Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 25, 2007
Throwing Strikes

A big difference in the game last night was the percentage of strikes thrown by each side's pitchers. Beckett put 2/3 of his pitches in the zone, or at least tempting enough for a batter to swing. Francis was around 60%, about the league average. But Morales and Speier, who took the chance of a comeback from difficult to impossible combined to throw 28 of 41 pitches for balls. That's the kind of environment where a highly selective team like Boston thrives. They waited for their pitch, and when they saw one they liked they smacked it, otherwise, they were happy to take a walk.

Morales' performance ranks with the worst in World Series history:

It ranks among the most ineffective all-time relief outings in World Series history. The last reliever to go through a similar struggle was Yankees right-hander Jay Witasick, who gave up nine runs in 1 1/3 innings against Arizona in Game 6 of the 2001 World Series.

Witasick was a veteran at the time. Morales is a kid who was overwhelmed by the setting.

Pitching coach Bob Apodaca said an overly excited Morales let his body get out of control, and his performance rapidly deteriorated into a series of pitches to bad spots.

The Red Sox take all three game ones in the post season. So far, that's worked out well for them.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:40 AM | World Series | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Tim McCarver - 'This guys got electric stuff'

Morales 0.2 6 7 7 1 0 0 35-19 94.50

Electric

Posted by: Bandit at October 25, 2007 09:42 AM

Well, the Red Sox certainly gave him a jolt.

Posted by: David Pinto at October 25, 2007 10:18 AM
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