailing Tommy Manzella and Chris Johnson.
Only 1 walk, and that was ROY OSWALT, the freaking PITCHER. This team has SEVEN walks for the entire YEAR. You’d think that with the horrible hitting, that they would value getting on base SOMEhow, but noooooooo…
The best hitter, Michael Bourn, was kept out of the lineup because it was a lefty starting and like, so what if he can hit leftys as well as rightys?
So far, Mills looks just like Coop to me – except the players like him. Same lack of imagination, same inability to judge when to pull a pitcher, same obsession with platooning when it isn’t necessary, too. BAH
And tomorrow, it’s the Wand Man (who had better get his youknowwhat together) vs Ryan Dempster, who the Astros have done fairly well against over the years. The current Astros have hit him well, even Keppinger.
Wandy has done pretty well against the Cubs: 4-4 in 13 GS over 79.2 IP – but has given up 12!!! homers. Even so, he has a 3.84 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, .264 BAA. Trouble is that he gets hit HARD at Wrigley – let’s hope he can go out there and get that filthy curve working again.
Tags: Chicago Cubs, Cubs, Houston Astros, MLB
Well, two things about Bourn:
1) I think JD said that Bourn was kept out because he tweaked his groin again. Mills also seemingly likes to give the bench guys some starts (unlike Cooper) so that they can stay sharp. So it was a good time to sit Bourn.
2) There is, actually, strong evidence that Bourn has a notable platoon split in favor of righties. His career OPS against righties is .703, and his career OPS against lefties is only .610. Mind you, he did hit decently well against lefties last year, but still not as well as against RHP. Also, his strikeouts were higher against lefties and his walks were lower, so that suggests he might have been a little lucky on balls in play against LHP.
i missed JD saying that
if he likes giving bench guys starts, why doesn’t he sit clank and play michaels/sullivan in left?
i know that bourn has some split differences, but remember that in 08, for a good chunk of time, coop put his ass on the bench vs leftys and a lot of the leftys he saw were the good lefty relievers. last year, he took on all comers. so i go with last year’s stats a bit more heavily. and i know that bout every lefty is gonna hit rightys better – but it needs to be a really significant split to bench your leadoff guy whenever you play a lefty
Lisa, thanks for your wonderful blog. Roy was great and tossed lots of change ups lately and didn’t rely much on his curveball, it seems to have worked out fine. He truely was sharp and had more confidence in his change up now.
I might add that pence made a terrific defensive catch running a long way to snare a fly ball along the right field just inside fair territory saving a least 1 run and possibly more. Had he not made the catch it would have gone for extra bases possibly for a triple.
sorry that catch was made in fridays game when we were protecting a 1 run lead for paulino. still a very big play.
so i have to ask.. do you still hate keppinger? lol
also do you have a twitter, lisa?
i COMPLETELY agree that if he’s fine with sitting other players to platoon then why not sit lee?
hoping for a 4th game in a row of good pitching. go wandy!
grinning
kepp is proving me wrong so far, but we’ll hafta see. as long as they don’t play him at SS…
no twitter. i just do NOT have time for it.
and actually, he needs to sit BOTH clank and pence – they are just not getting good swings. neither one of em…
i really enjoy checking twitter during games-
i just figured i would ask!