As Edgar, Boone, Teixeira, Vlad, and Branyan weren't... them also being great Safeco hitters.
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The two fly balls to CF definitely floated in the air.
My own take on the first one: Ackley's CG was going in a different direction, and then he folded over to square up a pitch far outside his leverage area...
Had it been Ichiro, we'd have seen a one-handed soft liner or crisp grounder to LF. Had it been a mortal, we'd have seen a swing and miss. It being Ackley, he squared up a hellacious low-away change and socked a surprisingly deep fly ball up the middle.
Ackley basically squared up 4-for-4 pitchers' pitches, defensive swings on all of them, and the fact that they didn't jump off his bat (except the yakker smoked down to Ryan Howard) was a testimony to the quality of the pitches...
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Ichiro doesn't float the ball around Safeco and, on the single and the hot shot to Howard, Ackley also got nicely on top of the ball...
That said, Ackley has his limitations, is not a big guy, and when he arm-swings a tough pitch into the air, he's going to make some outs...
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