Games: Baltimore Orioles, May 16: Judging the Royals with Lee Judge

Games » Baltimore Orioles

May16

The sun didn't shine...

Top of the ninth, Royals up 3-1, Jonathan Broxton in to close. Broxton gets the first out on a grounder to short, then gives up a home run to ex-Royal, Wilson Betemit. When Betemit hits the ball, Jeff Francoeur takes off, then breaks into a jog.

When an outfielder starts to jog it means one of two things: he’s already close to where the ball is coming down or there’s no point in continuing to run. Unfortunately, Francoeur is slowing down because there’s no point in continuing to run — Betemit’s ball is gone. The Royals still have a one-run lead.

Next, Broxton shatters the bat of Chris Davis — the ball has enough juice to make it over Alcides Escobar — but not enough to carry to Alex Gordon.

Pinch runner, Ryan Flaherty replaces Davis. Next batter, Robert Andino, flies out. Now there’s two down. On a 1-0 pitch to Xavier Avery, home plate umpire, Angel Hernandez, does not give Broxton a pitch on the corner. Instead of being 1-1—which would allow another marginal pitch or something off-speed—Broxton is behind 2-0. Jonathan throws his third fastball in a row and Avery singles to right. Flaherty advances to second.

J.J. Hardy follows with a single to center field and now it’s time for the play of the game: When Flaherty rounds third he gets waved home by third base coach, DeMarlo Hale. Flaherty is supposed to pick up the on-deck hitter, Nick Markakis. The on-deck hitter acts as the final base coach, signaling the runner to come in standing or slide. The signal is slide and the throw is coming from Jarrod Dyson in center field, Flaherty needs to aim for the back of the plate.

Royals catcher Humberto Quintero prepares to receive the throw. He places his left foot on the foul line, toes pointed toward third base. If he points his toes toward the mound, Humberto exposes his ankle to the runner—keep his toes toward third and the shin guard protects his leg.

The left foot is the anchor that allows the catcher to keep track of his position. If the catcher keeps it on the line, he knows where he is in relation to the plate and he knows where the runner will be: somewhere to his left. The runner will aim for the back half of the plate, the catcher will receive the ball out in front of the plate, turn and try to make the tag in time.

(There is another method: if the catcher wants to invite a collision, he straddles the line. This leaves the runner nowhere to go, he’s forced to go through the catcher to get to home plate. Jason Kendall once said that early in the game he put his foot on the line — if the game was close and late, he straddled.)

Jarrod Dyson’s throw doesn’t give Quintero a choice, it’s slightly to Humberto’s right and it’s a stretch to keep his foot on the line at all, no chance to straddle. But Quintero does keep his foot in position, forcing Flaherty around it. Humberto catches the ball, turns and makes the tag, but Flaherty’s foot appears to cross home plate first.

But appears is the right word. Replays show that Flaherty foot was above home plate—not on it—when the tag was made. Angel Hernandez calls Flaherty safe, the game is tied and the Royals go on to lose 4-3 in 15 innings. Which reminds me of one my favorite baseball saying of all time, “The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass every day.”

The sun wasn’t shining last night, maybe it’ll shine today.

Game notes

Right-handed Darren O’Day pitched the 9th for the Orioles, I was kind of surprised Brayan Pena didn’t pinch-hit for Humberto Quintero. I asked Ned about it and he just liked the way Humberto was swinging the bat and thought he could handle O’Day.
On the other hand, he send Mitch Maier out to pinch run for Billy Butler in the 8th and looked like a genius when Mitch scored from first on Alex Gordon’s double.
Chris Getz got banged up when he collided with Chris Davis at first and came out of the game. Getz also got spiked by Xavier Avery on what might’ve been a triple play without Avery’s speed. Runners at first and second, ball to Mike Moustakas, Moose tags third and feeds Getz. Chris said he was surprised Avery was already on him and couldn’t get the throw off.

Catching up

(Whenever the team is on the road I save up questions to ask when they get home. Here are a few of the answers.)

The shift: Last weekend, the Royals put a shift on Adam Dunn and Dunn hit a single the other way. I asked Ned Yost if he thought the shift worked. If the shift causes a power hitter to settle for an opposite field single, did the Royals get what they wanted?

As always, it depends on context. If a single hurts you, the hitter beat the shift. If you’re in a spot where a single does no damage, the shift worked.

Tack-on runs: I asked Doug Sisson about tack-on runs: do the Royals run the bases more aggressively if they already have a lead? Doug said the run the bases aggressively all the time, unless they’re down by two. To be aggressive the run needs to represent the tying, winning or lead-increasing run.

(A word of warning: teams will sometimes play for one when down by more than one if it’s still early. If they believe their pitching can make an adjustment and stop the other team from scoring, they might play for one now and plan on getting the other runs they need later in the game.)

Hard-hit outs: Kevin Seitzer lets me see the “inside” hitting stats he keeps and they’re often extremely helpful in interpreting what I’ve seen. Kevin keeps a category called “hard hit outs” (he says they have to be “absolute rockets” to qualify) and I wondered where Eric Hosmer stood in that category. With the exception of three players, nobody has more than three hard hit outs so far this season. So who are the three? In third place: Alex Gordon with 7. Second place: Chris Getz with 9. First place (just as I suspected): Eric Hosmer with 13.

By the way: hitters empathize with each other even when they wear different uniforms. When Boston was here, David Ortiz suggested Hosmer move in the box to change the hitting lanes. I said the same thing a week ago, but it might mean more coming from Big Papi than a political cartoonist.

Pena’s stance: If you see Brayan Pena extend one leg while catching, it’s because he’s trying to set the target as low as he can. If a pitcher is high in the zone, Brayan might drop lower to help the pitcher get the ball down. He’ll do it on fastballs or breaking pitches, otherwise the opposition would figure out the pattern. But he can’t do it with a runner on base (unless he’s convinced the runner isn’t going anywhere). It’s also difficult to block pitches from that leg-extended position.

So next time you see Brayan extend a leg, pay attention to the pitch location—it should be down.

Comments

Aaron Bailey
1 year ago

Lee, I was surprised and impressed by Dyson’s throws (both to home and then to 2nd later on); even though he didn’t get the out either time, they were much better throws than he has shown in the past. Did Doug Sisson work with him on something or is this more of an effect of playing every day and feeling more comfortable with the speed of the game?
Joel Kallem
1 year ago

Nice to see Alex start swinging the bat again, but his defense last night was not up to his high standards. It appeared to me that he took a “banana” route to the double that went over his head and the throw to third rather than to second was the wrong place and allowed the runner to move up and take the double play out of the picture.

Paulino was terrific, and if he can continue to be something even close to this level of effectiveness, it could be a big boost to the Royals’ starting pitching.
Thayne Griffin
1 year ago

Adcock has been spectacular out of the bullpen as the long man this year. I wish he could have/would have gotten a shot at the rotation with all of the injuries. I can’t think of a better GMDM move in my head. Great Rule 5 pick before last season.

Also, since I like to track the pitch counts…I believe it was in the 5th inning and we had 6 batters. 3 swung at the first pitch and 3 did not. The 3 who did not swing at the first pitch got hits, the other 3 did not reach base. Just something I found interesting…

And hats off to Paulino - 2 unbelievable starts out of 3, I really wish we could have gotten him a W last night.
Gary Chesney
1 year ago

A couple of things. What has changed with Collins curve ball. It drops more. Is that a grip, arm angle or something else. And I noticed Adcock gets more movement when he throws around 90 vs 95.
Mark Harkins
1 year ago

I had to watch the game on MASN… the O’s announcers also commented on Gordon’s throw to 3rd instead of holding the runner at 1st. When they showed the replay, by the time the cutoff man (I think it was Escobar) got the ball, the runner was already standing on 2nd… I’m not so sure he wouldn’t have taken 2nd no matter what Gordo did with the throw.
Thayne Griffin
1 year ago

Another thought I had last night during the game: it looks like Dyson has improved some defensively in CF since he came up and if he keeps hitting like this, there is no way Cain can replace him is there?

Catching thoughts: I know Pena has been a Royal for sometime, but if Perez and Pina come back healthy someone will have to get traded/moved. Who do you think it would be Lee? I like Quintero’s defense more than Pena’s sometime offense, but I don’t know what other teams think of Pina. Could we get a decent SP prospect out of him?
Jim Fetterolf
1 year ago

Thayne, the assumption is that Pina goes back to Omaha as injury insurance and the choice for Perez’ back up will be between the switch-hitting Brayan Pena and Humberto Quinteros. I would probably keep Pena, nice to have a lefty to give Perez his days off, and I think Pena’s defense has steadily improved to the point we’re not hurt with him behind the plate. But I wouldn’t be upset with Q, beyond that he is an FA after this season and I would prefer continuity at catcher.
Thayne Griffin
1 year ago

Ah. I didn’t realize Quintero was a FA after this season. Thanks for the insight!
Lee Judge
1 year ago

Game’s about to start, couple of quick notes:

Dyson got burned when the Yankees were here: Jeter tagged and Jarrod wasn’t ready. Last night it seemed like he did a better job of geting behind the catch, coming forward as he caught the ball and making his throw.

Dyson is making the most of his chances: Sisson thinks the extended playing time has really helped Jarrod and given him a chance to show what he can do.

I know the Royals prize defense behind the plate, so when Perez comes back, that could be the deciding factor…but that’s speculation. Ned did mention Humberto’s throw to third last night—thought it was as good as it gets.

Adcock has added a little inward turn back toward second, says it helps his sinker stay down and keep him closed on the front side.

Eiland changed Collins set up on the mound (remember when he had his back to the hitter?) that’s paying off with the ability to keep his pitches down in the zone.

Back to school day at the K. Enjoy the game.
Scott Boden
1 year ago

Mark, I was thinking along what you saw. At first, when Gordon threw to 3rd, I was upset. I then gave him the benefit of the doubt due to his excellent play in left and thought to myself he must have thought he couldn’t stop the runner at second. He took the safe route to third with the throw.
Jim Kissane
1 year ago

Jim F, definitely some give and take between Pena and Quintero. Q has better power, and Pena makes better contact - both have contributed offensively, although not as much as I’d like to see. Defensively, Q has the better arm, but Pena does a (much, I think) better job at blocking pitches. I’d lean toward Pena because he’s a switch-hitter and, as you pointed out, Q is FA at the end of the season. Salvy Perez is the whole package, though, and I can’t wait for him to join the lineup. I hope his knees hold up!
George Smith
1 year ago

If there is ANY doubt in the Royals mind about Perez (when he comes back) and Humberto…then, Wow. I don’t even know what to say. The Royals are at least consistent in their curious decisionmaking skills.
Joel Kallem
1 year ago

George, again you twist things that aren’t said.

“If there is ANY doubt in the Royals mind about Perez (when he comes back) and Humberto…then, Wow. I don’t even know what to say. The Royals are at least consistent in their curious decisionmaking skills.”

I don’t see anything in a single post above or have heard anyone connected with the Royals say anything to indicate that Perez is not the clear number 1 to catch. The other three are up for discussion, and a case could be made for any of them.

If you dislike the Royals so much that you have to make up things so you can make a negative comment, take it elsewhere.

Judging the Royals