Just in from the baseball game...

[drt7891]

GREAT rally by our team. It is nice to see our team rallying late and kudos for doing everything NOT to play into extra innings. Here is a synopsis:<div>
</div><div>The good:</div><div>GREAT team effort down the stretch. We seem to have more confidence against other teams, particularly ranked teams. OVERALL, better hitting. Also, compared to last year, much more depth in the bullpen. Cohen made some good changes in the bullpen and it's so nice to have closures you can rely on to finish games. Also, overall, we did a much better job working the strike counts both pitching and hitting. Good to see that improving.</div><div>
</div><div>The bad:</div><div>Pitching. Still. We threw 4 wild pitches, arguably giving up 2 or 3 runs off those wild pitches (can't really tell what would have happened if they hadn't had happened, but they certainly hurt us). Renfroe has got to stop jabbing at pitches outside the plate and get his body out there. Not all were his fault, but certainly some of them were. We also made some "wtf" baserunning decisions, particularly in the 7th. We had a man at first with Freeman batting and he showed bunt but pulled it away everytime. The baserunner on first tried to steal and got picked, then, Freeman struck out. </div><div>
</div><div>Overall, defense played well, hitting was noticably better, and we played with confidence. Only time will tell how these wins will impact us down the stretch, but every win we can get will mean something later. Let's hope we can pick up one more because winning this series will be enormous. </div><div>
</div><div>*EDIT*- The 1B umpire was terrible. We couldn't do anything to get a call at first. 2 blatantly missed calls. </div>

 

[Todd4State]

He apparently only plays well against non-conference teams. I believe he had three of the four wild pitches, unless I'm mistaken. His first two innings were OK, but his last two were awful. He was not repeating his mechanics, he was not following through, and then there were times where he was overthrowing the ball. Tonight, he lacked concentration- on one of his wild pitches, he forgot to cover home allowing a guy to walk in for a run. He needs to nut up and contribute.

Wild pitches are as bad as errors to me. That was Thigpen behind the plate tonight- not Renfroe- and that was the worst I've seen him catch. At least he offset it with a home run and a good night at the plate hitting.

The baserunning- when Thigpen got thrown out, I'm pretty sure he took off because he thought that the ball, which was in the dirt, had gotten past the catcher, and by the time he realized that it didn't, it was too late. The second instance I believe they threw Vickerson out on a pitch out. They have a very good catcher- he always seem to kick our *** every year. I was looking at the stats, and he is very good at throwing runners out. So, we probably aren't going to be able to do a whole lot of running this series.

The bullpen- they only gave up two runs, although they certainly struggled to throw strikes. They also got some key outs as well- Caleb Reed struck out Caldwell on a nasty pitch- I think it was a fastball where he dropped down on him, and Chad Girodo made some BIG pitches tonight. In fact, he is probably why we won the game- he got us out of a jam in the 8th, and set them down in the 9th. I like that the coaching staff didn't mess around when it looked like someone was struggling.

Cody Freeman did a great job of hitting- I think he hit a curveball where he went down and got it and drove it over the CF's head. I'm surprised that their CF wasn't playing deeper.

The first base umpire had a tough night- but at least he blew a call agianst Auburn as well.

Also, I like how the team reacted to the win- you can tell that they are a LOT more together as a team this year. Also, did anyone see the stick that they were holding up in front of the dugout after the game? What was that about? I liked it- whatever it was.

Stratton needs to give us some innings tommorrow.

 

[drt7891]

I know the throw out in the 7th was off a fastball (when Freeman was hitting) or something close to it because as soon as I saw him take off, the catcher was already on his way up and the ball was in his mitt (I don't remember it being in the dirt, but I could be wrong). I'm not going to complain too much, however, because I'll take the win over a ranked opponent over anything, but those are the kind of things that, in the past, we have had trouble playing out of (situations like bad baserunning, poor stealing, wild pitches, errors, etc...) Not many times are you gonna get wins with 4 critical wild pitches (which I completely agree, they can hurt just as bad, if not worse, than errors because it forces your only plate defense out of position). <div>
</div><div>Yes, you are correct. Jones had 3 of them, the last came from, I believe, Statz. The thing I'm thankful for most is we are seeing visible improvement, especially on defense. Defense is any pitchers best friend or worst enemy. On your remark about struggling to throw strikes, I think a lot of it is us being timid about attacking the zone (just an observation). I noticed there was a significant difference between their pitching and ours because they would almost always attack the zone on the first pitch to get ahead in the count. Cohen talks about wanting to be aggressive in attacking the zone and there have only been a few instances where I have seen us execute that strategy. I'd like to see that more, but again, that's just me. </div>

 

[Todd4State]

that Butch went out there and took Statz out immediately after he threw that pitch to the backstop.

I think they are trying to attack the zone, but they aren't always executing that. When you don't hit your spots, you lose aggressiveness. Jones is a headcase as many have noted and Statz is probably also a headcase as well- when those two pitch half of a game, I could see where you would think that they are not confident.

I don't think the home plate umpire ever gave us one borderline pitch the game- at least it seemed that way. I know Cohen got warned about argueing balls and strikes.

 

[57stratdawg]

He just doesn't seem like a contact guy. He has played well so far this year, but he was 0-4 with 2 Ks (something like that) coming up to bat in the 9th. Bradford is a better bet at the 2 hole.

 

[drt7891]

balls and strikes. I really just hate seeing them pitch around hitters instead of attacking them. The worst thing a pitcher can do, I think, is attempt to make batters chase pitches early in the count, even if they are aggressive. It's all mind games and you have to be a very well-developed pitcher to be able to make batters effectively chase pitches. Maybe it's inability, but some of it, I think, is not wanting batters to get a good hit. A lot of major league pitchers will play some kind of pitch-to-contact strategy because major league hitters are that good, but the trouble comes when a pitcher loses confidence and starts letting up on pitches and scared to put the ball in the zone and thats when batters take advantage of pitchers. I thought Devin did that in the 3rd and 4th innings.

 

[drt7891]

*Edited to say I agree completely*