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Hi guys! :- ) Missed yer. The health issue was enough to warrant a hospital stay for three, four days but not serious enough to worry about.
Sudden thought. Did that last sentence seem a little daffy to you? ... good deal. We haven't lost our stroke Yet!
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It would be MINIMIZING Christian Bergman's performance to wave off a 4-hit shutout* in Fenway Park. That's the equivalent of a 300 score in bowling. Not unseen, not enough to get a Tour card based on a single evening. But then again it ain't like your maiden auntie is going to roll one, now is it?
It would be MAXIMIZING Bergman's performance to pretend like he had more than two strikeouts. Or that Boston woulda got 0 runs without the four double plays behind him. That's *more* than a double play every second inning.
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It would be MINIMIZING Bergman's outing if we forgot that just two starts ago, May 17, Dr. Detecto wrote that Bergman had Quote Unquote --- > what will be the best memory of his baseball life. This makes the two best memories of his baseball life out of the last three starts.
It would be MAXIMIZING his outing if we glossed over the start in between. His pitching coach hung him out to dry for 14 hits and 10 runs. Is 14 hits the record for a Mariner pitcher in a single outing? Or is it more like the record for a cricket team in a single afternoon? Anyway, as Rockies Jeff and less cool pitching coaches would tell you (we think), a beating is a beating. Chalk the Nationals game up for 6 runs or 10 or 15, it's just a sandlot game soaking up innings for the good of society.
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It would be MINIMIZING Bergman's game Sunday, if we said you couldn't POSSibly win in the majors with an 88 fastball, a real hard 86 cutter, some change speed, and a flurry of 0-1 counts. It would even be minimizing his arsenal, to say that guys don't have great summers (Esteban Loaiza), great seasons (Carlos Silva) or great twenty-year stretches (Greg Maddux) doing that. Do you old timers remember Rick Honeycutt? Started one year 6-0 for the M's, was it? Pitchers can and do get "hot" for a month or three. Maybe Bergman will. He's got the background for it, like Esteban Loiaza went 21-9 one time in the middle of that super mediocre career. Shigetoshi Hasegawa. Should we play a little game, your favorite memory of a pitcher who for some months, pitched like a real star?
It would be MAXIMIZING Bergman's game if we didn't emphasize that's doing it the hard way --- > trying to make 90 straight* quality pitches without ever hanging anything up on a string for Dustin Pedroia to pounce on. Bergman and his ilk are like tennis players trying to pass a serve-and-volley from 6 feet behind the baseline. Takes a whale of a lot of accuracy to make it work.
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It would be MINIMIZING the chances for Bergman to pitch well if we didn't admire the peacefulness of his motion and the strike zone location that implies:
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It would be MAXIMIZING the benefit of his command if we didn't asterisk that --- > the sequences never include a shuuto or a forkball or a parachute change or anything.
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We report, you decide. The great American / SSI way. Anybody here like Christian Bergman's chances?
As for the rest of it, Dr. D is going to have to read up if he wants to info-tain THIS crowd. Been quiiiiitttttte a while since he went a week without paying attention to the Mariners during the season.
It isn't likely that Christian Bergman's engine is going to sputter, cough, crank, turn over and roar to life as an American-born Japanese pitching motorcycle. But two fantastic starts out of three, that justifies hope. For him if not for us. At the least, we can hope for six weeks of 2.75 ERA baseball while keeping the seat warm for Drew Smyly.
Great game though,
Dr D
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PS: Sam Gaviglio vs. some National League pitcher, at altitude. I get sooooo tired of watching sinker-slider, stoploss pitchers sometimes. By "sometimes" I guess we mean, when there are four starters on the DL. Let's outscore 'em Tuesday and then see how much 5,280 feet helps people hit lightning bolts.
