How sweet it is to finally win one of these 1-0 games. Having lost 2 such games during SEC play we certainly know how it feels to come up on the short end. We did win a 2-0 game over Florida so that's almost the same ... but not quite.
Both Patrick Raby and Hunter Martin were superb on the mound and neither deserved to lose. Raby continued his new pitching strategy of going for outs and not strike outs -- unless a strike out was needed as it was several times last night. Only one UT runner got to 3rd base and only 3 got to 2nd base (one being the same guy who got to 3rd.) In those situations Raby hunkered down and UT ended up 0-6 with RISP for the night.
Raby only went to 3 balls on two batters all night, walking one and getting the other to ground out. He only faced two tight spots all night,
1) in the 3rd with runners at 1st and 2nd and 1 out, whereupon he struck out the lead off hitter and then got an easy fly out. I
2) In the 6th a lead-off double followed by his only walk of the night brought UT's best hitter, Jordan Rodgers, to the plate. He got him to pop-up meekly to the mound, followed by a nice play by Kaiser at short, followed by the play of the game, Kendall running down the deep fly to right center, which is caught on the full run to end the inning. Jeren covered a lot of ground to get to that ball and actually caught it to the right of the light tower in rightfield. I don't even think Connor Harrell or Bryan Reynolds, as good as they were, could have done that.
Raby, for the most part, was ahead of hitters all night. He threw 18 First Pitch Strikes to the 29 batters he faced. Only twice all night did he go 2-0 or 3-1 to a batter -- one walked, the other flied out easily. In the end he got 9 ground outs, 9 fly outs, and 5 strike outs. Very nice mix. He didn't hit a batter and threw no wild pitches.
Raby was also aided by some superb defense behind him. Scott made a good play in left, Toffey made a good play at 3rd, Kaiser made several good plays at short, Infante made some nice scoops, Paul was solid at 2B, Bleday made a nice catch, and, of course, all highlighted by Kendall's catch.
All-in-all, Raby's performance was right up there with the gem Wright threw against Florida.
Now we just need for Wright to continue his current 16 consecutive scoreless inning streak and, hopefully, push that to 25. Hayes was great in relief last night to pick up the save but, to be honest, I'd be fine if the bullpen gets to take the night off.
Both Patrick Raby and Hunter Martin were superb on the mound and neither deserved to lose. Raby continued his new pitching strategy of going for outs and not strike outs -- unless a strike out was needed as it was several times last night. Only one UT runner got to 3rd base and only 3 got to 2nd base (one being the same guy who got to 3rd.) In those situations Raby hunkered down and UT ended up 0-6 with RISP for the night.
Raby only went to 3 balls on two batters all night, walking one and getting the other to ground out. He only faced two tight spots all night,
1) in the 3rd with runners at 1st and 2nd and 1 out, whereupon he struck out the lead off hitter and then got an easy fly out. I
2) In the 6th a lead-off double followed by his only walk of the night brought UT's best hitter, Jordan Rodgers, to the plate. He got him to pop-up meekly to the mound, followed by a nice play by Kaiser at short, followed by the play of the game, Kendall running down the deep fly to right center, which is caught on the full run to end the inning. Jeren covered a lot of ground to get to that ball and actually caught it to the right of the light tower in rightfield. I don't even think Connor Harrell or Bryan Reynolds, as good as they were, could have done that.
Raby, for the most part, was ahead of hitters all night. He threw 18 First Pitch Strikes to the 29 batters he faced. Only twice all night did he go 2-0 or 3-1 to a batter -- one walked, the other flied out easily. In the end he got 9 ground outs, 9 fly outs, and 5 strike outs. Very nice mix. He didn't hit a batter and threw no wild pitches.
Raby was also aided by some superb defense behind him. Scott made a good play in left, Toffey made a good play at 3rd, Kaiser made several good plays at short, Infante made some nice scoops, Paul was solid at 2B, Bleday made a nice catch, and, of course, all highlighted by Kendall's catch.
All-in-all, Raby's performance was right up there with the gem Wright threw against Florida.
Now we just need for Wright to continue his current 16 consecutive scoreless inning streak and, hopefully, push that to 25. Hayes was great in relief last night to pick up the save but, to be honest, I'd be fine if the bullpen gets to take the night off.
