Game Day - April 2nd - Calm & Chaos
Life got away from me yesterday so we are going to have some quick hit reviews this morning.
San Francisco Giants @ New York
Brito and the Bronx Bombers
How the Yankees Won: The Yankees won in the most Yankees way possible and it’s the kind of game that worries me the most. They sent out their young pitcher who goes 5 innings and gives up 2 hits. The Yankees’ rotation will be fine until they get their injured starters back. The bats hit home runs early and in bunches. I look at this game and I think this is the scariest kind of Yankee game.
How the Giants Lost: It’s not fair to say the bats didn’t show up. Brito had what looked like to the eye, an excellent game. There was no chance for the Giants to get into a rhythm, get base runners and get momentum. The Giants ran into a peak Yankee team today. Tip your cap, thank them for the one victory on the road and go to the next series.
Baltimore Orioles @ Boston Red Sox
Where the Runs are Plentiful and the Results Don’t Matter
How the Red Sox Won: The Red Sox pitching was less bad than the Orioles and the hit parade never stopped parading. I think the Red Sox have some roster problems this season. I watch this series and I wonder what the Red Sox are going to look like against a team that can play defense and strikes out the batter. Looking at the rest of the AL East, it’s all match-up nightmares for the Red Sox, but who cares? This was a fun series to watch. Tons of runs, tons of hits, tons of steals, and tons of all the things that baseball wants to incentivize in order to grow the game. Now, just get rid of blackouts and we can grow the game even more.
How the Orioles Lost: The flag raised for me today was the idea of how Baltimore will play when they are behind. We know their offense can get runs against suspect pitching, but what happens when the pitching is better and they are not the first team to score? This game was a great example of the team coming back to tie it in the top of the fifth inning, but the pitching gives up 3 runs in the bottom of the inning and they are playing catch-up again. The offensive talent was not enough to overcome the weaker parts of the roster today and the bad defense the game before plus the errors today means I have real concerns about this team being a threat for the wild card race. Standard early season caveats apply, but there isn’t enough baseball diversity in the way this team wins that suggests they are a real threat, not this year.
