06-04-2023, 07:06 AM
(06-03-2023, 07:26 PM)cinci4life Wrote: Well they're trying to come back. They were down 9-1 at one point and it's now 10-6 in the 7th. Got to give Salazar credit for pitching 3 scoreless innings after the debacle in Boston.
I was going to reply to your comment in the last thread but got busy and never got around to it.
Quote:Salazar needs to go. Comes in with a 9-3 lead in the 9th and now it's 9-6 and forced to bring Diaz in to clean up the mess.
Maybe. I went back and re-watched it. He had a lot going against him that night and a lot to learn from afterwards.
Third game in the bigs.
Ninth inning.
Fenway Park.
Four of the six hitters were left handed.
2-1 low strike fastball - routine fly out to RF - Right handed hitter - #7 hitter Kiki Hernandez
3-2 outside backdoor slider - walk - eight pitch at bat with 2 two strike fouls - Left handed hitter
0-2 backdoor slider - 2B on a deep fly opposite field down the line - bad read by Benson. He slid short of the ball but was perfectly lined up for it - LH hitter
1-1 grooved fastball - seeing eye bouncing grounder by leadoff hitter Tapia - India looked pretty slow on the play - LH hitter
2-1 outside corner fastball - hardest hit ball - line drive up the middle on the 2B side that landed in the dirt infield by Devers - LH hitter
1-1 fastball on the outside part of the plate - opposite field line drive single against the stupid shift by Turner - RH hitter
Two well hit balls for singles out of six batters faced and if Benson doesn't misjudge that ball, it's two outs and a runner on first instead of one out and runners on 2nd and third. If he's three feet deeper/closer to the Green Monster, he catches that ball. Perhaps India is positioned differently if there were two outs and a runner on first. Then Tapia's ground ball ends the game with no runs scored.
HOWEVER . . . Salazar clearly lacks an out pitch. 6 and 1/3 innings after yesterday and he has a total of two strikeouts. He's a good candidate for long relief early in the game, which is what he just did so very well. Three of his four appearances were scoreless and he never really looked overmatched against Boston, just unfortunate. Diaz was hit a lot harder than Salazar as Yoshida drilled an opposite field gapper for a double and Duran hit a shot but it was a grounder right at McClain for the second out. The big difference is that Diaz has an out pitch and he ended the game with a strikeout.
And Salazar did make some mistakes vs Boston . . .
The 0-2 2B at bat had two fouls at 0-2. Always make him chase on 0-2. He threw three straight 0-2 strikes. Not wise when you don't have an out pitch.
The hard single by Devers was an exact repeat of the previous pitch, which Devers fouled back.
I'm sure they told him "This is the big leagues now, son. You can't be making those mistakes". So far, it looks like he learned from that bad outing.
Only users lose drugs.
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