Month: April 2008

I tuned into the Dodgers/Giants game last night to watch Tim Lincecum pitch for San Francisco. When I turned the game on in the 2nd inning, neither Chad Billingsley nor Lincecum were pitching for their ballclubs. I was wondering, what the heck is going on?

As I watched further I realized there was a thunderstorm that was supposed to have hit LA a little after the game began. So both managers decided to start the game with relief pitchers and bring in their prized young flame throwers after the rain delay.

However the rains didn’t come and the waether forecasters predicted there’d be a two hour window in which to get the game in. Bruce Bochy brought in the Franchise to face the Dodgers in the bottom of the 4th of a zero-zero game, James Loney got the kid for an opposite field RBI single.

It should be noted the rain started coming down just as Lincecum took the bump. Rather than paying attention to what was going on in front of his face, manager Joe Torre followed suit by bringing on Billingsley to face the Giants in the top of the 5th. Chad allowed SF to tie the game when the umpires called for the tarp before the Giants could complete turn at bat. Perhaps the Dodgers would have been better served if Torre had brought on his closer to close out the fifth with a 1-0 lead, then if the game couldn’t be completed it would have been a Los Angeles win.

The delay lasted about an hour. Surprisingly Bruce Bochy put the Franchise back out there after the rains had stopped. Why would you jeopardize such a talent in a meaningless game of a meaningless season for the Giants? San Francisco is going nowhere this year! Maybe Bochy got away with it, perhaps Lincecum will have no ill effects from this folly, but this is what separates the good managers from the bad. Joe Torre decided not to return his young hurler to the mound in a season where it’ll come down to the wire in LA.

I was watching the end of the Cincinnati/Arizona game last night on the MLB package, only on DirectTV. Brennaman & Brantley were doing the game for the Reds, the game was in the bottom of the 9th, two on, nobody out, Diamondbacks up two, with Edwin Encarnacion at the plate facing closer Brandon Lyon.

The announcers are debating whether the runners should be advanced with a bunt. Brennaman is saying EE has never successfully sacrificed in his career and his stats show him to be a clutch performer. Brantley counters that according to the book you’ve got to bunt and if Encarnacion can’t bunt then they should send somebody up there who can. And besides that states Brantley, Edwin is not clutch.

In the meantime Dusty “Play it by the Book” Baker wants the batter to bunt. I’m SCREAMING at Baker through my TV set, “He can’t bunt! Use your friggin brains!” But alas Dusty can’t hear me or he’s paying no attention to what I’m saying.

No matter, as Encarnacion is now in the hole 1-2 after two futile bunt attempts, then there’s a breaking pitch in the dirt. As Lyon comes home with the pitch, Brennaman & Brantley continue the debate. Brennaman says Edwin is clutch, Brantley yells as the sphere is headed plateward, He is not clutch!

Of course the batter connects sending a screamer into the leftfield stands for a game winning home run, Brennaman asks will it be deep enough? Is he clutch? Brantley comments that he has never been so wrong. Brennaman mutters something about, well according to the book, probably thinking to himself he has to work with this goofball all season long.

Classic: Brennaman signs off with, “That’s all from Cincinnati. Final score Arizona 6, Reds 5”.