May 07, 2008
The Quality of a No Hitter
Via MLB FanHouse, La Velle E. Neal III wasn't impressed with Gavin Floyd:
If Gavin Floyd had pulled off a no-no against the Twins on Tuesday it would have been the sloppiest, most unjust no-hitter that I can remember.
Floyd was far from overpowering. In fact, I sent Joe C. a text message around the fourth inning remarking how Floyd couldn't get ANY breaking pitches or his change up, over for strikes. I was convinced that the Twins would sit on the fastball and start pounding him. I thought Nick Blackburn pitched than Floyd in the early innings but didn't have the results to show for it.
That great adjustment by Twins hitters never came, which was disappointing coming off of their game against Kenny Rogers on Sunday.
I turned the game on in the sixth, and Floyd looked great to me. He was hitting spots, throwing good breaking pitches, and pretty much fooling the Twins hitters. I was watching the Minnesota feed, and Blyleven commented that Gavin's pitches improved as the game went on. So far this year, he's been a bit stronger in innings 5 through 7 than in 1 through 4.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:03 AM
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I may be mistaken, but aren't most starting pitchers "better" in the later innings than in the early ones, since, generally, as soon as they get into some trouble, they get pulled? I don't watch enough White Sox games to know of Guillen has a quick hook (I suspect he doesn't), but if you're in the 7th and your starter has thrown about 100 pitches and he walks a guy or gives up a solo homer, he's pretty like to get pulled, unlike in the 3rd, when he'll be given the opportunity to implode.
Not that no-no's are all luck but generally you see a few hard hit balls and the occassional great play - Watch the play the Pedroia makes last year to save Bucholz last year -