OK, I am probably just freaking out, but a 6 game lead in August (Aug 26, 8pm), held since April, never felt so scary. Maybe these are just concurrent, random things, but here is my dread scenario:
Rockies continue to play crazy. 4 in a row, including overcoming a 10-1 deficit. Scary. Tulo is back, they will make a run, even if they are 9-10 back.
The Giants almost swept Cinci. They keep their offense clicking, pitching stays solid, they win like 10 of 11 or something.
The Padres sputter. Not a free-fall, but lose the Philly series, lose the DBacks in AZ, lose all the series of Colorado, SF and LA, getting swept in one of them. You add all of this up, they are in a dogfight for the division lead and the WC position. All the national pundits chime in with versions of "told you so". MCC has a collective orgasm.
I guess I am being paranoid, and solid series vs. PHL and PHX will calm my nerves, but man they are anxious. Gaslampball is dismissing my concerns, as per usual.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
08 Apr 09, Dodgers
Final game of the the series. Given the Padres' grim prospects, a series win would have been huge. I was watching little bits at work via MLB.TV, but watched the 7th blow up in our faces. For those not watching, 2-2, top of the 7th, LA got two a clean single and nub single to get 1rst and 2nd with 1 out. I have never heard of Mujica, and, on the few pitches I saw, he looked OK. But, Manny is coming up and, if you had to measure leverage, this was about as critical as it was going to be all night.
Now, people can quibble about whether to keep Mujica vs. the others in the pen. I am not sure any of them would have faired better, except for the one really good guy: Bell.
I don't know what choices Black was mulling, but I can almost guarantee that putting in Bell (maybe he was getting warm, which would shut me up) was not one of them.
I think the accepted practice of having your best reliever come in "save situations" is that is a rough proxy for leverage. If it is really 1 run in the 9th inning, there is some leverage there. But, in this case, it is almost impossible to imagine a more critical out in the rest of the game.
And, predictably, the wheels came off.
Now, we did not deserve to win this game, with our little three hits, but, we are going to have to win a lot of games we did not deserve to win to have a decent season. We need to think outside of "accepted conventional wisdom" and be very, very smart about the limited assets, especially pitching assets, that we have.
Now, people can quibble about whether to keep Mujica vs. the others in the pen. I am not sure any of them would have faired better, except for the one really good guy: Bell.
I don't know what choices Black was mulling, but I can almost guarantee that putting in Bell (maybe he was getting warm, which would shut me up) was not one of them.
I think the accepted practice of having your best reliever come in "save situations" is that is a rough proxy for leverage. If it is really 1 run in the 9th inning, there is some leverage there. But, in this case, it is almost impossible to imagine a more critical out in the rest of the game.
And, predictably, the wheels came off.
Now, we did not deserve to win this game, with our little three hits, but, we are going to have to win a lot of games we did not deserve to win to have a decent season. We need to think outside of "accepted conventional wisdom" and be very, very smart about the limited assets, especially pitching assets, that we have.
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