Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 27, 2008
Ill Timed Walk

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the twelfth, Bobby Seay walked Garret Anderson on four pitches to send the Angels to a 1-0 victory. I can never understand how a major league pitcher can't throw a strike in this situation. It's even more amazing that it was Anderson who drew the walk. He only had seven coming into the game, and two of those were intentional. He walked once intentionally before the twelfth, so those four pitches must have been really bad for Garret not to swing.

Update: Seay blames a check swing:

Seay said a checked-swing call that didn't go his way on his second pitch to Anderson was critical.

"The 1-0 pitch changed the whole at-bat," the Tigers' reliever said. "When you go back and look at the replay, he definitely swung at the ball on the second pitch.

"So the difference between 2-0 and 1-1 is a big difference. In a game like that, it's kind of unfair because we played that long. Coming in the bases loaded is a tough situation."

Sorry, he still had two chances to throw a strike and failed both times.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:14 AM | Games | TrackBack (0)
Comments

That's nothing... I had to watch AJ Burnett intentionally walk Tony Pena Jr. Follow that by back to back singles and you get a blowout that could have been a lot closer.

Posted by: Andrew at May 27, 2008 09:26 AM

They're not machines - if you try to change your motion and aim the ball your control gets worse.

Posted by: Bandit at May 27, 2008 10:49 AM

Is there a more schizoid offense than the Tigers? Either they score 19 runs or they don't score at all. Okay, that's an overstatement, but this club has to get a little more consistent with the bats. Luckily for them, they're still not buried in the mediocre AL Central.

Posted by: Casey Abell at May 27, 2008 10:58 AM

I thought the 1-0 pitch was a strike even if he didn't swing at it. He wasn't close on the final two.

I knew it was going to happen when Leland made the pitching change. I was expecting either a walk or a wild pitch to score the final run. It is harder than heck coming into the game in that situation. I know they always say don't make the new pitcher throw the IBB, but I'd put him in there to at least get acclimated to the situation. Instead he comes into the game with no margin for error and no chance to get settled in.

Posted by: Paul at May 27, 2008 01:51 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?