Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 22, 2007
Shorted Battery

What a way to blow a ball game! Ian Snell held the Dodgers to two runs over seven innings, and the Pirates led 3-2 going into the bottom of the ninth with Torres on for the save. He walked the leadoff hitter, then replaced him with Valdez on a force out. At that point, the battery ran out of juice:

Torres' second pitch to Saenz, a wild one, skipped away from Paulino, and Valdez broke for second. When Paulino retrieved the ball about 15 feet away and tried to nail him there, the throw sailed into center field, and Valdez took third.

That was the first miscue.

His next, and the one that was far more costly, came when Torres got Saenz to swing over a diving splitter for strike two. Paulino failed to turn his glove to the underhand in time, and it rifled through his legs.

"I just saw the bat and the ball at the same time," Paulino said. "I lost the ball right there."

Still, it caromed hard off the backstop and right back to Paulino as Valdez was in a desperate sprint for home. Paulino flipped to Torres, who appeared to block Valdez's slide with his left foot, but umpire Joe West ruled him safe, and the score was tied, 3-3.

That set up Martin's grand slam in the tenth on a 1-2 count. With the Pirates scoring 3.44 runs per game, they need to win when their starters hold the opposition down.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:25 AM | Games | TrackBack (0)
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