The Rays announcers are just relentlessly ripping the Brewers offensive approach the last 2 nights. Saying they have talent but their offensive approach will get eaten alive against really good pitching.
The degree to which this team struggles against good pitching is worrisome. They look set up to squeak into the playoffs and get swept in the first round.
Are we really blaming the ball 4 call? It was a 50/50 call that we didn't get. Extremely close to the corner but not an obvious strike. Definitely could go either way. Can't expect to get every one of those. We didn't. Buckle down and get the out. We didn't. If you're looking to assign blame for tonight, I'd look no further than an offense that has combined for 1 run in the last 2 games.
I'll feel pretty sick if we trade essentially 16 cost controlled years of Gennett, Nelson, and Thornburg for 1 1/2 years of Price. I'd question whether Price is even a net upgrade over Nelson +Gennett for the remainder of this season. If it is, it's not by much.
You know, I wish they would stop calling it "conclusive evidence" and just call it what it really is. "Whatever we in New York are pretty sure it looks like."
I would like to challenge someone to find a similar example where a team pulled their biggest power hitter BACK as the winning run to bunt all the way in a walkoff situation in the 9th.
I wasn't a fan of Yost, but it helps when your rotation is rounded out by superior talents than Jeff Suppan, Chris Capuano, Dave Bush, Claudio Vargas, etc.
I said something to my wife tonight that horrified me: " I think I'm starting to get on the Ron Roenicke bandwagon. " Then I watched the last inning of the game tonight. Everything is back to normal again, whew! Thanks Ron!
Cool beans, Ron. I'd rather have had a pinch hitter in the game that isn't so God-awful that you would need to resolve yourself to bunting with 2 strikes. But that's just me.
When Roenicke sent Schafer up to bunt, he went from having 3 outs to work with, to essentially counting on Carlos Gomez to win the game. Weeks has a CAREER BA of .210 and OPS of .663 with RISP and 2 outs. The numbers are the same for almost any clutch situation for Rickie. I cannot overemphasize how mind-numbingly stupid it was to pull back Reynolds for Schafer.
When you pull back your best power hitter who can end the game and walk it off with 1 swing, to let a guy who is pretty much useless at anything besides defense go up there and take a few pokes at the ball, you pretty much deserve exactly the predictable result that you got.
Ron Roenicke Sir, You do realize, that you have a better chance of scoring 1 run with a runner on 1st and 0 out, than a runner on 2nd and 1 out, right? You know this has been historically proven? Do you follow?