Thursday, March 29, 2018

Things to improve upon

That was about as complete an Opening Day romp as I've ever seen.

Everybody hit. Not just Stanton, but pretty much everybody. We scored six runs even with Gardner hitting scorchers hot enough to light up Smoak, and a couple more hits taken away by Donaldson. Happ also pitched pretty well, I thought. Didn't matter.

Most encouraging, Judge had a couple of terrific at-bats after looking bad on that first strikeout.

Everybody hustled. Neil Walker would've stolen a run with a heads-up play, had we not been robbed on the video replay (How does that happen?).

Everybody fielded. We looked amazingly sharp for Opening Day. Good plays by Austin and Walker at first. Great play by Wade, just when Betances was blowing up. Didi looked like a vacuum cleaner out on their turf. Sanchez looked comfortable and competent.

Everybody pitched. Well, almost everybody. But seriously, Severino looked terrific. The pen was strong.

Ma Boone managed. Smart move on the quick hook for Luis.

Things to worry about:

—Toonces, of course. But I preferred this Betances, at least getting the ball in there, better body language, and coming back to get Donaldson. Not hopeless.

—Was it just me, or was Severino losing a lot of velocity near the end? Maybe just a case of building up strength through the season.

—Sure, the anti-Direct TV ghouls had a fun new ad, and the YES Network's "Nine-Man Booth" was fairly funny. But where was Irritabella, the IBS lady???



7 comments:

joe de pastry said...

J-Lo just joined A-Roid in the ESPN booth.

Steve Miller said...

The Master’s Stanton call was The Worst.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Now, now! Let's not push the panic button.

Yes, I think the best you can say about the call is that it needs work.

But Il Maestro has had some clunkers before—remember "Jolly Old St. Nick"?—and rallied beautifully. And this is a hard one.

Incidentally, it drew national attention.

Anonymous said...

MY TAKE ON SEVERINO WAS THIS....

WATCH OUT MLB.

HE WAS THROWING A NEW KIND OF CURVE BALL WITH A DIFFERENT TILT TO IT.

ALONG WITH HIS SLIDER, 98 - 100 FASTBALL AND A SELECTIVELY USED CHANGE UP, HE LOOKED MORE CONFIDENT AS WELL.

I BELIEVE HE HAS COMPLETELY ARRIVED NOW.

WE FINALLY HAVE A TRUE ACE.

JUST STAY HEALTHY.

ranger_lp said...

So much for that All-caps anon...Hicks is on the 10 Day DL. Billy McKinney has been recalled from WBS.

Anonymous said...

UNBELIEVABLE.....

INJURED AFTER ONE GAME??

DO NOT TRADE RED THUNDER!

EVER....

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