- For the third time this season, Freddy Garcia tried to get by using a steady diet of off-speed pitches. For the third time this season, he got hit pretty hard.
The boxscore isn't going to look too bad in the paper this morning, but anyone who watched that game objectively will tell you that Freddy was flirting with disaster the entire game.
The only inning that he didn't allow a baserunner was the 7th, when...
- Boone Logan relieved him in with two outs. It's tough for Ozzie to find spots to get Logan and Thornton some work when the starting pitching is clicking like it has on this current win streak.
I can't fault him at all for bringing Logan in with a 4-run lead and two outs. It's a low leverage situation (P value of .007 for those of you who have used the WPA spreadsheet) that could have been extended if he pitched well. Ozzie was giving him two opportunities to get one out, or maybe even a chance to comeback out for the 8th to face Joe Mauer leading off had he recorded the first out. The logic was good, but Logan's execution was poor. Only three of his eleven pitches were for strikes, forcing Ozzie to turn to...
- Brandon McCarthy made a bit of a rookie mistake on a Tony Batista swinging bunt. He nonchalantly fielded a slow roller up the first base line -- it looked like McCarthy may have thought it was headed foul -- then hastily tagged Batista on the knee as he ran up the line. Batista is no small man. His knee weighs about as much as Brandon's entire leg, so it was no surprise that the ball came loose, setting up...
- Torri Hunter's long fly out. McCarthy had gotten ahead of Batista very easily, but fell behind Hunter 3-0. Hunter swung at what might have been ball 4, but put a charge into it to the right field warning track. Earlier, he had smoked a hanging Freddy Garcia curveball for HR.
- Joe Crede struck out, catching me completely off guard. I've quickly grown accustomed to him fouling everything off until he, at the very least, pops up.
- Back to the Boone-Thornton situation: I didn't really see the need to have Bobby Jenks pitching the 9th inning in a 7-run game (.004 P-value for you WPA junkies). That seems to me like the perfect spot for Matt Thorton to get some work. Or if Ozzie doesn't feel comfortable with that, then how about Cliff Politte? He hasn't been sharp, and needs to figure some things out in a game situation.
- It's about time that the Royals beat another team besides the Sox.