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Warm Fuzzies

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Dr. D knows not whether any of these child-sized Warm Fuzzies will grow up to be the large and shaggy kind.  But for one night we got a heaping bag full of them, Bad Witch protests begone.  The M's blew out the Orcs, Lloyd says he sees signs of sunny hitting weather, and ... Felix goes tomorrow.  There's a double dip that Dr. D can live with.

No stats.  Just feelings.  Stats next time.

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M's 5, Padres 0

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Q.  Pretty cool to have an SSI accomplice on the postgame shtick, right?

A.  Wish it would happen every time.  'specially when it's MoeDawg.

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Q.  Do we care that it was a "shutout"?  Like, as opposed to 8 IP, 1 ER?

A.  There's a definite tendency for outlier rookie performances to point toward --- > above-average success from there.

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Q.  The statline was 9  1  0  0  4  7.  Did he throw as well as the numbers suggest?

A.  He did not, no.

But that's pretty cool.  He brought his "B" game -- without a doubt it was his "B" game -- and the inherent nature of his game, even shabbily executed, snuffed out the Padres like a convenience-store match stub.  The shutout wasn't "forced" on the Padres; it was just one of those things.  Some really good lineup might have blitzed him for, oh, 3-4 runs on the night.  Might have.

Dr. D actually did not watch this game -- first in 2015, we think -- and then checked the score.  Montgomery 1-hitter!  Raced downstairs to skim through and was really taken aback by the way the game happened.

Just saying, this one wasn't a few pitches away from a Felix Perfecto, even though the stats show one inch (literally) from a no-hitter and an ocean of media attention.

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Q.  What did he NOT do well?

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MadBum 2 ...

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MadBum and Felix came into the game #5 and #6 in the BJOL Starting Pitcher Rankings.  The shape of their performance triangles was neither tall/thin nor short/squat, but that of a D&D 20-sided die.

Bumgarner's performance on the evening?  Heavens to murder-troyd.  

The first time through the lineup it was 9 up, 9 down, 6 by strikeout.  This might have been done in the Clemens 20K game?  I dunno.  I do know that in boxing, you stop the fight.  In football, you start running the ball, eating clock, and playing for a 27-7 score.  In English soccer, you "park the bus."  Ten men into the goal box and hope for a 2-0 loss.

It harked ye back unto the Michael Spinks - Mike Tyson fight.  You looked over at the undefeated light*-heavy in the left corner, and you looked over at the whatever it was in the right, and you thought "please don't let them find the bell, please."  Spinks had a perfect record.  They rang the bell and Tyson went over and threw a Bas Ruttan Liver Shot Left Hook.  Spinks went through the ropes, convulsing.  He never (yup) fought professionally again.  

The pernt is, as Bumgarner took his first windup, you had that same little slow roll in your stomach, please don't let this game take place, please.  There are a few sports contests that take on this pre-game air of inevitability.  Probably the Hawks-Manning Super Bowl.  Usually any Arsenal Gunners games, which are normally "won in the tunnel."  Certainly any public debate that a random beat writer wished to chance against SSI.

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