Games » Tampa Bay Rays
Aug8Two key moments
Lee Judge
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In the 7th inning, Luke Hochevar issued his first walk of the game to Ben Zobrist. Then, with Casey Kotchman batting, Hoch threw a pitch in the dirt. Manny Pina reached for the ball instead of blocking the pitch, it got to the backstop and Zobrist was on second. Kotchman then hit a single and Zobrist scored the tying run.
If Pina makes a better effort, Hochevar has runners at first and third and maybe he gets out of the inning and it’s Soria in the 9th instead of Blake Wood. In one-run games *everything * is important, including blocking pitches with a runner on first.
The other key moment from this game was Eddie Rodriguez’ 8th-inning decision to hold Chris Getz at third on an error at first. Jeff Francoeur had lined out to third with runners on first and second and Evan Longoria tried to double off Eric Hosmer at first. The ball got away and, even though Getz had to go back to second to tag up, it looked like he had a chance if he’d tried for home.
The Rays first baseman, Casey Kotchman, is left-handed, throws from lefties tend to tail to the left (which would draw the catcher away from the plate, and did) and there were two outs, time to push it. (You could see Frenchy waving Chris home, so I guess he agreed.) A perfect throw nails Getz, but when runs and hits are hard to come by, you need to push it on the base paths. The Royals didn’t and paid the price when Johnny Giavotella popped out to end the inning.
Once again, if they score that run, Joakim Soria is in for the 9th inning and the save. Winning the first game of the series is a big deal. Teams want to play at least .500 on the road and win at home. In a four-game series, win the first game and you’re thinking, hey, we just need to go one out of three to have a good series against the Rays. Now, because of a couple small things that didn’t happen, the Royals are looking at winning two out of three just to break even.
The low tag
If you watched Sunday’s pregame show or read the earlier posting, you know we discussed Brayan Pena missing two outs at the plate this season when the throw beat the runner to the plate, but Brayan made a high tag.
I asked Matt Treanor about this play and he said the umpires used to give you that one. If the throw beat the runner and the runner snuck his foot in, they’d still give you the out. Now the umps want to clearly see you make the tag before the foot hits the bag.
No way of knowing, but it seems like, once again, instant replay may have changed the game.
Gordo’s hat
OK, you know the baseball superstition where you don’t change anything as long as you’re going good? Well, it’s causing a problem in the Royals clubhouse. Alex Gordon is having the year of his life right now so he’s worn the same hat all season.
The same dirty, stinky, filthy, disgusting, smelly hat all season.
It smells so bad Jeff Francoeur is threatening to move his locker if Gordon doesn’t go something about it. Alex has offered a compromise: he’ll wear a different hat during batting practice so the gamer doesn’t absorb any more sweat than it has to, but I don’t know if Frenchy’s buying.
Stay tuned and I’ll let you know of any breaking news on the smelly hat negotiations.
Esky’s glove
Last Saturday night Alcides Escobar did it again, turned what looked like a sure hit, into an out. The play had everyone talking about Esky’s glove so I decided to do some investigative journalism and here it is, Esky’s Glove:
Alcides Escobar uses an 11½-inch glove, which is surprisingly big for a middle infielder. (Gloves are measured from the first finger top — not the thumb — to the bottom edge. Outfielders will use 12½- to 13-inch gloves, third baseman and pitchers use a lot of 12-inch gloves and middle infielders often go with something around 11 inches.
When I commented on the size of the glove, Esky pointed out the webbing between the fingers and how he had really cinched it down so the glove played smaller. Now this is really useless information unless you’re in a sports bar and Escobar makes a great play and you say (with a knowing air), “He uses and 11½-inch glove, but he cinches it down and it plays like an 11.”
Tomorrow, we’ll work on pick-up lines.
Tearing it up
If you stuck round long enough after Sunday’s game you saw the grounds crew tearing up the infield. Apparently we see three different infields during a season. They start with blue grass (which likes colder weather), go the rye for the heat and then switch back to blue grass. (Or maybe it’s the exact opposite, I made notes, but left them at work.)
In any case, when the Royals get back the infield grass, the sidelines and 15 feet of the outfield that’s behind the infield will be new.
So the grass really is greener on the other side of a road trip.
(Man, that was a lot of work for a bad joke.)
Royals Mitch Maier relives being a pitcher for a day with Lee Judge
Kansas City Royals outfielder Mitch Maier was recently called on to be a relief pitcher, and the Star's Lee Judge finds out what Maier was thinking about when he took the mound. August 6, 2011 (Video by John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star)
Hochevar
Butler
Hosmer
Lee, I don't think Pina reached for the wild pitch that got by him. If a catcher reaches for an inside pitch in the dirt, he will try to backhand it. Pina slid to his right with his glove open to Hochevar, just not soon enough. It was definitely a ball that should have been blocked, but he didn't reach for it.
Mornin Lee. Perhaps it did not alter the outcome of the game, but another moment than could have been a key moment was Gordon not scoring from second on Melky's base hit to right in the first inning. I could not see if he was held by the 3b coach or not - but the replay seemed to show him trying to run while watching behind him, nearly causing him to miss the bag. He seemingly never even looked at the coach on the play, which could have cost a run had Hosmer not hit his check swing blooper to left. I realize there were no outs and it was early in the game, so perhaps the only thing he did wrong here was not paying any attention to the coach. As you mentioned, little things can make all the difference in these close games the Royals are losing lately.
Robert: When I say Manny Pina 'reached' for that wild pitch I mean he was still trying to glove it as opposed to getting down and blocking it.
(Maybe I should've put it that way the first time.)
Pina's glove was away from his body in an effort to catch the ball. When a catcher goes into full block mode, the mitt is jammed back between the legs, filling the 5-hole. That prevents the ball from going between the legs, which is what Ned Yost referred to after the game.
Catcher's get in trouble when they 'reach' for a ball, then realize that won't work and get into block mode too late, which is what happened to Manny.
Blocking takes a lot of effort and the catcher is going take a shot off the body, but just block every pitch that's in the dirt and reaching won't be a problem.
Don: You're right, Gordon's run did eventually score, but it wasn't the best base running and the Royals need to do all the small stuff right.
Gordon's job is go to third when the ball is hit to his left (assuming it clears the pitcher). Without talking to him I don't know what he was thinking, but he may have been worried about a throw behind him if the ball stayed on the infield.
But it's Eddie's job to help him with that. If Rodriguez holds one hand up and points to the bag he's telling Alex come in standing, but stay on the bag.
If Eddie's down the line giving no signal it's Gordo's job to come in hard and make a good turn and then follow Eddie's instructions after he hits the bag.
Alex got caught looking back and didn't come in hard, but with nobody out, he might not have been sent anyway.
Still, the way Gordon approached the play prevented the Royals from having that option.
Another heartbreaker last night but Hochaver looker good - again. Question about Yost's decision to leave Butler running the bases after his 7th inning single. I think there was maybe only 1 out. Why didn't he sub in Mitch at that point, try to steal second or possibly score on a double? Was he thinking Billy might bat again in the 9th?
I see what you're saying, Lee. Thanks for the response. Sometimes catchers get lazy and simply try to backhand pitches in the dirt without much of a shift, and that's inexcusable. There is a reason why Pina is in AA. How long has he been a catcher? As far as noticing key moments in a game, I think Denny Mathews does a great job of pinpointing key at-bats in games at the time the player steps into the box.
Robert: Thanks. I probably should've done a better job of describing what I meant the first time. (That's what I get for writing a story after a few beers.)
Sorry, I don't know how long Pina has been a catcher, but I haven't heard of him playing anything else. And I agree with you: I enjoy listening to Denny also.
Doug: Maybe I had more than a few beers, because I don't recall Butler singling in the 7th. Looks like the Royals went 1-2-3 and Cabrera led off the 8th. Cabrera popped out and then Billy walked and Getz ran for him.
I've asked Ned about pinch-running for Billy and he said he doesn't like to do it before the 8th for the reason you mentioned: Billy might get to the plate in the 9th.
And you're right, Hochevar looked good again.
Hey Lee-
More good work. Thanks for the in-game and clubhouse insight. Love it.
I did want to get back to our short conversation the other day. Hearing your perspective on sticking with a team for the long haul is like a breath of fresh air for a fan like me. I don't know if it's modern free-agency or just a soft-spot in my heart for the days of old when players AND writers stayed in one place for a career, but I couldn't help but feel that perhaps you share that sentiment when you said you'd like to stick around. You would probably know more, but it seems like in the ancient past, writers almost gained a level of respect the longer they covered a team. Players began to feel it was an honor to be interviewed by the guys who had become almost a living historian for the team. They knew they could trust the writer and thus, the writer was able to get the "good stuff" from the players while an "outsider" from another paper just got the classic one-liners. ("Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes it rains.") Anyway, thank you for being a bit of a throw-back. I love that and it actually makes me look forward to reading your blog more than I already did...which is kind of refreshing! My only fear is that you said you wanted to stick around until we won a division title. I hope you stick around for 10 titles!
Tom: Thanks a lot and I'd like to be here for those 10 titles. I think it would be a lot of fun to see the guys currently fighting their way out of last place drink champagne.
I don't know if a player ever considers it an honor to be interviewed, but I do know they trust the guys that are around more than strangers.
That's one of the things I learned doing this: the guy you want to listen to is the beat writer, in this case, Bob Dutton. The beat writer is around more than anybody and establishes a relationship with the players.
The instant experts, the national guys who show up once a year if that, the sports talk radio guys who come out to the stadium three times a year have no relationship and the players are less likely to open up to them.
I've got a big advantage because I don't have to cover the same stuff as everyone else and can get into the details of the game. And the fact that I have little interest in contract issues or personal controversy doesn't hurt either. The player enjoy talking about the game and I enjoy listening.
And if were to go to another market it would take a couple years to get to the point I'm currently at with the Royals. They need to see you out there at 3PM watching base running drills and asking questions before they take you seriously.
And I'm still working on that here in KC.
Awesome. Keep doing what you're doing and I look forward to keep doing what I'm doing, which is reading and enjoying your blog!
Deal.