Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Baseball like this needs beer

None of the game reports I read this morning do justice to the painful ninth inning of last night's game. (The MLB comes closest.)

Cordero blew the save. He came in, it was 3-1; at the bottom of the 9th, it was 4-3.

But then...

Schneider singled, and Brandon Watson came up. Watson is fresh off an International League hitting streak record, and had two hits in this game. I still don't get why they wanted him to bunt. I can see you don't want him grounding into a double play, and maybe I don't see enough bunts work to really grasp the strategy, but damn.

But then...

Nook Logan with a double! I started to take back any mean thing I may have thought about Nook Logan.

They walked Guzman.

When Lopez came up, I started chanting to myself...No GDP. No GDP. If you can't get Schneider in, leave men on base for Zim. He's due. It's going to be ok.

It wasn't ok.

It could have been ok. Lopez grounded to the pitcher, who took the force at home. No score, two outs, men on for Zimmerman, fourth of July all over again...

I love the Nats radio broadcasters. I listen to the game on a walkman even when I'm there. They do such a great job of capturing the play. So when Nook Logan ran, here's what Charlie Slowes said:

What was Nook Logan thinking? What was he watching? Where was he going? I can't believe it!

Apparently what Nook was thinking was that the catcher would try to throw Lopez out at first, and that he could get home and score, tie the game and be a hero.

Which he, well, isn't.

Hearing the post game interview with Logan, where he's explaining his thought process, all I could think was Don't think. It can only hurt the ballclub.

By the time I calmed down and went to bed, I was actually feeling bad for Nook. I mean, I probably make ten mental lapses a day at work, but I don't make them in front of 32,539 people (although: it sounded like 16,269 were Indians fans. Are there than many Cleveland expatriates around here?), and they don't end the work day. But still.

I'm not going to be surprised, or especially upset, if Watson stays up when Fick gets back, and we don't see Logan again.

Updated to fix all the typos (hadn't had my coffee.) And Victor has explained to me many times why the bunt would have worked to advance Schneider and why it was the right play to call. I'm just not ready for the big leagues; I still would have let the man hit.

Well, past is past. Sun's out, and it's a pretty day for a ball game.

Posted by Nic at June 24, 2007 08:11 AM | TrackBack