Q. What happened on that first pitch?
A. Two men out, tying run on 3rd, winning run on 2nd, outfield in, Luis Rodriguez steps up with a slopballing RHP on the mound.
Camp, afraid to thow a strike as were all other Blue Jays on the first 200 pitches they threw, threw a horrible 86 mph floating "fastball" aiming for a baseball's width off the plate, in hopes that the ump would give him a called strike.
Camp missed. The ball went a foot outside.
I don't think that even the F/X above does the pitch justice. It was a ball right out of the pitcher's hand; it never crossed the strike zone area in flight. Just a real easy umpire's call.
............
Scott Barry, sick and tired of watching the Mariners draw walks (eleven! so far), decided he'd been standing behind the plate long enough.
He called the pitch a strike, notifying Luis Rodriguez that it was time for the Mariners to get a base hit if they wanted to win.
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Q. Was that ump's call ... sort of a legitimate part of the game? LRod didn't say a word.
A. Jay Buhner and Mike Blowers collapsed in agony in the booth. "That pitch hasn't been a strike ALLLLL NIGHT!," Buhner said.
(As a visitor to the booth ... and as kind of a beloved class clown who can get away with a lot because "that's just Jay" ... Bone is not subject to Blowers' code about not telling listeners when something ugly occurred on the field.)
This game meant a lot. To both sides. Barry was ticked off at the Jays' nibbling and the M's siege mentality, and he wanted to go home. Extra innings were a very real possibility here, and Barry had already seen 200 pitches, just from the Jays.
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Notice that LRod had to foul off another pitch -- the 6th pitch -- just like that first one. LRod turned the M's year around (we desperately hope) using a strike zone that was MUCH larger than a real baseball strike zone. How do you like that?
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Q. Did the M's win the game with walks?
A. The Hustle Board is not about walks!
It is about having a plan at the plate. The 2010 Mariners walked up to the plate whaling away, just hoping the pitchers would throw 89 fastballs out-and-over.
The 2011 Mariners are trying to get their pitches, and they are trying to hit them hard when they get them.
The Hustle Board is a measurement of how strategically the Mariners are fighting the pitcher-hitter game.
...........
Luis Rodriguez went up to the plate prepared to succeed despite difficult circumstances. Like an NPB hitter, LRod was willing to work for his success -- willing to get his hit on a pitcher's pitch.
Now do y'get it?
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Q. Where's the Hustle Board after ten games?
A. Here y'go amig-O:
So after ten games, none of them extra innings and none of them high-scoring (for us), that's 1,599 pitches. Against good pitching, in general.
I think the average pitches per inning is 16; check me on that. Average ten-game Hustle Board total would be 1,400 or so.
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Q. Is this the plan?
A. Now everybody's on to the 2011 M's.
Eric Wedge commented on this after the game (see Baker). His mantra is "not to give away AB's" even in a blowout.
Mike Hargrove's mantra was subtly, and importantly, different in my view: Hargrove taught "Hit like I did."
There's a difference between deep counts for their own sake, vs. getting your pitch and doing something with it.
Edgar Martinez would burn you on the first pitch if he got what he wanted. Edgar was not seeking 3-1 and 2-0 counts for their own sake; he was pitch-stalking.
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Q. Does L-Rod get to play more now?
A. This is the kind of super-visible event that puts a player on the marquee....
SSI posters have been intrigued since he was picked up, as have the Mariners, obviously. Prediction here is that they now have an excuse to see whether the 2H 2010 was a plateau leap.
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Be Afraid,
Dr D
Rodriguez's AB has been a jewel fighting and swinging at every pitch theorically dangerous. One of those rare moments in which the cat seems to be in the batter's box instead of the mound. However I'd like to know how you judge Rodriguez final choice to swing at a changeup obviously out of the strike zone, especially with regard to the plan you're referring to, the hustle board and Milton Bradley being on deck.
L-Rod starts at third tonight vs. the Jays. Interesting.