Wed. 8/30 - Carolina Hosts, Other Road Series Continue

[Joseph Zarr]

Wilken has a 108 mph single tonight. He just roped a 106 mph line out that was caught at the LF'ers shoelaces. He is ripping the ball. Meanwhile, Boeve by my eyes appears to be in a mini-funk. I don't see a lot of hard contact and I don't think he's seeing the ball all that well in his recent games. Lots of rolled over grounders to the 1B side. He gets the RBI here in the 9th but that was a weak hit ball and a misfire to home plate - I credit it much more to the disruption of Luis Lara than the bat-to-ball by Boeve. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Garcia just ripped a deep gapper triple to the wall in deep left CF. Beautiful. It scores two more. 7-1 in the 9th frame. Gorgeous! Garcia punishes Beloit for walking Mendez intentionally to get to his bat.

[Joseph Zarr]

Quad Cities trails Peoria 3-2 as they head to the River Bandits bottom of the 9th frame. The T-Rats 'W' (likely not complete) would be huge if it just holds a 4 G deficit behind the Chiefs. 

[Joseph Zarr]

 Boeve gets eaten up by a warm-burner dribbler as he waits for the ball and it bounces over his poor stance (not in front of the ball but waiting and standing to its side). It allows a run to cross. 7-2 T-Rats. Men on the corners. Bottom 9. Two down. Poor play by Boeve who has had a rough stretch of late. Rule number one as a fielder - especially with slow roller - get your full body behind the ball. Poor form here. 

Anyhow, Gardener gets the K to escape the unnecessary mini-drama.

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

 Boeve gets eaten up by a warm-burner dribbler as he waits for the ball and it bounces over his poor stance (not in front of the ball but waiting and standing to its side). It allows a run to cross. 7-2 T-Rats. Men on the corners. Bottom 9. Two down. Poor play by Boeve who has had a rough stretch of late. Rule number one as a fielder - especially with slow roller - get your full body behind the ball. Poor form here. 

Anyhow, Gardener gets the K to escape the unnecessary mini-drama.

My gut tells me he winds up in a corner a la Wilkin. But above & beyond that, yikes. Not pretty.

[ctmyers]

14 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

What I wouldn't give to get an umpire called balls and strikes proper read-out in Tennessee. This home plate ump is an absolute inconsistent butcher. Nobody knows what the zone actually is - most definitely including the ump. If it's not dead center you are playing 50/50 ball. Unreal stuff.

Watching this game...sheesh.  That ump was all over the place.  I mean, if it wasn't dead middle it was a toss up whether he'd decide to put up a strike or not.  14 walks between the two squads, I'm sure both managers lost some hair over this one.  

[Joseph Zarr]

2 minutes ago, ctmyers said:

Watching this game...sheesh.  That ump was all over the place.  I mean, if it wasn't dead middle it was a toss up whether he'd decide to put up a strike or not.  14 walks between the two squads, I'm sure both managers lost some hair over this one.  

It was uncannily bad. Even dead middle wasn't guaranteed. A Smokies reliever was robbed of a K of Ethan Murray somewhere in the 7th or 8th. A Shucker was stealing 2B at the time. Count was full. The ball was a dead middle at the knees strike 3 heater. The Ump just let it go. I was stunned. The Smokies pitcher stood in disbelief looking at any dugout he could find in the universe. The catcher had to go calm him at the mound. Announcers were dumbstruck. This was arguably the worst ump job I've seen in 2023. That's saying a lot.