Ryan Howard just fielded the ball, but before it even gets to his glove, Kyle Kendrick is already pointing to first base, presumably shouting "One! One! Don't throw it!" If a pitcher is willing to allow a runner to reach scoring position even though it looks like an easy play, you know what he thinks of Howard's tailing two-seamer to second base.
To Howard's credit, he's been much better throwing the ball this year (except for that time he chose not to throw the ball because he also has no confidence in Ryan Howard's throwing abilities). Kyle Kendrick doesn't care - he's seen this play go wrong too many times.
Inspired by Kendrick's triple (and thousands of fans who are already running him out of town), Ben Revere swings at this 1-0 fastball and hits it between third and short (infield in) for an RBI single.
As nice as it was to see him pick up an RBI, dude - what the hell are you swinging at? You're ahead in the count 1-0 with a guy on 3rd with less than 2 outs. What's the old adage? "Look for a pitch you can drive." For Ben, I guess that's belly button high on the outside corner.
At this moment, with the ball halfway to the plate, one of the 50 people behind home plate needs to be standing with their arms raised in home-run celebration. It's inevitable at this point. Also, red shirt right behind home plate is just checking out some breasts.
Still no one standing?! Yo green shirt, get your ass up and recognize a hanging curveball that's now on it's way over the fence! Red shirt is still mesmerized by boobies. Now, I know major league pitchers throw hard, and not much time has passed from image 1 to image 2, but that guy is working on quite the stare down. We aren't witnessing a glance here.
You can say it's a pitch Dom should've crushed, but I give him credit here. He has 2 strikes on him with a runner on 2nd and 0 outs. He simply wants to pull the ball, make a productive out, and let the next guy knock him in, who is Delmon Young, so Dom makes the adjustment mid-pitch that he's the only person capable of driving in this runner.
He sees a mistake, and he drills it. That's what good hitters do, and Dom Brown has become a damn good hitter.
And making a fantastic slide around the catcher to beat the throw (who got more aroused, red shirt from above or Wheels for a feet-first slide at home?).
Galvis hasn't hit as well as we'd like, but he's had some clutch hits and extra base hits. He's stepping out on every pitch - definitely a problem, but a fixable one. It's his defense, hustle, and baseball IQ that will make him an everyday major league player. I'm not sending him to the Hall of Fame already - I'm just saying he's going to be an average to above average starter.
Images from MLB.tv
No comments:
Post a Comment