=== Shake It Off, Dept. ===

Friday's loss ranked slightly below getting "questioned" by the baddies in Orwell's 1984.  But let's keep it in perspective.   Suppose that Monday I offered you a trade for Adrian Gonzalez and a loss that night in extras.  Where would the day rank on a scale of 1-10?

The M's are one night's play out of clear first by themselves. 

They have Felix tomorrow. 

And they have Cliff Lee every five days. 

They're 3-5 in one-run games, but you can go ahead and bet 5-5 the next ten such.  I am STOKED.

Having had a chance to examine Mr. Lee fine-tooth, a few crib notes:

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=== And Now This Word from Our Sponsor, Dept. ===

Cliff Lee ended the 1st, the 2nd, the 6th, and the 7th innings with thunderous strikeouts, galloping off the mound back to the dugout. 

On the last one, Lee pulled the string on a yo-yo Jorge Campillo changeup thrown to the "wrong" side of the plate, in on Kinsler's hands.  Kinsler watched it float by, dropped his hands, and his face took on that wan, sick look that a face does right before it starts weeping or throwing up.

...........

So this is what it's like to watch a pitcher attack a batting lineup. 

With other pitchers, they speak in terms of "missing" bats or "pitching to contact," as though the subject in the sentence was "hitter," the object was "pitcher," and the verb was "evasive action" in passive mood.  "The hitter was successfully evaded by the pitcher until the 7th inning, when the hitter scattered the popcorn vendors in the third deck with a mortar shot."

Okay, "evasive action" is not a verb, but you know.

With Cliff Lee's 73 strikes in 98 pitches, "missing bats" and "pitching to contact" had nothing to do with the evening's entertainment.  "Pitcher" was the subject of the sentence, "hitter" the direct object, and "skewer" the verb.  Or "render irrelevant," or "embarrass," or "crucify," or pick your own verb.

...........

It's hard to even count the weapons with which Lee attacks hitters -- changeup on the hands is a weird one I don't ever remember seeing before -- but lemme just say that I had no idea his fastball was as quick as that.

Whatever the gun says, the George Sherrill-deception and 91-94 velo, thrown downhill, effectively pulls a Jon Lester light-bend on the hitter.  WOW was SSI impressed with that heater.

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=== Pace ===

Lee is no sooner snagging the ball back from the catcher than he's winding up again.

Wakamatsu has preached this until blue in the face, but there's nothing like a reductio ad absurdum to make the point.  With Lee's pace, it is true that hitters have no chance to "have an idea," to strategize about "forcing the ball down" or any of that.  But even more important, they have no time to Ichiro-zone into the world in which only 60 feet exist.

I never really got "tempo," in the fullest sense, until April 30.

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=== Adrenaline ===

How many pitchers sprint off the mound to the dugout?  I asked a guy watching the game with me what it was all about.  "Adrenaline," he said.  Lee doesn't want to get into a passive mood.  He's staying charged up and focused.

Folds into the "attack" idea.

Slap me silly I love watching Lee pitch.  It's like watching an NFL team blitz nine guys.

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=== To Be Fair ... ===

Felix also attacks.  Big time.   The subtle difference is that Lee, in those four seconds between pitches, brings a Jamie Moyer-like pitchability to what he's going to do next.

Two years on, Felix will have this same hair-fine feel for what is going to mess the batter up next.

.............

There is a BOR starter on the roster who also attacks, that being Doug Fister.  Which is part of why Wakamatsu speaks of it being a pleasure to watch Fister pitch.

...............

Get Lee, Felix, Erik Bedard and Fister going four games together and I'm going to blubber like a baby.  Sometimes sports are just so cool.

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Cheers,

Dr D