Long Term Memories
Sunday, June 19, 2016
A Father's Day Memory with an anti climax
A Father's Day Memory - although with an anti climax
Yesterday, the Washington Nationals were playing on the west coast. The game began about 10:00pm EDT 18 July.
The
National's starter, Max Scherzer, pitched well for 6 innings. He gave
up only one run and struck out 10 with no walk (Scherzer's walk to
strikeout ratio is amazing). The National's 7th inning pitcher got the
side out in his inning and the National's had a 3-1 lead going into the
bottom of the 8th. The National's 8th inning pitcher was Felipe Rivero
(first image). Rivero (now pitching on 19 July EDT, that is father's
day) gave up 3 hits, walked two and fumbled a ground ball to the mound
that should have been a double play. He was charged with 6 runs (5
earned) and failed to get a man out.
This reminded me of something my father asked me at least three times as we watched numerous Senator pitchers blow leads over the years.
Dad would ask something like,
"The warm up catcher in the bullpen has caught this pitcher dozens and dozens of times. Can't this catcher just tell the manager when the pitcher doesn't have his stuff and they can warm someone else up?"
The short answer to this question seems to be "No" (that's the anti climax).
A somewhat longer answer is that the warm up catcher can tell if there is some major problem with the pitcher (say he is throwing way too high) but not if some subtle defect exists. In the case of Rivero's performance, none of the hits against him were hard hit and his fumbling error was obviously not something a bullpen catcher could foresee.
This reminded me of something my father asked me at least three times as we watched numerous Senator pitchers blow leads over the years.
"The warm up catcher in the bullpen has caught this pitcher dozens and dozens of times. Can't this catcher just tell the manager when the pitcher doesn't have his stuff and they can warm someone else up?"
The short answer to this question seems to be "No" (that's the anti climax).
A somewhat longer answer is that the warm up catcher can tell if there is some major problem with the pitcher (say he is throwing way too high) but not if some subtle defect exists. In the case of Rivero's performance, none of the hits against him were hard hit and his fumbling error was obviously not something a bullpen catcher could foresee.
