Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 12, 2007
Reverting to Wild

Oliver Perez walked seven batters in 2 2/3 innings on Wednesday night, helping the Phillies to their second win of the season 5-2. It's the wildness that hurt Perez's career returning. During his fine 2004 season, Oliver walked just 3.7 per 9. Over the next two years, however, that would rise to 5.8 per 9. Last night was an example of control at its worst.

The amazing thing to me, however, is that the Phillies only scored three runs off Perez:

The third inning was awful for Pérez and the Mets. After getting two quick outs, Pérez allowed the next six batters to reach base. The Phillies loaded the bases on a single and two walks. But this time, Pérez walked Wes Helms on four pitches and Aaron Rowand on seven, then hit Rod Barajas with a pitch, giving the Phillies a 3-0 lead.

Breaking the game open with a hit wasn't on the menu last night, but it's good to see the Phillies practicing good selectivity.



Posted by David Pinto at 07:30 AM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

The Phils are walking a lot, but not hitting much with runners on base so far. They left 22 on last night to bring their 8 game total to 157.

Posted by: robustyoungsoul at April 12, 2007 08:06 AM

Perez is fragile. In the post-game comments, he says he looked at the tape and was around the plate. The umpire certainly wasn't giving him anything for some reason. Then, he just lost it. He's no Tom Glavine out there. Then Aaron Sele comes in the game and is getting strike calls all over the place... it sounds stupid, but I think Perez just confuses umpires (as well as hitters). That, combined with his wildness, can mean a ton of walks.

Posted by: Blastings Thrilledge at April 12, 2007 11:49 AM
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