Crushed
Game 40: May 18, 2005
Red Sox (23-17), 6
Athletics (16-24), 13
L: David Wells (2-4)
W: Seth Etherton (1-0)
Apparently Wells thought he would be using the Force to get batters out today. Rehab start, mehab flart he seemed to think, hubris overflowing. His line is gruesome: 1.1 innings pitched, 9 hits, 7 earned runs, no walks (which is good), no strikeouts (which is probably the reason why there were no base on balls), and 1 home run (better than that time he gave up 3 taters in a row at least). At least I did’t have to stay up late for this particular torture session. In fact, with my Gameday Audio subscription, I selectively heard only the portions of the game I wanted to. In my parallel universe, innings 1 and 2 never happened, the final score was 6-4, and I was the field manager who stood up to Wells, sending him down to Pawtucket for some rehab starts.
I learned something from Harold Reynolds on Baseball Tonight (part of ESPN’s trifecta, if you hadn’t heard). He gave a summary of how pitchers and catchers change signs when there is a runner on second base. There was one catcher whose signs would vary with the pitch count. It made me think about how Dave McCarty would have different signs based on the angle of the sun in relation to the time of day or the decibel level of the crowd. You know, something simple like that.
Top 5 Things That Would be Better to Watch Than Game 40:
- Take Me Out (Thanks to twitch for this.)
- The Hall of Fame Game
- Paint dry
- Grass grow
- Charley Young Beach in Kihei
(These Top 5 lists won’t be a regular thing. This is just my mild protest about the recent performance of the team.)
