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Gotta Earn It First, Kid

The first pitch of the game, Iwakuma opened the festivities with a high strike on the black to Brett Lawrie.  Perfect!  Forget the part about "hitting the glove" two inches outside.  This was a strike per an automated, rulebook interpretation.

Ed Hickox, behind the plate, stared blankly out at Iwakuma.

Iwakuma drew a heavy breath, wound, and fired again.  Celery-crisp fastball, right on the black:  a machine would have whistled it a second strike on its (too-strict) rulebook interpretation.

Ed Hickox, behind the plate, glared out at Iwakuma.  (I went and checked Hickox' ERA:  eeeyyyuuuup.  4.81 ERA this year, 11th of 75 ... weird; he was a pitchers' ump in 2012.)

Iwakuma pivoted on his heel and glared out at the CF monitor.  From now on you could tell every pitch that Hickox blew, because Iwakuma turned and glared up and out at CF.

Here, go look at the animation your ownself.  Back around Civil War times, the basic concept of a "STRIKE.  ZONE." in this new game was that --- > it wouldn't be fair to just roll the ball in, preventing the batter from making contact.  Now look.  Are these pitches that Brett Lawrie couldn't reasonably contact with his bat?  

Here's the strike zone chart for the ballgame.  Hickox:

• Gave Iwakuma two strikes that were 1-2" off the plate, probably the edge of the ball touching the plate
• Blew one call in Iwakuma's favor, 5" outside 
• Total so far:  3 strikes in his favor
• Robbed Iwakuma of 9 "automated" strikes, all viciously located
• Denied him 3 more pitches that were 1" or less off the plate
• Denied him 4 more pitches that were a baseball's width off the plate
• Total:  16 edge pitches given to the batter

It's one thing for an ump to miss calls; it's another thing for the ump to pointedly let the pitcher know that he'd better challenge the hitter.  Hickox announced that on Pitch 1 and Pitch 2, and he never let up.

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After the first two pitches, I braced myself.  ... After the first pitch to Encarnacion, and the way Hickox reacted, I braced myself to write up a dirge at the postgame funeral.

Then, in addition to the bogus walk that Lawrie drew, and the single off a low-away slider... a HIIIGGHhhhhhhh pop fly dropped in to load the bases.  Bases loaded, 1 out, and Iwakuma hadn't thrown a single bad pitch.

So, what is Hisashi Iwakuma if the ump hates his ever-lovin' guts?

He's 7 ip 5 h 1 r 1 er 3 bb 5 k.

Tonight's game was, in many ways, the most impressive game I've seen Iwakuma throw.  Did you SEE those three shuutos to detonate Colby Rasmus?  I had to go look up what the pitch was.  I didn't know Iwakuma could throw his shuuto 88 MPH.  He was well-and-truly ticked off, pard.

• Bases loaded, 1 out, LHB Rasmus at the plate
• Blazing 88 MPH shuuto, waist high:  swing and miss by a mile
• Blazing 88 MPH shuuto, dropped to 3" below the zone:  swing and miss by a mile
• Blazing 88 MPH shuuto, dropped to 2" below the zone:  swing and miss by a mile

Did you see it?  Tell me it wasn't the at-bat of the year.

(Iwakuma blew away the next batter, too, on 4 pitches.  Inning over, shutout on.)

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How about when Dickey pitched?  7 pitches taken away from Dickey, 4 given to him.  ... versus 16:3.

When are they going to automate the strike zone?  Put a home plate ump back there, sound a tone in his ear letting him know what F/X says, let him make the calls, and if he differs from the machine he's got to give account to the supervisor.

What is the argument against doing that?  Is it nothing more than that the umpires want to call strikes?

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Good News, Dept.

Iwakuma finished the 6th inning with 95 pitches and a 7-0 lead.  No-brainer to give the bullpen a few innings.

They didn't.

Meaning?

That Iwakuma was feeling juiced, and asked for the extra inning.  I guess he's not as fragile as I've been assuming he is.

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Fight You With Half My Brain Tied Behind My Back, Dept.

Last two innings, Iwakuma pitched with just fastball-slider.  Resting the skin on his finger, from the shuuto friction.

It was fascinating to watch.  That version of Iwakuma was a very effective pitcher.  Which would be a little bit like saying that Robert Griffin III is an excellent quarterback when standing 7 yards deep in the pocket every play.

I've consistently said that Iwakuma's "stuff" does not justify his emerging status, that he's sort of a decently-good pitcher on a major hot roll, but game by game he's looking more like Maddux and Hershiser.

Fastball and slider, he picked the Jays to pieces.  He could probably do it with just his fastball.

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Said All That to Say This, Dept.

A finesse pitcher who doesn't need his breaking stuff, and who doesn't need a fair ump.  Who IS this guy?

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Trophy Count = 3

Third time that Felix and Iwakuma have won back-to-back, right?  That, and the surging offense, has been all they've needed.

If you DID have two Cy Young aces, and DID have a top-4 offense, you'd be well able to afford a scramble in the back of the rotation.

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