....... 

My favorite at-bat of Tuesday's ballgame, Dustin Ackley's against Rich Thompson in the 8th inning.

Ichiro had singled, swiped second and advanced to 3B on a throwing error.  Ackley stepped in against slopballing Rich Thompson with a one-run lead.

...

Thompson started Ackley with an 89 fastball in precisely the location that Ackley does not prefer, two inches outside.  Ackley can't hit that pitch with as much authority as he can most other pitches.  Ackley let it go by, and the ump gave Thompson the call.  0-1.

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Then Ackley saw two offspeed pitches, well clear of the strike zone, and Ackley did that thing where he tenses, deciphers the pitch out of the pitcher's hand, and then stands up relaxed halfway through the flight of the ball.  2-and-1.  

(Lesser hitters swing and miss on one of those two "get him to chase" jobs.  Ackley?  I don't remember ever seeing him swing at a curve ball in the dirt.  Do you?)

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On 2-and-1, Thompson flipped a nice curve ball in there, and this time it looked like Ackley was fooled. His knee kind of buckled a little, and he looked frozen, out of sorts on the pitch.  2-2

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Having won pitch four so decisively, it's now natural for Thompson to assume that Ackley is a bit "unsettled" on the following pitch.  Easy for Ackley to be "twitchy" now, easy for him to guess a bit more, to be a little jumpy and disorganized.

Thompson comes back after the "freeze me" curve with a cut fastball.  Low.  Ackley doesn't flinch.  3-and-2.

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=== Morning Jumble Puzzle, Dept. ===

How about a little brain teaser to start the mornin'.

Think about it for a second.  What would you throw, if you were Thompson?  If you're Ackley, how would you organize your thoughts?  Take ten seconds.  Here's where we are:

• Three-pitch control artist on the mound, not great velo
• Fastball low-away, a bit outside, the famous RHP-on-LHB wide called strike, 0-1
• Change curve missed badly, no problem, 1-1
• Straight change sailed high, no problem, 2-2
• Change curve right down the heart, embarrassed you a bit, 2-2
• Hard cutter missed low, 3-and-2 count

Okay.  How do you organize yourself?  Do you guard that wide-strike FB the ump gave him first pitch?  Do you figure, as many offspeed pitches as Thompson throws, he's not going FB back-to-back, so let's pull something hard?  Or what?

***

Thompson comes back with a change curve -- very outside edge, dropping just down below the knees, a real bear pitch.

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=== HOF Moments, Dept. ===

Ackley goes down with the ball like a boxer dealing with a low-blow artist.  He leans out and, very deliberately, pokes the ball foul down the 3B line.  The at-bat is still alive.

You coulda swore it was Wade Boggs for that one pitch.  Fight off the tough ones and eventually that pokey out there on the mound is going to miss with one.

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On the next pitch, Thompson missed badly, and Ackley walked.

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=== Yer Can Dream, Can't Yer ===

1975 was really the first year that I was fanatically into baseball.  Not only was that the best year of the Big Red Machine, but it was also the Red Sox' year ... and the year that the Sox magically came up with two HOF rookies at once.  

Friend, you'd have had to have been there in '75.  :- )   Not only did Fred Lynn and Jim Rice finish 1-2 in the ROY voting (!), but they finished 1-3 in MVP voting.  They led the Red Sox from a .500 record** in 1974 to the World Series in 1975.

And they were a charming pair, in baseball terms:  one hit 4, the other 5, behind the aging Yaz... one lightning, one thunder ... one a ballet dancer, the other a heavyweight boxer ... Lynn and Rice led an enchanting Boston team in 1975.   To a 12-year-old kid, it was baseball Disneyland.  There will never be another baseball team that lucks into a Fred Lynn and Jim Rice like that.

...

The other day, on TV, they had a graphic that said Ackley and Carp could be the first AL rookies (200+ AB) to bat over .300 together since .... Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, 1975.  

(That can't be true, can it, the .300 thing?)

Anyway, I got to musing.  How well do Dustin Ackley and Mike Carp compare to Lynn and Rice?  ... stylistically, I'll guarantee you that Dustin Ackley reminds me a whale of a lot of Fred Lynn.  How well Carp compares to Rice, I dunno, but Jim Rice was an RBI man through-and-through.  Visually the parallels are interesting.

...

The fact that you can even ask the question, is good enough for me.  June 2011 seems about a century ago.

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BABVA,

Dr D