Left to right Dept:  Gravedigger, Bedard, Undertaker, Priest

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Q.  Did SSI waver during the 0-4 start?  Give it up, now.

A.  During the first three games, not at all.  

But that fourth game had me wondering about the DL.  That looked like a guy in pain, and if he's in pain already, that's all she wrote.  Figured a 30% chance of that.

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Q.  The Tiger start change the 30% estimate? 

A.  The first batter took it from 30% to 5%.  In Win Expectancy terms, that's a big AB, mate.

In retrospect, it looks pretty clear that in Game Four he was hesitating - not trusting his body.  See below.

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Q.  Were we seeing Ye Olde Bedarde, There Be Monsters Here?

A.  We weren't, no.  ... not until two out and 2-2 in the fifth inning, that is ...

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True, he averaged 91.7 mph and had zero dropoff in the 6th.  That's Ye Olde Bedarde.  Don't call 91.7 mph "mostly back" for Erik Bedard:  look up his historical velocities.

True, he threw 21 of his first 25 pitches for strikes, and without centering the ball.  That also be Ye Olde Bedarde.

But his curve was "good" only.

He was throwing 75% fastballs.  No way, man.

His back foot was baaaaarely coming off the ground on followthrough.  He was stiff and mechanical and forced.

But he wasn't in pain, and he was strong way into the seventh, and he was attacking.  So it was a good five yards forward.

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Q.  What happened in the fifth?

A.  With two outs and 2-2 on Austin Jackson, Erik Bedard grabbed the laces, forgot about his shoulder, and snapped a curve off.

You could hear the KEEEE-RACK! in Canada.  The crack of the ball careening around the corner and off the cliff, like a Porsche with its accelerator jammed.

Jackson swung, but he was using the tiny wiffle bat.  He missed by a foot.  Olivo couldn't catch it, either.

That was the pitch.  It turned the 2011 rotation amp up to 11.

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Q.  One pitch, maybe?  A fluke?

A.  Bedard knew it, babe.

Of his last 24 pitches, 14 were curves, and they attacked Olivo's mitt like angry wasps diving in from the RF upper deck.

They couldn't touch his curve with a paddle.  And maybe that's because it isn't humanly possible to hit Erik Bedard's curve ball when it has a mad on.  Match that with a 92 fastball located and ... well, that's the best pitcher in baseball.

His back cleat started kicking up behind him the way it does when he's moving his body right.  He grabbed the baseball by the laces with one hand, grabbed his dance partners by the necktie and pummelled them about the face and shoulders with the baseball in his closed fist. 

Here, check the last batter of the game, two hours in:  stinging-wasp diveballs alternated with malicious up-the-ladder fastballs:

For seven batters -- the last seven batters, at the end of his workload -- it was 2.90 xFIP Erik.  The Randy Johnson Fun Size guy.

Few things in baseball more fun than watching Erik Bedard crack off a Frisbee power curve, watch the batter's shoulder slump, and watching the ball drop in and sting the catcher's mitt right where it sits.  

On his curve ball, I definitely prefer the called strikes to the swinging strikes.  The helplessness factor is elevated.

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Q.  Is it reasonable for a pitcher to have a hard time trusting his body after surgery, or is that kind of chickenfeathers?

A.  It's very reasonable for me, I know that.  It's not possible for me to use will power to use a repaired body part at 100%.  I've got to build trust in it.  That's not a choice; it's an involuntary process, like breathing or blogging.

Freddy Garcia broke a leg one time and phantom-limped for a year; that was kind of hokey.  But Erik Bedard's rebuilt shoulder?  To throw the pitch that puts the 100% load on the axles?  Yeah.  Kind of amazing he pushed through it so soon, in start five. 

Now, then.  It makes sense what Bedard said on the radio last week.  "I don't know if it will ever be like it was."

Anybody want to bet me that from now on, he'll speak differently?

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If Erik Bedard could pull a Chris Carpenter and string two or three years now, the M's would be in for a lotta fun.  Think of the Tigers staring at the ceiling all night worrying about whether to try fire or pitchforks on Michael Pineda.

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Be Afraid.  Be Very Afraid,

Dr D