Funny -- not funny ha-ha, the other funny -- how everyone's been bitching about Jose Guillen's wooden knees and cement glove in right field, but it's the other new guy with the good defensive rep who misjudges a ball and sends the Giants sprawling to another groin-bruising loss. Do I blame Cody Ross for charging in on a broken-bat fly ball, only to see it sail over his head, turn into a two-run play, and make my half-digested pizza revisit my esophagus?
As of this writing, I've only heard the radio description. The video hasn't been posted yet. I might change my mind when I see it, but it's hard to make Ross a villain. Hank Schulman tweets this:
...As for Ross' misplay on triple, ANY right fielder in baseball, including Nate, would have seen/heard broken bat and charged....
I tend to agree. The worst part of the inning was Jonathan Sanchez losing Dexter Fowler on a leadoff walk after having him in an 0-2 hole. Sanchez either got tired in an instant or realized the situation and tightened up. I suspect the latter. With the stuff Dirty had tonight, he had no excuse for nibbling. From Jon Miller's account, he wasn't even nibbling. He wasn't particularly close as he went from 0-2 to a walk in four pitches.
Should Bochy have let him stay in? Should Bochy have started the inning with Brian Wilson, who came in after the leadoff walk and surrendered the broken-bat triple and go-ahead run? I actually thought Boch played it correctly. Sanchez had earned the right to start the inning, but the inability to finish off Fowler was a red flag that he was pinching it. The call to get Wilson was correct, and if not for the Rockies' freakish break -- literally -- he probably would have closed out the game.
To rub purple pinstriped salt in the wound, of course, Rockies closer Huston Street gave up three shots in the bottom of the ninth. Huff hit a fly to the wall; Ishikawa a hard grounder that 2B Herrera with a dive turned into an out; and Posey's liner back up the middle that Street gloved to end the game. Bah. Baseball is a stupid stupid game, and I am a stupid man to care about the foibles of men, some of whom could be my sons, who happen to wear a particular shade of orange.
I will tune in again tomorrow.
As of this writing, I've only heard the radio description. The video hasn't been posted yet. I might change my mind when I see it, but it's hard to make Ross a villain. Hank Schulman tweets this:
...As for Ross' misplay on triple, ANY right fielder in baseball, including Nate, would have seen/heard broken bat and charged....
I tend to agree. The worst part of the inning was Jonathan Sanchez losing Dexter Fowler on a leadoff walk after having him in an 0-2 hole. Sanchez either got tired in an instant or realized the situation and tightened up. I suspect the latter. With the stuff Dirty had tonight, he had no excuse for nibbling. From Jon Miller's account, he wasn't even nibbling. He wasn't particularly close as he went from 0-2 to a walk in four pitches.
Should Bochy have let him stay in? Should Bochy have started the inning with Brian Wilson, who came in after the leadoff walk and surrendered the broken-bat triple and go-ahead run? I actually thought Boch played it correctly. Sanchez had earned the right to start the inning, but the inability to finish off Fowler was a red flag that he was pinching it. The call to get Wilson was correct, and if not for the Rockies' freakish break -- literally -- he probably would have closed out the game.
To rub purple pinstriped salt in the wound, of course, Rockies closer Huston Street gave up three shots in the bottom of the ninth. Huff hit a fly to the wall; Ishikawa a hard grounder that 2B Herrera with a dive turned into an out; and Posey's liner back up the middle that Street gloved to end the game. Bah. Baseball is a stupid stupid game, and I am a stupid man to care about the foibles of men, some of whom could be my sons, who happen to wear a particular shade of orange.
I will tune in again tomorrow.
