Brewers (Harrison) vs Cardinals (McGreevy): 7/8/26, 6:45pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

I didn't watch yesterday's nightcap, which is too bad. Chourio almost hitting one out from the left side while the Brewers are blowing out the Cardinals is basically peak baseball.

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Trevor Megill	12	0	16	15	0	43
Jared Koenig	0	26	0	0	0	26
Grant Anderson	20	0	16	0	0	36
Garrett Stallings	0	0	0	0	0	0
Drew Rom	0	0	7	0	0	7
Craig Yoho	0	27	0	0	10	37
Chad Patrick	34	0	0	20	0	54
Abner Uribe	17	0	23	0	19	59
Aaron Ashby	17	0	16	0	18	51

 

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

Hopefully we can get “elite” Harrison back tonight 

[TURBO]

Chourio did NOT almost hit a homer from the left side...  It was a fly ball.

[RobertCrawley]

We seem to excel at spurts of offensive production in one inning late in the game . I vote we move it up a little tonight. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

Yeah, I think it was the play-by-play guy who said Chourio 'almost hit it out'. Considering he never hits from that side it was hit really well, but not close to being out.

It's very impressive how good of shape the BP is in now that they're over 2/3 of the way through this 18-game stretch. Maybe Anderson first out of the chute tonite? Another offensive explosion would be nice, followed by Rom and/or Stallings.

There was a real contrast I noticed last night, made obvious by it being in back-to-back ABs. In the 5th inning w/the bases loaded, Yelich works a 1-1 count then swings at one over the plate but at his feet. So he's behind 1-2 & eventually Ks. Lara then gets to the same 1-1 count, sees what appeared to be the exact same pitch in the exact same location & laid off. The difference between 1-2 & 2-1 there can be huge. Of course Lara gets it to 3-1 & bangs one into the hole & through for 2 RBI. Even when he's been more productive, Yelich has gone through chasing episodes and now that he also swings through hittable pitches these days, it's just a killer. Seeing Lara lay off the same pitch, with the bags juiced & in his first big league game was very, very impressive.

 

[TrackCoach]

That bullpen chart after a double header is a thing of beauty!

[long ball]

Coming into this final week before the break I was hoping for 4-4. 
 

well now that we’ve started 3-0, im feeling greedy. I hope we get a bounce back performance from Harrison tonight and he goes 6-7 strong. Would be nice to get another day of rest for most of the leverage bullpen arms. 

[GreatNWwi]

41 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

 

There was a real contrast I noticed last night, made obvious by it being in back-to-back ABs. In the 5th inning w/the bases loaded, Yelich works a 1-1 count then swings at one over the plate but at his feet. So he's behind 1-2 & eventually Ks. Lara then gets to the same 1-1 count, sees what appeared to be the exact same pitch in the exact same location & laid off. The difference between 1-2 & 2-1 there can be huge. Of course Lara gets it to 3-1 & bangs one into the hole & through for 2 RBI. Even when he's been more productive, Yelich has gone through chasing episodes and now that he also swings through hittable pitches these days, it's just a killer. Seeing Lara lay off the same pitch, with the bags juiced & in his first big league game was very, very impressive.

 

I suspect it's all about scouting.  I believe it is somewhat clear batters are trying to predict the next pitch.  Further I think the scouting is so good that better pitchers are able to keep the batters guessing.  There is likely a huge book on Yelich and he doesn't seem to adjust well to pitches he does not expect.  Good scouting would identify this.

There is no book so to speak on Lara and he might be better at adjusting to unexpected pitches.  

So, when batters look foolish on a pitch that nobody in their right mind would swing at I suspect that they guessed wrong.  When people complain "what is he swinging at?" (any batter), I think it is clear they are swinging at a different pitch than was delivered.

I think the Rays scouted the heck out of the Yankees for their current series as the Yanks have struck out 17 times in each of the last two games.  

Maybe I am stating the obvious but I don't think some people see it this way.

[owbc]

1 minute ago, GreatNWwi said:

I suspect it's all about scouting.  I believe it is somewhat clear batters are trying to predict the next pitch.  Further I think the scouting is so good that better pitchers are able to keep the batters guessing.  There is likely a huge book on Yelich and he doesn't seem to adjust well to pitches he does not expect.  Good scouting would identify this.

There is no book so to speak on Lara and he might be better at adjusting to unexpected pitches.  

So, when batters look foolish on a pitch that nobody in their right mind would swing at I suspect that they guessed wrong.  When people complain "what is he swinging at?" (any batter), I think it is clear they are swinging at a different pitch than was delivered.

I think the Rays scouted the heck out of the Yankees for their current series as the Yanks have struck out 17 times in each of the last two games.  

Maybe I am stating the obvious but I don't think some people see it this way.

I agree that batters are almost always sitting on one pitch. 

In the AB that got Lara his first hit, he looked like he was initially sitting breaking pitch so it was seeing them well and confidently tracking the misses. To me he looked like Juan Soto in the way he confidently let those pitches go. Then on the actual hit I think he was guessing fastball and was out in front/over it, but managed to adapt enough to get it through the hole on the right side. 

Yelich is older and has lost bat speed so I don't think he can adapt as well as he used to.