.... Rangers 3
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Q. How did Millwood do it?
A. With guts and guile, knowledge of the hitters. With a rawhide-leather elbow ligament that can still cut the fastball gloveside after 37 years (counting from the first time he chucked a rubber ducky back out of his crib). And with a daring game plan to take the Rangers up in the strike zone, tempting them to go after pitches juuuuuuust a little too high to get on top of.
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Q. He took the Rangers UP in the zone? In Texas? A better strategy would be to flush his wallet down the toilet.
A. Especially Beltre, but really all (or most) of them. Dig the location chart:
That old man's still got a lot of hair on that fastball. And you remember the scenes in Wild Bill, the Jeff Bridges one, where he wades into saloons and starts blazin' away against nine guys? You just saw the AL West metaphor for it.
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Q. He can still cut the fastball, y'say.
A. In sales they talk about "points of difference." At Wendy's, the hamburgers are juicy. Sell it.
When you are talking about aging 4.25 ERA innings eaters, you're not usually talking about men who can still twist their thumbs up, rrrriiiipppp the elbow ligaments, and move the ball in on lefthanders. Kevin Millwood can. ::shakes head:: Give it up.
As usual, you'll be wantin' proof. Not that y'don't believe me, I unnerstand. Jes' to keep us out of a scrape and all.
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85 of 103 pitches were fastballs, just like Beavan the night before. And Millwood got 10 swing thru's, had 7 strikeouts in 6 innings. Against the Rangers. That's because he took them up in the zone. Chew on dat, you fangraphs groundball fanboys.
The Mariners stuffed some scouting right back down the Rangers' throats, took advantage of their overaggressiveness. Herrrrrre's that tater pitch... whoops. Little high there babe, ya didn't quite catch up. Next time, keep after it!
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SSI was scared for a while there. It looked like a 2-year deal for Jeff Suppan or somebody. Rather, Jay-Z went and got the ACTUAL clubhouse leader and the one who isn't going to meld into the side of the hull like Bootstrap Bill in Pirates of the Caribbean.
A #4 starter and a #5 starter, and two lockdown games in Texas?! You call that a placeholder? You see where Jay-Z is going with this.
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Q. Dr's Prognosis?
A. He's still 88-92 and he's still cutting the ball. Who knew.