Games » Baltimore Orioles
May25Defense and the fifth inning
Lee Judge
The Kansas City Star
One of the Royals’ strengths this season has been defense, but it wasn’t so sharp in this game. Let’s start with the walk that led off the fifth inning. First, lead-off walks score the majority of the time; second, walking the No. 9 hitter is usually a mistake; and third, Xavier Avery can fly. Bruce Chen is known as a “reader” (a left-handed pitcher who can lift his front foot, “read” what the base runner is doing and then decide whether to throw the ball home or to first base) and that keeps most base runners from taking off for second base.
Avery decided to steal anyway, Chen threw to first and by the time Eric Hosmer’s throw got down to second base, Avery was already there. With the score 1-0, the next batter, Robert Andino laid down a bunt to third base side of the mound. Third baseman, Mike Moustakas was in front of the bag, facing the mound. In this bunt defense Mike’s job was to read the bunt, charge the ball if Chen couldn’t field it or retreat to the bag if Bruce could get to the ball and make the throw to third to get the lead runner.
Either Mike misread the bunt or there was bad communication, because Moose started back to the bag, then realized Bruce would not field the ball. The step back was fatal, Moustakas did not get to the ball in time, both runners were safe.
Next Bruce picked off Andino. This time Hosmer’s throw beat the runner, but Alcides Escobar missed the tag. Give some credit to Andino — he pulled a “swim move.” The base runner reaches out with one hand and when the fielder tries to make the tag, the runner pulls the hand back. The runner can then try to tag the bag with the other hand or reach over the tag — which is what Andino did — and get in safely. (The motion of the hands can look like swimming, hence the name.)
Esky probably missed the tag because he was worried about Avery on third base. Alcides looked up at third and not only missed the tag, but also missed the fact that Andino over slid the bag. J.J. Hardy doubled and the Orioles had all the runs they’d need, but they added five more for good measure.
More defensive problems
In the first inning with the bases loaded and nobody out, Adam Jones hit a fly ball to Alex Gordon. Robert Andino was on third base, tagged up and tried to score. Alex threw home, but the ball was cut off by Mike Moustakas. Moose had moved into cutoff position, his job was to make sure no other runners moved up — either by cutting the ball of or faking the cut. The call on this play is made by the catcher. If he thinks there’s chance to get the runner, he yells for the cutoff man to let the ball go through. If the catcher doesn’t think there’s a chance, he yells for the cutoff man to catch the ball.
Moustakas cut the ball, but Brayan Pena’s body language made it appear he wanted the ball to come to home plate. I could be reading this wrong, but it seemed like another case where communication wasn’t as clear as it should’ve been.
And before we leave the subject of defensive problems, let’s go back to the fifth inning: Adam Jones also attempted to steal second and Alcides Escobar came out in front of the bag to receive the throw. Brayan’s throws to second base tend to tail to the first base side, so whoever is taking the throw has to be in a position to move laterally. Moving to the left, catching the ball, then reaching in and making the tag requires a lot of concentration (one of the reasons Brayan likes Chris Getz as a second baseman is Getzie’s ability to make this play), but this time Alcides missed the ball as he was trying to combine the catch and the swipe tag, the ball hit Esky’s wrist and went into centerfield for an E6.
Not a great night for the Royals defense.
Game notes
2nd inning: Jeff Francoeur broke for home and was tagged out on a play at the plate. The contact play was on (the runner breaks on “contact”), so it might’ve looked bad, but Frenchy was doing the right thing.
3rd inning: On a 3-1 count, Alcides Escobar assumed the call was ball four, took off his elbow pad and headed for first. Bad move. Umpires don’t like that — or a pitcher who starts off the mound thinking the call is strike three. The opposition knows that and will then take advantage. The pitcher knew that Escobar was probably going to get rung up on anything close after that.
3rd inning: Jarrod Dyson attempted to bunt for a hit, but probably put the ball on the wrong side of the mound. Jason Hammel is right handed and falls off to the first-base side of the mound. Bunting the ball to the third-base side of the mound might’ve been a better bet.
Three walks scored. You can’t help the opposition by handing out free base runners.
The Royals stole a couple bases off Hammel while the score was still 1-0. Hammel was 1.5 or over to the plate by my stopwatch, so if the Royals are going to run, this is the kind of guy they should run on.
4th inning: Alex Gordon struck out looking with a runner on third and less than two outs. We’ve had this debate before, but a lot of baseball people think striking out looking is a mistake, especially with runners in scoring position — sounds like Ned Yost is on that list.
The best at-bat of the year so far
If you need a silver lining to go with that cloud, Jeff Francoeur is heating up. Last week, Jeff said he thought he’d still hit .280 despite a bad start. When he started last Sunday’s game he was hitting .235. Less than a week later, Jeff’s hitting .271.
In the 8th inning of this game, he homered. But what happened before Frenchy hit the ball out of the park is what made it remarkable: he homered on the 12th pitch of the at-bat.
Here’s the at-bat, pitch by pitch:
1st pitch, 83-MPH Curveball, Ball
2nd pitch, 95-MPH Fastball (Four-seam), Foul
3rd pitch, 96-MPH Fastball (Four-seam), Ball
4th pitch, 83-MPH Curveball, Foul
5th pitch, 95-MPH Fastball (Two-seam), Foul
6th pitch, 95-MPH Fastball (Four-seam), Foul
7th pitch, 84-MPH Curveball, Foul
8th pitch, 84-MPH Curveball, Foul
9th pitch, 95-MPH Fastball (Four-seam), Foul
10th pitch, 95-MPH Fastball (Four-seam), Ball
11th pitch, 94-MPH Fastball (Two-seam), Foul
12th pitch, 96-MPH Fastball (Four-seam), Home run
A couple of amazing things in this at-bat: look at how many pitches at different speeds and trajectories Frenchy was able to foul off and then take a look at the 10th pitch. After fouling off six straight pitches, Jeff was able to recognize a pitch just out of the zone and take it for ball three.
That’s really hard to do once you get into swing mode. I don’t know how long it will last, but this streak tells you Francoeur is seeing the ball very well right now.
Francoeur
Herrera
Dyson
Eileen Schmeichel
12 months agoHey Cutie Pie. Lead-off walks score approx 40% of the time. Same as lead-off singles. Unless you want to inject some type of psychological mumbo-jumbo into the situation, I fail to see how one is more damning that the other. Regardless of your proximity to the dirt. And we know you worship at the cult of dirtiness Lee. 40% is still less than a majority.
Larry Tindle
12 months agoMoose running into the security guard in the first inning probably didn’t have any bearing on the outcome of that play but it sure gave you an indication on how the night was going to go. Luckily he was not injured.
Larry Tindle
12 months agoEileen the only damning thing about a walk is you didn’t give your other 8 team mates a chance to make an out on the batter. Thus the term free pass. I know I would have thought the percent was higher because I guess I notice them more than a single.
Devan Shopinski
12 months agoLee
Aside from the obvious about Hosmer and Gordon simply not hitting (or even putting the ball in play) when it counts, just an observation.
I’ve said (and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you saying it on here), the Royals margin of error is pretty slim. When they play defense like they did last night and give the other team more outs in an inning, they don’t have the firepower to come back from big deficits. What’s a bit alarming is how frequently the sloppy games like last night are happening.
Jim Fetterolf
12 months agoWalks are a matter of context, often. Walking a speedy 9 hitter with no outs is worse than walking Billy with two outs and Matt Treanor coming up.
“I’ve said (and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you saying it on here), the Royals margin of error is pretty slim.”
Agree. They can’t afford three or four mistakes in a game, against Jason Hammel one might have been too much.
Lee Judge
12 months agoEileen: My bad. I’ve heard a variety of numbers about leadoff walks scoring, some over 50%. In fact, I’ve heard so many different numbers, I shouldn’t have trusted any of them. This morning I looked it up and have already seem 38%, 40% and 50%. But it sounds like you’re closer to being correct than I was.
I wrote the line and meant to look it up before sending in the copy late last night, but weird stuff happens when you’re working tired and I forget to double-check the stat.
My mistake.
But I’m with Larry: lead-off walks are worse than leadoff hits because the pitcher did not give his team a chance to get an out. Throw strikes and you’ll get hitters out the majority of the time.
And I’m almost positive that stat’s right.
Lee Judge
12 months agoLarry: I’ve spent a lot of time in the third-base coach’s box and had to learn the art of avoiding the third baseman.
Rex Hudler was right—you don’t look up at the ball, you look at the fielder and go wherever he isn’t.
Although in this case, the security guard didn’t seem to be looking at anything—just running with poor court awareness.
Lee Judge
12 months agoDevan: You’re right. Doug Sisson has said when the Royals get down by a lot early, it takes them out of their game.
Most of the time the Royals play good defense. When they get pitching to go along with that, they can keep the score low and find enough offense to scramble for the runs they need.
When they don’t get that pitching, it’s usually not pretty. Injuries haven’t helped, but it’s hard to be consistently competitive without good starting pitching.
Lee Judge
12 months agoJim: You’re right about context, it means everything. Paul Splittorff told me he’d pitch around Billy Butler and maybe the guy behind Billy any time it suited him.
Split thought he could afford to have Billy on second most of the time and still feel he wasn’t in scoring position.
BTW: Billy is once again having a good year with the bat. We’ve come to expect it and probably ought to give him more credit.
It’s really hard to be that consistent.
Thayne Griffin
12 months agoI think the 5th inning was the worst inning defensively I’ve seen us play all year.
I also thought the Esky had taken a sure walk no question. The umpire then proceeded to screw us on that call two more times during the game (I believe one was against Pena perhaps?). Looked like Esky trying to take a walk did affect us.
Larry Tindle
12 months agoCould one of the reasons, we do not walk as much, be young hitters who are not comfortable hitting with 2 strikes. Thus swinging at marginal pitches early in the count.
Thayne Griffin
12 months agoAlso, how good was our hitting with RISP? I’d say it was pretty good last night……………………………………………………………..
Lee Judge
12 months agoThayne: Veterans sometimes counsel young hitters and pitchers to not assume what call the umpire made—wait until they’re sure.
But umpires who are slow on the call or not demonstrative enough confuse the heck out of everybody.
Lee Judge
12 months agoLarry: There are hitters who act like one strike is two—they start hacking. That usually happens with hitters who are uncomfortable hitting with two strikes and don’t want to get into that position.
Then there are hitters who remain picky with two strikes. That’s how we get strike outs looking.
Jim Fetterolf
12 months agoOne thing I’ve noticed over the years is that young guys don’t get calls from the ump whereas established guys do. The old line, dating myself, is that if Ted Williams didn’t swing with two strikes it wasn’t a strike.
After a game like last night, it is somehow comforting to take a look at the minors and see what the kids are doing:
http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120526&contentid=32248402&vkey=newskc&c_id=kc
A couple of names we might recognize at Omaha, Wil Myers and Vin Mazzaro. I think Tony Seratelli might be an Irving Falu-type UIF in the future. Down at Kane County, Jorge Bonifacio is young and looks to be a comer.
Steven A Hurst
12 months ago1 a .255 hitter gets on base around a quarter of the time… walk him & he gets on base 100% of the time.
2 I wish whoever was the on-deck hitter would have done his job & motioned Frenchy to slide AWAY from the catcher.
Jim Fetterolf
12 months ago“a .255 hitter gets on base around a quarter of the time… walk him & he gets on base 100% of the time.”
True, but the walk seldom yields an RBI nor moves other runners up two or more bases, which is why pitchers work around certain hitters.
First half of last year Billy was “Walkin’ Matilda” as pitchers threw him a steady diet of sliders low and away. If he chased, fine, if not Billy walked down to 1st and stood there most of the time because of who followed him. Second half of the year Billy moved up to 3 and pitchers decided not to put him on ahead of the hot Hosmer, solid Frenchy, and resurgent Moose, so Billy walked little while getting pitches to hit. His Rs, RBIs, and Hr’s spiked, helped by new approach and swing.
Good point on on-deck man as home-plate coach.
Lee Judge
12 months agoOn-deck man was Falu, I never saw if TV showed him doing his job.
Devan Shopinski
12 months agoThayne
The hitting with RISP last night was horrible. They were 0-5. They had chances in the 2nd, 4th, and 5th and came up empty.
Jim Fetterolf
12 months agoDevan, that has been a trend this year and part of the reason we’ve lost so many close games.
Devan Shopinski
12 months agoJim
Agreed. They got lucky with the win in NY with the HR’s because they were 1-9 with RISP that night. Most games that won’t get it done. I think one of the TV guys said last night that they hit something like .138 with RISP the last homestand. That’s why they were 1-4.
Steven A Hurst
12 months ago@Jim Fetterolf
True, but the walk seldom yields an RBI nor moves other runners up two or more bases, which is why pitchers work around certain hitters.
First half of last year Billy was “Walkin’ Matilda” as pitchers threw him a steady diet of sliders low and away. If he chased, fine, if not Billy walked down to 1st and stood there most of the time because of who followed him << I understand about what you’re saying about Billy. But Billy isn’t a .255 speedy #9 hitter.
I’m just sayin that walking a speedy #9 hitter to leeadoff an inning of a 1 run game (at the time) can lead bad things, fast.