SOUP DU JOUR
Vince in MN April 12, 2014 at 9:41 pm [edit]
What makes you think Avila can hit the hittable pitches?
Ah, now there’s a win for ya.
Time for the postgame. You saw it and reacted. Now you’ve had a chance to reflect and hopefully have more to say. Have at it. But I’ll go first.
RANDOM NOTES:
Not a good idea, the pickoff throw from C to 1B that allowed the steal of 3B. I can see a bluff in that situation, not an actual throw, unless you’re Salvador Perez and can actually get the out. I also thought a throw down to 2B recently (v. Dodgers maybe) – yeah, it was VMart, and a run scored – was dumb. Another good time for a bluff and see if the lead runner takes the bait. Wouldn’t that be smart baseball?
Wow, we got see JV get not only his first but first two MLB hits. Solid, too.
Austin Jackson was very much in the news today. Kept a double to a double, a double to a single, and tracked down a liner that could have gone over and past him. Fleet of foot and sure of glove, except for one instance where he was looking throw before looking ball into glove. That could have been costly, but wasn’t. I like him batting behind Miggy, and the insurance runs in the 9th showed why.
Looks like Kinsler should have gone to Gonzalez rather than try to tag the runner, but at least he had the smarts to be decisive and get the one out.
Defensive plays of the game: Miggy on the catch and tag at 1B (on Gonzalez’s errant throw), LF Seth Smith taking a double away from smiling in disbelief AJax, 1B Yonder Alonso’s circus catch of the foul pop (AJax victimized again), and Castellanos’s barehand play. Miggy has been Gold Glove at 1B.
Castellanos was asleep at 2B. Not the first such lapse we’ve seen.
Some crucial turning points were the Hunter 2-run single (Verlander obviously well aware that he had Davis running behind him), and Verlander’s strikeout of Chase Headley with men on 1st and 3rd. The best moment was the Jackson ground rule double after the IBB to Miggy. It gave you that “game in hand” feeling, a good one to have in the 9th inning.
It didn’t matter much for the outcome of the game, but The Zombie’s dead arm seemed to come back to life last night, and Krol continues to be solid (and makes Coke even more expendable than his expendable self was).
Yeah, it seemed like Nathan was able to locate with precision, strike three on Denorfia to end the game being an example. I think Verlander had gotten either a strike or the strikeout on Denorfia just that way earlier.