Games » Minnesota Twins
Jul20Good game, bad ending
Lee Judge
The Kansas City Star
In games this tight, every little thing matters. A slight bobble of the ball, a carom misplayed off the wall, a ball hit right at someone instead of two steps to his right or left and the contest is decided.
First inning: Starter Luke Hochevar gets through it without giving up a run, but throws 27 pitches — almost two innings worth — that could come back to haunt him. Those pitches in the first inning could cost him an inning at the back of his outing.
In the bottom of the inning Alcides Escobar uses his speed to turn a single into a double, sliding in safely by reading the infielder’s movements. The runner sees where the infielder is and slides to the opposite side of the bag.
Second inning: Darin Mastroanni gets a fastball in a fastball count and hits it 389 feet. Unfortunately, the outfield wall he hit it over was only 387 feet away
In the bottom of the inning, Jeff Francoeur breaks his bat, but gets a hit. Ballplayers say the bat “died a hero.” Alex Gordon‘s done this a few times also. Gordon said he led the league (or all of baseball — don’t remember which, I wasn’t listening that closely) in broken bats. That brings up an important question: who the heck counts that stuff?
Third inning: Francoeur tries to throw Joe Mauer out at first base after Mauer smokes a line drive into right field. Francoeur grins at Mauer. When Jeff pulled that trick off last season, the base runner who was robbed of a hit and embarrassed by being thrown out from right, told Fancoeur that the play was “un-(bleeping)-necessary.” Frenchy smiled and said, “Totally.”
Fourth inning: Hochevar starts Ryan Doumit with a strike and then does not get a call on the next two borderline pitches. Instead of being 1-2 — had Hoch gotten either call — Doumit is 2-1. In a 1-2 count, the hitter shouldn’t get anything good to hit for another couple of pitches. In a 2-1 count the hitter will probably get something good right away. It’s not throwing a fastball that’s bad, it’s throwing a fastball when the hitter expects a fastball that gets pitchers in trouble.
Hochevar throws a fastball, Doumit expects it, and doubles down the line. The next batter, Mastroanni gets almost nothing but breaking pitches away. He homered in his last at-bat and Hochevar is making sure nothing like that happens again. Mastroanni strikes out.
Seventh inning: A line drive is hit back at Hochevar and he makes an emergency stab at the ball, just trying to keep it off his body. The ball sticks in his glove. The phrase you hear in baseball goes like this, “He didn’t catch that ball, that ball caught him.” An eight-pitch inning and Luke is almost back on track: an average pitch count would be 105, Luke finishes the seventh at 109. He also has limited the damage by issuing no walks.
In the bottom of the inning, Yuniesky Betancourt comes to the plate with Eric Hosmer on first base. On the eighth pitch of his at-bat, Betancourt hits a line drive into the left-field corner. The ball gets away from Josh Willingham — another outfielder struggling to play Kauffman’s rounded corners — and Hosmer scores from first. Getz comes into run for Yuni, the move means better speed on the base paths and better defense in the field.
Eighth inning: With the score 1-1, runner on second base and first base open, Kelvin Herrera issues an intentional walk to Joe Mauer. The third pitch of the intentional walk is issued at 92 miles an hour. Some pitchers like to throw the ball firmly on an intentional walk so they don’t lose their release point after lobbing four pitches. Even so, Herrera goes 3-0 on the next batter, Willingham, before getting him to ground out.
Ninth inning: The Royals have been playing a pull shift on left-handed Justin Morneau; infield swung around to the right and the second baseman back on the grass. So far, it’s worked: a fly ball to right and two ground balls to second. This time Greg Holland strikes out Morneau, which also works.
Tenth inning: A line drive down in the right field corner kicks away from Francoeur and Mastroanni triples. With the infield in, Holland gets a ground ball hit at Escobar and then strikes out the next two batters. Both strike outs come on sliders in the dirt. Perez makes two game-saving blocks. Perez allows Holland to throw his nastiest pitches when he needs to.
Eleventh inning: Joe Mauer doubles and Josh Willingham drives him in. After the game Ned Yost says that only 1 percent of Mauer’s hits are in the spot he doubled and only 2 percent of Willingham’s hits are in the spot he singled. The Royals played the odds and lost. Afterwards, Francoeur said his slight bobble of the ball didn’t change anything: the ball died and Mauer was going to score regardless.
In the bottom of the inning Alcides Escobar doubles, advances to third on a Billy Butler line drive to right field and finally comes home on a contact play. The contact play means just that: the runner breaks for home on contact. The Royals gambled that Mike Moustakas would put the ball in play at least two steps to someone’s right or left. Moose hit it right at the second baseman.
The Royals lost the gamble and the game.
Why avoiding a strikeout may be a bad thing
Let’s say a hitter see “paint” on the first pitch. Paint is the current baseball slang for pitches on the corner, a pitcher’s pitch. If a hitter is afraid of hitting with two strikes, he may expand his zone with one. Suddenly a hitter that is 0-1 becomes defensive and is willing to chase another marginal pitch. The hitter is taking a two-strike approach before he has to.
Kevin Seitzer said a hitter may not have many strikeouts just because he avoids two strike counts. But swinging at a marginal pitch often results in poorly hit baseball. So a hitter may be avoiding striking out on future pitch by making an out now — and that’s a poor bargain.
Hitters who are comfortable hitting with two strikes (usually guys adept at going the other way which allows them to see the pitch longer and possible foul off the nasty ones) have a huge advantage. Hitters uncomfortable hitting with two strikes may avoid it by making an out earlier in the count.
And that’s why avoiding a strikeout may be a bad thing.
Two-strike practice
Speaking of hitting with two-strikes, before Friday’s game against Minnesota, Doug Sisson said he would sometimes run instructional games in which all the hitters walked to the plate in an automatic 0-2 count.
It forced the hitters to battle: fight off the borderline pitches and wait for a mistake. So when hitters found themselves in a two-strike situation in game, they were used to it. It also meant they weren’t afraid to hit with two strikes and made them more selective earlier in the at-bat.
Hochevar
Escobar
Moustakas
Blair Bieser
11 months agoIn the bottom of the 8th, Escobar was on first with nobody out, and Butler grounded into a double play. When the two of them got back to the dugout, Escobar started arguing with Butler and Betancourt had to separate them. Any idea what Escobar was angry about?
Matthew Tiemeyer
11 months agoWhat I’m personally happy about is that we know we have a closer who has that rare gift that’s indispensable — the ability (seen only by the wizened eyes of aged, sun-baked baseball men) to handle pressure situations.
Terry Payne
11 months agoEsky gave me nards a shiver when he popped up awkwardly after doubling in the 1st. He goes away, we’re looking at yet another 90-95 loss season, guaranteed.
Explain to me again why a hot Getz was not in the lineup, pcts be damned, in favor of Betancourt?
Good luck to Sanchez (good riddance?) and welcome to Guthrie. At least the latter appears excited to be coming here. Also, Guthrie is bi-lingual, so he can say he made “quality pitches” in either language.
I’m hoping that the city’s love affair with Mous does not continue to add to Hos’ frustrations. I hope Hos can let the attention diverted to Mous be a cover to enable him to rediscover his swing.
Lee Judge
11 months agoBlair: No, I missed that argument, but I’ll ask around today.
Matthew: I’m guessing the baseball men you’re talking about see a closer who is still 22 of 26 in save situations and has a 2.34 ERA.
I know it’s frustrating, but as I’ve said before, we all got spoiled with Soria when he was so automatic in closing out games. Not a lot of people available who can do it like that.
Terry: If I’m reading the stat sheet right, looks like Betancourt has hit Blackburn much better than Getz.
Terry Payne
11 months agoLee, I get the stats sheet thing, but does continuity count for nothing?
Getz hits lefty, Blackburn’s a righty, Getz is a much smarter player, plus he has been hot. Sometimes, methinks, the stats get overprioritized. (If thatt’s a real word, you owe me a nickel.)
Brendan Woodbury
11 months agoThis team is so frustrating!
Left-handed hitters become MVPs against Nick Blackburn. In 147 plate appearances this year, they’re hitting .378AVG / .449OBP / .583SLG. That would lead the AL in AVG and OBP and be 6th in SLG. And that’s just this year; his career numbers against lefties are even worse.
Those are the kind of statistics that the Royals (specifically Ned Yost) should be taking note of. Getz should start over Betancourt. Dyson should start over Francoeur. If not, there ought to be a good reason.
Among things that do not count as good reasons: small differences in performance over small samples. Coming into last night, Yuni was 6 for 22 (.272) against Blackburn versus Getz at 3 for 16 (.188). Neither one of these guys has posted more than a week’s worth of plate appearances against Blackburn, and neither of them has posted very good numbers, but Blackburn walks more lefites than he strikes out (against righties, he strikes out five times as many as he walks), so there are other ways for Getz to get on base.
Differences over 147 plate appearances should count for far more than small differences over 20 plate appearances.
Jim Fetterolf
11 months agoI would note that Yuni got the lone RBI last night against a pitcher who had borrowed Jon Sanchez’ ERA.
As for why Yuni is being played, beyond the fact that he can occasionally plate a run, I would suggest that he is being shopped, as is Frenchy and probably all the rest of the team besides Perez, Moose, and Esky at the moment.
On Guthrie, I’m thinking that some folks thought the Royals should trade for him last year in the annual demand to trade too much for a front line starter. His history looks good and he was injured in April, so we could have another Paulino or Hochevar. Looks a good gamble to me.
Terry Payne
11 months agoShopping time, indeed, which is why Frenchy, LoCain, and even Betancourt are getting max playing time.
I’d hate to lose the Frenchman, but being a realist we have to throw some trade bait to the wolves and, assuming we still love Wil Meyers, one prime outfielder has to go. Do we, indeed, still love Wil M? Inquiring minds want to know.
Brendan Woodbury
11 months agoI don’t want to see Wil Myers up until next year, but if we can get some other team to pay Francoeur’s contract, I’d be more than happy to have an outfield of Gordon, Cain and Dyson or to give David Lough a shot.
Francoeur seems like a really cool guy, but he’s been a terrible baseball player this year, and we owe him another $7M next year with no obvious place for him to play.
If Dayton can trade Yuni or Francoeur for anything more than a bag of balls, I’ll be thrilled, and I suppose it would be worth lowering our chances of winning a few games in order to do so. He worked a miracle with Sanchez, so here’s hoping he’s got a few more tricks up his sleeve.
Jim Fetterolf
11 months agoFrenchy probably realizes as well as anyone that he’s not producing, so knows the risks and is busting his butt trying to fix things.
Myers’ average is slipping at Omaha, .301 I think, and he’s dealing with some challenges as the AAA pitchers get the book on him. He’ll be real good some day, but he needs to dominate AAA breaking stuff before he comes up against the major league variety, otherwise we get the second coming of Kila or Gio.
Luke Healy
11 months agoGames like last night are frustrating but it seems positive to remember that the Royals brass are concerned with more than just winning games right now. There is no need to bring up Myers or any other prospect at this point unless they are more than ready and could use some time to adjust to the Major League level before next year.
I was somewhat amazed we were able to move Sanchez and get someone to eat up some innings for the rest of the year (even if we have to pay a bit more for him). I’ll be equally amazed if the Royals are able to trade anyone else (in that the ones we want to trade aren’t playing well enough (save maybe Broxton, maybe) and the ones that are we don’t want to trade). Makes me wonder if the Royals are shopping any of their quality middle relievers—not sure if any of them are nearing the end of their contracts.
I’m interested in the Esky Butler argument too. My guess is that Escobar wanted Butler to take more pitches so that he could try to steal 2nd and avoid the double play?
Thayne Griffin
11 months agoLuke,
That’s my assumption..especially in a tie game at home.
Brendan,
Miracle with sanchez for sure.
John Wilson
11 months agoI’m going to add my voice to the chorus regarding the Sanchez trade. My first reaction was Holy crap on a cracker! We actually got somebody? Then to see his pitching stats away from Coors Field and I’m actually a bit hopeful we got the good end of that deal. Top that off with his tweet to Dayton Moore that he would have voted for Butler in the home run derby and I think we got somebody who even has personality.
Jim Fetterolf
11 months agoFor those interested in Jeremy Guthrie, here’s his B-R stat sheet:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/guthrje01.shtml
He’s had some good years recently, makes starts, throws six+ innings, has K/BB numbers that some won’t like, but could be productive for the Royals this year. He should be an upgrade over Jon Sanchez and has some upside over his Colorado performance.
Jim Wilson
11 months ago“He should be an upgrade over Jon Sanchez . . .”
Faint praise to say the least. Lol!
Jim Fetterolf
11 months agoGiven Guthrie’s year so far, it may be optimistic. I at least see why Moore took a shot on him; he’s like Mijares, Sanchez, Broxton, even Paulino, but without the pure stuff, a guy who may be underachieving due to injury and environment. Colorado’s GM probably thought the same thing about Sanchez. Hope springs eternal. At least Guthrie’s AL experience suggests the possibility of a similar pitcher in results to what we’re getting from Mendoza and Hochevar at the moment and what we got used to from Chen before his recent troubles. It’s worth a try.
Terry Payne
11 months agoLet’s just all be positive, for now, re: Sanchez trade. Could’ve been much worse, mainly nothing. So some cash was spent. Worthless guy gone. Good feelings, come on!!
Jim Fetterolf
11 months agoWe’re all happy, Terry. I’m even happy for Jon Sanchez, he gets another chance back in the NL, has an opportunity to resurrect his career, as does Jeremy Guthrie. Just trying to figure out what we get and what we might be able to expect.
Terry Payne
11 months agoJim, I was expecting nothing more than a bag of balls for Jonathan Sanchez.
I sez we celebrate big time that we get a once SP in return, scarred so he be.
Don Aubry
11 months agoThere are legitimate reasons to criticize Dayton Moore, but when he got something more than a hot dog vendor for Sanchez, he earned some bonus points. Not enough to make up for the circumstances that forced him to make the trade, but nevertheless credit where credit is due. That being said, I liked the trade for Sanchez when it happened, but results did not come close to expectations.