Tuesday, May 31, 2005
O the Kill-joy
This game turned out to be a disasterous collision between two problems:
- Rodrigo Lopez tends to dampen a hot bat +
- Bronson self-consciously refuses to throw his fastball in the strikezone right now
I seem to remember we hit Rodrigo pretty hard in Baltimore back in April... but I think that was just a bad night for him. Everyone has a bad night sometimes, case-in-point BRONSON.
Bronson, you've got killer stuff. There is no reason for you to be AFRAID of the strikezone. You shouldn't be afraid of anything, actually; you're name is all about strength, courage, and being the baddest-ass pitcher around. Please go jam out, or whatever you have to do to feel like superman again, before Saturday. And stop thinking so damned much. Your job is NOT to think. Thoughts are a distraction, an opportunity to falter, an open toilet seat letting in BAD CHI. I'm not making any judgement on your intelligence here; I'm sure you're a very smart guy. It just seems that your brain may be short-circuiting your physical abilities at the moment. You're much better off focusing on what Captain thinks. He's the nerd of the group; everyone knows it. He spends hours upon hours on those hitting charts. If you don't do exactly what he tells you, you throw all that study time out the window. If you do what Captain tells you, and they hit your fastball, he'll shoulder the blame AS YOU KNOW... but if you refuse to do what he tells you, you won't have your best stuff, whether you physically have it or not. So please, Bronson, just DO WHAT THE CAPTAIN ORDERS. If you need something to fear, get that adreneline flowing, just pretend he'll smack you around the clubhouse if you don't hit his spots.
There IS one good thing I would like to point out from this game: Tito finally uses bullpen in a logical manner. What allowed him to do this, I believe, is the absolutely stellar performance by Halama. 4.1 innings, 1 walk, 3 K's, ZERO HITS (!), 64 pitches of beauty. Clearly John was not intimidated by the birds in town. Halama is a crucial cog to our bullpen, and today he was oiled and ready to spin. Had our batters been able to crack the damn 'Rigo, the game was still in reach because of John Halama.
Unfortunately, our batters couldn't do a thing, and when it became a fairly hopeless situation, Tito did the right thing: He gave some work to Captain Cheese. Alan Embree, folks, that's where we should see him, when there's no chance we'll win, so what the hell.... could've left him in for the 9th, too, but maybe Myers likes the chance to face a few batters in a row every once in awhile.
All in all, a very disapointing game. There was not even enough offense for me to comment on. But let us not forget the job of John Halama. If we're winning tomorrow, and the hottie Matt Mantei takes the ball in the eighth (as his role ought to be,) it will be because Halama ATE innings today, and Matt wasn't needed, and Tito had his head together enough to use Embree instead.
