5/18/2013 Washington Nationals 1, San Diego Padres 2

Petco Park, San Diego, CA
Game 2 of 3

To simply state that a change of scenery has no effect upon a pitcher's performance is one of the greatest of all fallacies.  Sure, we can't measure how this works...we can only analyze in hindsight how a park, a coaching staff, a change in mechanics, or even a pitcher's general health can count among the many factors that ultimately draw a big composite red line between time period A and time period B.

Eric Stults is one of those pitchers; a buff, pre-geriatric tough-guy type of pitcher from Indiana who posted a career 4.84 ERA and an 8-10 W-L record with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2006-2009.  After spending 2010 with the NPB Hiroshima Toyo Carp, his 5.07 ERA, 6-10 record didn't necessarily scream "BUY" when he opted to return to the States, but the Colorado Rockies gave him a chance in 2011, signing him to a Minor League deal that found him on the AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox roster as a reliever, appearing in 52 games (primarily in middle relief).  In July of that year, the MLB club purchased his contract, and a few weeks later DFA'd him, sending him back to AAA for the remainder of the season.  The Chicago White Sox came calling in 2012 with another Minor League deal, albeit short-lived...the Padres selected him on waivers after Chicago DFA'd him and he posted a formidable 8-3 record with a 2.92 ERA in 18 games (4 of them as a reliever).

Stults suddenly became a fairly reliable and consistent part of a rotation that needs more mercy than it can afford; he's off to a somewhat uneven start in 2013, entering today's game with a 3-3 record and 4.57 ERA in 8 starts.  

But hey...it's only the middle of May!  Plenty of starters are experiencing the same exact thing, right?  Well, Jordan Zimmermann isn't.

Stults faces Washington Nationals ace Jordan Zimmermann, which is not great news (he's 7-1 in 8 starts with a remarkable 1.69 ERA, and the Nationals have won every game he has won), but Stults is holding his own in May (1-1 with a 2.95 ERA) and the Padres' defense has committed no errors in the past few weeks.

The Padres get to Zimmermann early, with a lead-off HR in the second inning by Yonder Alonso...a tater that makes it all the way up to the Porch in deep right field.

Everything is cool immediately thereafter, but the Nationals put the recently-stellar Padres defense to the test in the top of the 3rd, and the result is, literally, a no-go, and then a go...2 Nationals runners in scoring position with one out quickly develops into an inning-ending LIDP of the weirdest kind.

To set the stage, Danny Espinosa (he of the worst swing in baseball) is called out on strikes.  Kurt Suzuki finds Stults behind the count and walks on a 3-1 pitch.  With Suzuki on first, Zimmermann squares up to bunt, and knocks the first pitch he sees cleanly to Stults, who throws a low sinker to Jedd Gyorko, covering the bag...

...and Gyorko misses the catch, it goes "right through the wickets"!!  

It's Gyorko's first MLB career error. 

Also, hopefully, his final Bill Buckner moment.

Zimmermann cruises to second base, Suzuki to third, and now skit is gettin' real.  Denard Span looks at ball one, called strike one, and ball two before he smacks a liner, straight into Stults' torso!

Still not having touched the ground, the ball caroms neatly into the glove of Alonso, who touches the bag to record the out on Span...

Without even blinking, Alonso suddenly bolts across the infield...whassup, Yonder?

It happens too fast for us to catch it, but when he checked the runner at second, he found there was, indeed, no runner at second at all...

Suzuki is running back to third, and Zimmermann has made it there already, and is just kind of standing around behind Chase Headley (who now realizes why Alonso is making tracks his way)...

We can see it now...Zimmermann, Suzuki (who is now thinking about going...back to home?!?), and Alonso is gaining on them...Headley is like, "whadup?"

This next screenshot is worth it's weight in laughter gold...Alonso is ready to pounce on one of these guys, and seeing as how he's gaining on them to within an arm's length, Suzuki changes direction again, heading back to home, and now Zimmermann finally begins to move....and Headley is just hanging out, waiting for the pizza and beer to show up for the party.

Alonso darts left, tags Suzuki...

Zimmermann looks back, "wait what"...

Alonso points to Suzuki so that 3B umpire Vic Carapazza can see "hey, bro, I tagged 'im" - Carapazza points at Suzuki...

...and gives him the FIST of OUT!  TOOTBLAN! (Tag, not throw)

One of the weirdest double plays you'll see all season, trust me!

SCOREKEEPER'S NOTE: How was this scored?  LIDP 1-3, and here's why...the ball never touched the ground (even after the Stults carom, BTW yes, he's OK, thanks for asking), and Alonso was the last receiver to handle the ball, Suzuki tagged out at home.

The Nationals still can't find a way to score, not until the top of the 6th when Left Fielder Steve Lombardozzi scores Suzuki on an RBI single to tie the game.  The Padres add an unearned run to Zimmermann's line when Pinch Hitter Alexi Amarista reaches on a fielder's choice bunt, then scores on a pick-off attempt error by Zimmermann attempting to catch Cabrera (who reached on a single) stealing second base.  The 8th inning ends with the Padres up 2-1, and both Stults (8IP, 4H, 1ER, 2BB, 5K) as well as Zimmermann (8IP, 7H, 2R, 1ER, 6K, 1HR, 1HB) are done for the day.

Huston Street walks Lombardozzi to bring the Nationals within threat distance to lead off the 9th, but Lombardozzi is erased on a strike-em-out-throw-em-out play with Ryan Zimmerman swinging through desperation.  Street follows by walking Adam LaRoche, but Ian Desmond pops out to Gyorko to end the game.

I watched the Fox Sports SD broadcast with Dick Enberg and Mark "Mudcat" Grant.  #shadows mentioned 7 times.

My scoresheets, using my new pitch-counting method! Read about it HERE, download the scoresheets for free HERE!

10/25/12 Detroit Tigers 0, San Francisco Giants 2

AT&T Park, San Francisco, CA
World Series Game 2

Sorry, Prince Fielder.

That's the first ever 7-4-2 put-out in World Series history.

Giants lead the series 2-0

8/10/12 Cincinnati Reds 10, Chicago Cubs 8

Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL

Game 2 of 4

Only 5 days ago, Josh Vitters and Brett Jackson were called up to join the Cubs while they were on the road in Los Angeles.  

Brett Jackson made his first start at Wrigley yesterday, going 0-for-3 with one strikeout in the Cubs' 5-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.  Today, Vitters makes his first start at Wrigley, at third base.

Vitters goes 1-for-5, crossing the plate once on Welington Castillo's 6th inning double.  Jackson strikes out twice, yet draws a walk in the 8th inning, scores on Castillo's 2nd consecutive double, and the Cubs hang in there to compete with the Reds...but it was the Reds' 6th inning that knocked starter Justin Germano out of the game, where the Cubs committed 2 errors in a single at bat (one of them Jackson's), that pretty much sealed the deal.  This couldn't erase Cincinnati's 3-run 3rd inning with 3 Cubs errors (by Rizzo, Vitters, and Castro) but the Cubs were surging onward late in the game.

Starlin Castro's TOOTBLAN in the 6th inning meant that Castillo's double didn't score him as well.  It wasn't really Castro's fault; Dave McKay waved him to 3rd on Vitter's bloop single, and Castro seemed to have trouble picking up the signal (what Listach was doing during this, I have no idea).  Castro was fooled on an "infield decoy" play, and was thrown out in a 9-4-5 relay.

4/10/12 Kansas City Royals 3, Oakland Athletics 0

Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA
Game 2 of 3

Silly me! A 10:00pm game on MLB Network, and I decided to take a nap early in the evening so I could check this out, since the opportunity to watch Royals games on live TV here is practically nil. The only perceived challenge I could have expected was for the geezer sleepmode to creep up on me later in the game and spoil my opportunity to see the Royals do their thing, good or bad. The good news: my nap strategy, for once, worked out well. The bad news: it was a later night than I had expected, thanks to…RAIN.

What I was fortunate enough to see was a spectacular small sample size outing from Danny Duffy (aka #PulledPork), who despite the elements handed the Oakland A’s a bucket of nothing much to hit for 6 shut-out innings. I’m still on the fence as to how he’ll make it through the season (don’t forget, this time last year I was starting to get high on Jeff Francis’ fumes) but tonight, he did his job and did it well.



Rain was consistent throughout the contest, but very lightly so. My best observation was that even though the precipitation was constant and light, the surface at O.co was very playable, no errors or missed opportunities due to the ballpark slip and slide. Not only that but with Duffy and Oakland starter Graham Godfrey cruising through their innings, it was starting to look as if the game would be in the can by the time the perpetual moisture in the air took its toll on the events.

Of course, as announcers spoil no-hitters unceremoniously these days, they also spoiled the shelf-life of this game by talking too much about it. With Eric Hosmer nearly the second out in the top of the 8th inning, a comment is made by Rex Hudler that for those of us at home, the rain on the field isn’t really as bad as it looks on camera.

And then, as if on cue, the rain proves Hudler quite wrong about this. Hosmer strikes out swinging, his bat goes flying towards the Royals dugout via slippery surfaces, and just like that, HP umpire Jim Joyce calls for the tarp. After nearly an hour or weather internets monitoring, the decision is made to call the game, having played enough innings to make it official, and the Royals reverse the shut-out they were handed last night right back at the Athletics.

Lorenzo Cain’s outfield DP assist was pretty awesome, just not sure if erasing that baserunner was worth his temporary outage due to injuring himself via groin strain while making the play. No comment on Chris Getz's TOOTBLAN...part of me is still confused at the persistent non-productive aggressive baserunning the Royals are pursuing.

This is my first FSKC Royals broadcast of the season, and my first earful of Rex Hudler. We all miss Frank White, as it has been said a bunch on Twitter, but really we can’t control any of that, so let’s give Hudler a chance. He is a bozo, and his cracked commentary is, at best, of great comical proportions. Not really comical in a Joe Morgan or Tim McCarver sense either, actually a bit more strained and bizarre than those two jackos. Allow me to illustrate by sharing some of the “Hudlerisms” I dared to tweet during the game:

“…he cleans off his cleats with the cleat-cleaner.”

“…on the mump. I meant to say ‘bump’ but I said ‘mound’ instead.”

“…he’s a premium hitter in his prime.”

“It’s a short season, so far.” …this one was my personal favorite!

So, let’s spare the overbearing and cynical Rex Hudler criticism for the time being, he’s making us laugh at him (not with him) without even trying to do so. We should consider ourselves fortunate that he isn’t talking too much about his playing days, or better yet about how he would manage this team if he were the manager, which he isn’t.

An unexpected comic highlight of this game centered around the affable Jeff Francoeur, he with his everlasting goofy smile and celebrated clubhouse buddy status. I missed the first part of this story, which apparently started during a Royals visit to Oakland last season. From what I gather, the fans in the right field corners make it a passionate exercise to heckle outfielders from opposing teams out there, and Frenchy would have been no exception. Jeff has made it a personal mission to befriend and make loving admirers of all he comes into contact with, which is the most you can ask from a 29-year old stalwart with “veteran” status already on his baseball nameplate. He did so with the Oakland fans previously by responding to their taunts with an offer of a baseball wrapped in a 100-dollar bill and some smack back on the subject of “bacon.”

Bacon moves the world, and even folks in Oakland know this. Tonight, they came prepared.

About 25 or 30 fans arrived adorning marvelous Oakland green-with-yellow-print shirts celebrating “Bacon Tuesday, April 10, 2012, sponsored by Jeff Francoeur.” True heart was never expressed so tenderly!

Their message made it to the Coliseum jumbotron, #BaconTuesdayCapCaper


They brought marvelous banners, #GoBaconTuesday


…and #ReceiveBacon


During the penultimate rain delay, Jeff made his way to his bacon peeps, who presented him with a copy of the T-shirt and samples of Bacon as well…


Besides Baseball, everybody should appreciate the power of Bacon. The goofy doofus smile is just a part of how both intersect flawlessly in a baseball/bacon venn diagram.




If you enjoy my work, I encourage you to spread the word via Twitter
(I am @yoshiki89), and also please leave a comment!

10/20/11 Texas Rangers 2, St Louis Cardinals 1

Busch Stadium, St Louis, MO
2011 World Series Game 2

It’s all about the “D”…and two great reel-worthy plays!!


Can it be true that after only 1 game my expectations of this World Series are burying the memories of last year’s Ho-hum Classic? This game makes it so.



Yet another pitchers’ duel develops as Jaime Garcia and Colby Lewis show off #1 starter stuff, neither yielding a run, only allowing 2 hits apiece for the first 6 innings. Garcia, though not awarded a decision, pulled ahead of Lewis with 7 scoreless innings, 3 hits, 1 BB and 7K…and 3 broken bats!!

I will have to dig a bit to confirm, but I think this is the most bats broken in a game by a single pitcher that I have ever scored…

Defense from both teams, along with the stellar starting pitching, was the true highlight, but the Rangers ran away with the prize. Elvis Andrus and Ian Kinsler are the double-play combo of the game, if not the Series so far. They did it not once, but twice; contributing two eye-rubbing plays to end the 4th and 5th innings.

With the game locked at a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 7th, history more or less repeats itself…funny how the events in last night’s game replayed themselves, as if there was no regard to what happened only 24 hours before. With Freese on base, thanks to a 1-out single, Yadier Molina flies out, Nick Punto reaches on a single (Freese advances to 3B), and with 2 outs and runners on the corners, Washington pulls Lewis and brings in…Alexi Ogando. LaRussa brings in who else but Allen Craig in Garcia’s spot in the order…so what do you think will happen next???

It happens…Craig does it again, with a rocket to RF, scoring Freese and Ogando shaking his head…it’s ‘de ja vu all over again’!!

The inning ends with the Cardinals up by one and a Nick Punto TOOTBLAN (or should it be ROOTBLAN?) as he is ruled out at 3B for running outside the basepaths. WAAAYYY out.

The Cardinals stay on top with that single run on the board, Nelson Cruz robs Pujols of a sure-fire HR in the 8th, and Jason Motte steps in to close things out…and the Rangers come back, again with Kinsler and Andrus leading the charge. They both get on base to lead off, two consecutive SAC flys from Josh Hamilton and Michael Young bring them both in, and the Rangers squeak out a hard-fought win with Neftali Feliz shutting the Cardinals down. And they do it without any extra base hits.

Is Ian Kinsler on a campaign to walk away with the World Series MVP trophy? It’s too early to tell, but he is the real unsung hero of this Rangers team, and also a valid source of comic relief, as demonstrated when he “brushes off” a blistering Adrian Beltre foul line drive down the 3rd base line.

Series tied 1-1



He said WHAT?!? Click on this link to see Tim McCarver’s Quote of the Game

HEY, I want your feedback!
If you enjoy my work, I encourage you to spread the word via Twitter
(I am @yoshiki89), and also please leave a comment!