rowe33
1601
HELLO WIN COLUMN! I didn’t think they could get past Toronto but a 2-0 lead sure helps!
Bleh, should have kept my mouth shut. Jinxed the Houston bullpen and they gave up the lead.
Phew. Really didn’t want to have to go back to Houston down 2-0.
Toronto is trying hard to be this year’s Nationals.
Lackey looks terrific so far…I mean, as terrific as a mouthbreathing barbarian can look.
Beat them Cubs, Lackey.
And career minor leaguer Tommy Phan just got his ten minutes, smacking a mile-high dinger off John Lester. I’ve never heard of the guy (Pham, I mean).
By later tonight he’ll have a phan-club.
Well, that was disappointing. Unsurprising, though. Damn Cardinals always find some way to mess with the Cubs.
I was pretty surprised that Lester made it all the way into the 8th giving up only one run. He was missing badly on a lot of his pitches, mostly way out of the zone. Only two real mistakes in the zone, which were the RBI single and Pham’s home run. What was not at all surprising was the bullpen being unreliable. Strop’s one of the better ones, but the Cardinals always seem to get to the Cubs pen when it counts.
Lackey was much better, but he was lucky, too. He made two major mistakes in the zone, too, but they ended up as a flyout to the warning track and a double play that could easily have been a double down the line if Reynolds wasn’t holding a runner on at 1st.
It just struck me, when I picked up this week’s Sports Illustrated tonight…no wonder the Blue Jays are down 2 games. They’re on the cover this week.
The mid-80s were a helluva thing.
The Cubs big hitters can’t find a way to get anything done, but the Cardinals gave them 5 runs with awful fielding and a home run by Soler (who didn’t even start yesterday). My thought going into this one was that we’d need at least 5 since I expect Hendricks and the pen to give up at least 4…maybe they can exceed expectations!
Hooray, they only gave up 3! We’ll take that split in St Louis. Jake on Monday!
Thems were some pretty silly gift runs tonight.
Waiting for the larger baseball media to talk about how “Cardinals baseball” is sloppy and waits for home runs or crazy shutout pitching… ;)
Damn, I hate seeing stuff like what happened to Ruben Tejada tonight in the 7th. Chase Utley slid late, and not on the bag (though it was in arm’s reach), and wrecked Tejada’s knee. Looked like a pretty major knee injury, though they’ll have to do the tests to know for sure. (Edit: And they reported in the 9th that he’s fractured a bone.) Tejada wasn’t exactly in great position, turned around the wrong way and unlikely to have made a throw to first, but he was well away from the base.
To add insult to injury, they called Utley safe because Tejada missed the bag, even though Utley didn’t touch it either. The announcers made no mention of the neighborhood play, and neither did what they reported as an MLB explanation of the play.
Cal Ripken was saying on the broadcast that he thought it was a hard but clean play by Utley, with a late slide. I disagree, but even if he’s right, MLB should still outlaw it. We talked about this earlier in this thread, and my feelings haven’t changed. Catchers and runners are protected by a rule change from collisions at home plate, and the world didn’t end because “traditional play” was compromised. It’s time they fixed the takeout slide as well.
I guess Utley managed to get out of it with no concussion. Too bad.
That play at 2nd in the Mets / Dodgers game was astoundingly bad, in so many ways.
-
It was a textbook example of the neighborhood play. Tejada was not obliged to touch the bag. Ironically, if he hadn’t attempted to the umps would probably have ruled that way to begin with.
-
Utley wasn’t trying to reach the bag, he was just trying to tackle Tejada, and he intentionally went off the base path to do it. This becomes important later, but right away it’s interference and an automatic double play.
-
Apparently if you screw up #1 & #2, you reach a rule that amounts to “If we hadn’t called him out, he might be out. But we called him out so he’s safe”.
So instead of the inning over (#2), or 2 outs with a runner on first (#1), the Dodgers end up with something they in no way earned, and surprise, that inning wins them the game. I’ve seen a surprising number of Dodgers fans admit reaching this same conclusion (and feeling shitty about it), so kudos to them.
As for #3, either #1 or #2 should prevent the umps from reaching that point. Even if they do reach it and look at the replay, the rule should not be enforceable in a case where the runner displayed no intention of touching the bag to begin with, and therefore does not deserve the benefit of the doubt that the rule is meant to convey. That same evidence supports the conclusion that the tackle was interference.
Honorable mention #1: TBS must have really worked hard to find the most clueless announcers on the planet who weren’t already working for Fox. Not once did they mention the word “Neighborhood” over the course of the entire ordeal.
Honorable mention #2: How the hell does the Mets coach just shrug his shoulders and walk back to the dugout after this? Bruce Bochey would have been ejected, carted off the field by security after ripping out the head ump’s larynx, and the team would have played the rest of the game under protest. If nothing else, it would motivated his players to do a better job closing out the inning and the game.
TL;DR: Utley took out the 2nd baseman (again) and got away with it (again). The umps handed the game to the Dodgers, and the Mets coach didn’t care. Also, TBS sucks.
That play at 2nd in the Mets / Dodgers game was astoundingly bad, in so many ways.
-
It was a textbook example of the neighborhood play. Tejada was not obliged to touch the bag. Ironically, if he hadn’t attempted to the umps would probably have ruled that way to begin with.
-
Utley wasn’t trying to reach the bag, he was just trying to tackle Tejada, and he intentionally went off the base path to do it. This becomes important later, but right away it’s interference and an automatic double play.
-
Apparently if you screw up #1 & #2, you reach a rule that amounts to “If we hadn’t called him out, he might be out. But we called him out so he’s safe”.
So instead of the inning over (#2), or 2 outs with a runner on first (#1), the Dodgers end up with something they in no way earned, and surprise, that inning wins them the game. I’ve seen a surprising number of Dodgers fans admit reaching this same conclusion (and feeling shitty about it), so kudos to them.
As for #3, either #1 or #2 should prevent the umps from reaching that point. Even if they do reach it and look at the replay, the rule should not be enforceable in a case where the runner displayed no intention of touching the bag to begin with, and therefore does not deserve the benefit of the doubt that the rule is meant to convey. That same evidence supports the conclusion that the tackle was interference.
Honorable mention #1: TBS must have really worked hard to find the most clueless announcers on the planet who weren’t already working for Fox. Not once did they mention the word “Neighborhood” over the course of the entire ordeal.
Honorable mention #2: How the hell does the Mets coach just shrug his shoulders and walk back to the dugout after this? Bruce Bochey would have been ejected, carted off the field by security after ripping out the head ump’s larynx, and the team would have played the rest of the game under protest. If nothing else, it would motivated his players to do a better job closing out the inning and the game.
TL;DR: Utley took out the 2nd baseman (again) and got away with it (again). The umps handed the game to the Dodgers, and the Mets coach didn’t care. Also, TBS sucks.
rowe33
1619
With the amount of money at stake in guaranteed player salary, I can’t fathom how this sort of take out play is still legal. It adds nothing to the game and occasionally takes a player out of it so I wish they’d just outlaw it and move on.
The interference rule already forbids it. The problem is just that the rule is never enforced. Reading comprehension (let alone a grasp of physics) is not a strong suit of the current MLB umpire staff.
