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Three offerings stood out:
The first two seemed to indicate that the Rangers either had a hard time picking the ball up out of his hand OR that the rhyme/rhythm of Shoppach's pitch sequence had 'em bamboozled.
1. He threw a first pitch FB to Cruz in one AB that was one of the few he centered all night. Cruz never wiggled the bat.
2. At one point, I forget the RHB, he froze him with a first pitch slider. The batter turned his lead shoulder away a bit and then watched the ball wrinkle into Shoppach's mitt, clearly fooled.
3 At another point, after a FB strike, a FB strike, and a shuuto in the dirt, I just knew he was going to bust him up, probably out of the zone. Sure enough, as Iwa-san went into his motion, Shoppach popped out of his low stance and gave him a very high target. I think the pitch was foulded off and he got him on the next one, a slider, but I loved the challenge and the change of pitch level. I think that AB went FB in, FB away, dirt digging shuuto and FB at the top of the letters.
He was pretty dang good last night.
If Shoppach doesn't get the start tonight I'll be bamboozled myself. I would almost bet that it will be Smoak's night to "rest." Morales to 1B, and Montero to DH. Wait, Ogando is throwing tonight, correct? Dare Wedge sit Montero a second game in a row?
I'm in....is Wedge?