To the best of my knowledge, no game at The Hawk has ever been called due to weather. That will be sorely tested today and we'll need some Corbs Magic to pull this one off. Originally scheduled for 2 PM, it was previously moved up to 11 AM to beat the weather, and now that the weather won, it's now pushed back to 1 PM. It's still snowing at my house (9 AM) so we'll see what happens. I do recall playing a couple of games in the UT series a few years ago with snow flakes swirling about so I'm confident the game will be played.
In any event, my grandchildren would be proud of me. When 6 PM rolled around last night I was watching the baseball game on my phone, the basketball game on TV, keeping the baseball scorebook on my iPad, and tweeting on my computer. I also responded to a few emails. Take that, Millennials!!! We old Baby Boomers can be tech savvy, too. WE INVENTED THE PERSONAL COMPUTER!!!! (and all the systems that run them as well, and founded all the tech companies, and invented the smart phone, and tablets, and in our spare time raised Millennials to become the *stellar* individuals they are)
The bottom line on game 1 is that the VandyBoys never quit. As I expected, we needed to get to their middle bullpen and, boy, did we. Their starter handcuffed us until he got tired. We then wore out the first guy they brought in and eked out enough runs to win once they brought in one of their few good relievers. They never got the chance to bring in their hot shot closer.
Kyle Wright was not good. In previous games he pitched well but was hampered by an anemic offense, poor fielding, and sloppy base-running. Last night he did it to himself (although we did make 3 errors and that surely didn't help, one by Kyle which led to an unearned run.) He kept his pitches down in the zone for the most part but couldn't find the plate. (The ump also squeezed him and that complicated things.) When he did get a pitch up in the zone they pounced on it -- it was clear what their hitting strategy was. They are also aggressive on the base paths.
When all was said and done the Dores scored 9 runs on just 7 hits and left 7 on base. The Gaels scored 8 runs on 13 hits and left 11 on base. In an not-often-seen stat, the Gaels came to the plate 26 TIMES WITH RUNNERS IN SCORING POSITION in 46 plate appearances. Their hitters only delivered 6 times. Vandy had 14 opportunities with RISP and delivered only twice, the key such hit being Infante's weird double with the bases loaded. We got 9 walks and 6 of them scored.
Colin Snider was the set-up guy and, as usual, threw a lot of strikes -- 12 of his 15 pitches. As usual, he also gave up a hit (that's what happens when you throw strikes) but it turned out to be harmless as he didn't walk anyone and had a strike out. This is my kind of pitcher, i.e., throw strikes and, above all else, don't walk or hit anybody. This is also the kind of pitcher David Price, Sonny
Gray, and Carson Fulmer were and that's pretty good company.
Rupp came on to close and he's the opposite of Snider. He throws a lot of balls and walked 3 guys, which gave the Gaels a chance, but he also struck out 2 and allowed no hits. He and Snider are like night and day (not Chandler) and, as a combo, I suppose it's working well for the most part. I still get jittery when Rupp comes to. IMHO, he should NEVER BE BROUGHT INTO THE GAME WITH RUNNERS ON BASE as he has a tendency to walk 1 or 2 batters before he settles in. Vandy pitchers also struck out 13 batters which means, of the Gaels 26 outs (we had an odd DP in the 9th) they K'ed 50% of the time. That's what killed their RISP stat.
Whenever the game starts today we'll throw Patrick Raby to the mound and he's been superb all year. He K's a lot and also yields few hits and that's a tough combination to beat. The Gaels (I wonder how many of their players have never seen snow?) counter with Jake Valdez. Jake's uncle, Juan, made the trip from the coffee bean fields in the mountains all the way to Nashville (he got a special Visa to avoid the tie-ups at the border) just to see Jake pitch and I hope he's disappointed. He does, however, and always will, produce good coffee and for that I am extremely grateful.
Raby is 2-1, ERA 0.53, and OBA .133
Valdez is 1-1, ERA 5.25, OBA .286
On paper this is a pitching mis-match but, as Mata Hari once said, "Never put anything down on paper because it may come back to haunt you." She is rumored to have said that just as they slipped the hangman's noose around her neck.
**CORRECTION: Mata was executed by firing squad, not by hanging. My precocious grandson informed me of this when I showed him this post. Smarty pants!!
In any event, my grandchildren would be proud of me. When 6 PM rolled around last night I was watching the baseball game on my phone, the basketball game on TV, keeping the baseball scorebook on my iPad, and tweeting on my computer. I also responded to a few emails. Take that, Millennials!!! We old Baby Boomers can be tech savvy, too. WE INVENTED THE PERSONAL COMPUTER!!!! (and all the systems that run them as well, and founded all the tech companies, and invented the smart phone, and tablets, and in our spare time raised Millennials to become the *stellar* individuals they are)
The bottom line on game 1 is that the VandyBoys never quit. As I expected, we needed to get to their middle bullpen and, boy, did we. Their starter handcuffed us until he got tired. We then wore out the first guy they brought in and eked out enough runs to win once they brought in one of their few good relievers. They never got the chance to bring in their hot shot closer.
Kyle Wright was not good. In previous games he pitched well but was hampered by an anemic offense, poor fielding, and sloppy base-running. Last night he did it to himself (although we did make 3 errors and that surely didn't help, one by Kyle which led to an unearned run.) He kept his pitches down in the zone for the most part but couldn't find the plate. (The ump also squeezed him and that complicated things.) When he did get a pitch up in the zone they pounced on it -- it was clear what their hitting strategy was. They are also aggressive on the base paths.
When all was said and done the Dores scored 9 runs on just 7 hits and left 7 on base. The Gaels scored 8 runs on 13 hits and left 11 on base. In an not-often-seen stat, the Gaels came to the plate 26 TIMES WITH RUNNERS IN SCORING POSITION in 46 plate appearances. Their hitters only delivered 6 times. Vandy had 14 opportunities with RISP and delivered only twice, the key such hit being Infante's weird double with the bases loaded. We got 9 walks and 6 of them scored.
Colin Snider was the set-up guy and, as usual, threw a lot of strikes -- 12 of his 15 pitches. As usual, he also gave up a hit (that's what happens when you throw strikes) but it turned out to be harmless as he didn't walk anyone and had a strike out. This is my kind of pitcher, i.e., throw strikes and, above all else, don't walk or hit anybody. This is also the kind of pitcher David Price, Sonny
Gray, and Carson Fulmer were and that's pretty good company.
Rupp came on to close and he's the opposite of Snider. He throws a lot of balls and walked 3 guys, which gave the Gaels a chance, but he also struck out 2 and allowed no hits. He and Snider are like night and day (not Chandler) and, as a combo, I suppose it's working well for the most part. I still get jittery when Rupp comes to. IMHO, he should NEVER BE BROUGHT INTO THE GAME WITH RUNNERS ON BASE as he has a tendency to walk 1 or 2 batters before he settles in. Vandy pitchers also struck out 13 batters which means, of the Gaels 26 outs (we had an odd DP in the 9th) they K'ed 50% of the time. That's what killed their RISP stat.
Whenever the game starts today we'll throw Patrick Raby to the mound and he's been superb all year. He K's a lot and also yields few hits and that's a tough combination to beat. The Gaels (I wonder how many of their players have never seen snow?) counter with Jake Valdez. Jake's uncle, Juan, made the trip from the coffee bean fields in the mountains all the way to Nashville (he got a special Visa to avoid the tie-ups at the border) just to see Jake pitch and I hope he's disappointed. He does, however, and always will, produce good coffee and for that I am extremely grateful.
Raby is 2-1, ERA 0.53, and OBA .133
Valdez is 1-1, ERA 5.25, OBA .286
On paper this is a pitching mis-match but, as Mata Hari once said, "Never put anything down on paper because it may come back to haunt you." She is rumored to have said that just as they slipped the hangman's noose around her neck.
**CORRECTION: Mata was executed by firing squad, not by hanging. My precocious grandson informed me of this when I showed him this post. Smarty pants!!
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