Err's-day

We made some big errors in some big spots today.  Second inning - pick off at second base, runner made a move towards third on a pick off play, pitcher throws to second, we dropped the ball.  Safe at third; next guy hit a sacrifice fly, 1-0 deficit.  Ultimately, I'm not sure if that's what cost us game two, but it sure didn't help any.  Now, our season comes down to one game.  Win and we're in the conference tournament, lose and summer starts early.  Unreal, I'm speechless that some of our leaders (read: upperclassmen) had some of the worst at-bats of anyone in our lineup.  They play with their heads up their asses sometimes.  It's not always cookies and milk, but when it gets tough, you gotta get tougher.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Moving on - the Yankees just went down in order in the first inning - on 7 pitches - after Andy Pettitte struggled through the first and threw around 25, 27 pitches.  Way to give him a breather.  Ben Zobrist is .429 (6-14) with 3 R, 3 BB, and 4 RBI against the Yankees this year - through the second inning of today's game.  This guy is killing them.  Big Game James is on the mound for the Rays - the Yanks aren't going to have it wasy tonight - Shields is 4-1 with a 3.00 ERA and 59 K/11 BB coming into this one - pretty solid numbers - more than a hit an inning allowed, but low walks negate that. 

There's two things that can happen with a pitcher's control - you can walk a lot of guys and not let up many hits, or you can let up a lot of hits and not walk many - do both, and you won't get out of the 5th inning.  Either that, or you better have a ton of strikeouts.

Below are some statistics from the American League only, seeing how their numbers indicate effectiveness better than the National League - the DH is way better than the P hitting.

Here's a list of the top 3 WHIP with their H/BB and ERA and K:
#1 Doug Fister SEA 0.91 (40 H/10 BB in 50 IP) - ERA 1.96 - 25 K
#2 Shaun Marcum TOR 0.97 (46 H/14 BB in 62 IP) - ERA 2.61 - 45 K
#3 Jason Vargas SEA 0.98 (32 H/13 BB in 46 IP) - ERA 2.93 - 33 K

Here's a list of the top 3 BB with their H/ERA/WHIP and K:
#1 Rich Harden TEX 32 BB - 41 H/4.74 ERA/1.67 WHIP - 43 K
#2 Gil Meche KC 31 BB - 51 H/6.75 ERA/1.92 WHIP - 25 K
#3 Brandon Morrow TOR 27 BB - 42 H/6.15 ERA/1.68 WHIP - 54 K

Here's a lost of the top 3 in H and their BB/ERA/WHIP and K:
#1 Scott Baker MIN 64 H - 12 BB/4.88 ERA/1.37 WHIP - 47 K
#2 Kevin Millwood BAL 63 H - 15 BB/3.65 ERA/1.26 WHIP - 48 K
#3 A.J. Burnett NYY 61 H - 22 BB/3.86 ERA/1.42 WHIP - 40 K

The guys with the lowest WHIP don't necessarily need to strike a lot of hitters out because they're rarely in too many jams.  Pitchers with high BB and a lot of H allowed rely on strikeouts more, helping them out of jams.  The pitchers with the highest BB totals have terrible ERA's because they are always allowing free baserunners - even allowing only a hit an inning, as Harden and Morrow do, BB's before those hits will kill the ERA.  And finally, the guys with a lot of H allowed have decent ERA's because they don't walk a lot of guys and have pretty good K numbers.

Yankees tied it up at 3 - scored on a HR by Juan Miranda and an error by Shields on a bunt from Gardner.  Damn, Upton just homered - that's also been our Achilles’ heel this year - we score and instead of throwing up a 0 and keeping a little momentum on  our side, we go out and let up a run, or 2, or 4.  The inning after your team scores is a huge inning - throw up a goose egg and get your guys back hitting again.

I have to shower, I'm disgusting.  Our shower sucks, it's like a 3' x 3' square - tight quarters.  Clean time.

This Is It

Today just may determine our season.  Come out ready to play, have fun, play loose, and we're dangerous.  Show some grit, some toughness, it should be a good day.  We have a pretty good team, there's still room for improvement - I just hope we don't have to improve for next year - and can improve for next week.  This is it!  Big players live for big games, well, we got some good ones, let's hope they show up today and tomorrow.  I'm confident, but I don't have an outcome on the game, I suited up for my four years of college baseball already, and we made the playoffs once - we were awful - met some good people along the way.  Reaching the 20-win mark was an accomplishment - with this group, 30 wins is the benchmark.  How scary is it that the entire season - for us, 48 games - come down to 3 games just to get in the playoffs.  Time to head on over, gotta wash the uniforms this morning so we can wear our whites.  Hopefully the post later tonight will be positive - it may be a profanity laced tirade.  See you after the double-dip.