no no no...i'm not talking about halladay's no-hitter specifically. i did see it. he was awesome! i'm talking very generally about the difference between a no-hitter and a one-hitter or two-hitter.
i never ever never want them doing instant replay on balls and strikes. having said that...all the leagues take heat for this during their respective postseasons. the NFL and NBA have both come back and apologized to losing teams before saying, "we got it wrong." that isn't MLB-exclusive.
Agreed with this entire post. That said, I do think MLB needs to expand replay and the time argument is stupid. They don't have to do replay the silly way they do it now (all the umps go down into the film room). It's ridiculous that they do that. Just have another ump that's always in the film room and if the head ump decides to do a replay he buzzes him and lets the guy interpret the call.
agreed..or maybe do it like the NHL does it?? where they review it back in a room somewhere completely removed from the stadium.... they can do it. and it will happen. and it STILL won't eliminate the controversy when you're talking about the tension of playoff games in a "game of inches." that will never be removed..and frankly, i hope it never is.
FWIW, this is a pitch tracker from last night's game. It backs up what my eyes were telling me, that Pavano was getting a ton of pitches off the plate called strikes for him. To be honest, the Twins shouldn't be complaining. When Pavano threw strikes last night he was getting hit hard. In that Berkman at bat he got a gift call and then the ump did a makeup call. The count was right where it needed to be though. For the below chart: red=called strike, green=called ball. Square=twins, triangle=Yankees Edit: I uploaded to imageshack a .jpg version so I could show it here. Original still attached at bottom.
The argument about the "blown call" in the Yankee game is so stupid to anyone who actually watched the game. The WHOLE GAME the ump was giving extra inches off of the outside corner against left handed batters and not calling strikes even if they caught the inside corner. In the same at bat, he called a strike on a pitch that was well off the outside corner. The strike zone was basically shifted several inches to the pitcher's right because of where the umpire had set up (over the catcher's right shoulder). According to pitch tracking or a literal interpretation of the rules, yes that was a blown call on the potential third strike, but a dozen other called strikes would have been balls (see any of Gardner's ABs). Umpires have their own strike zones, and as long as they are consistent, no one usually cares that much.
Glad the Philly offense could get Roy O. off the hook. I couldn't care less about Philly but I didn't want to see Roy take too much heat. He was pretty awful. Couldn't find his command from the very first pitch. Utley's yips didn't help the cause but Oswalt was just bad in this one. The best thing you could say is that he minimized the damage, keeping it together enough to not let it get too out of hand.
That wasn't about the Philly's offense.. that was about the total collapse and choking of an entire team of professional athletes! I mean our best defenders had more errors in this one game than they had ALL SEASON LONG!
I didn't actually watch much past the 4th. Couldn't take seeing Roy struggle that much. I just meant that I was glad Roy got off the hook somehow. If it weren't for Roy being out there, I'd be pulling for the Reds for sure. It's been a dilemma with Roy and Lance going to those 2 teams. Edit: Wow, just saw the 4 errors in the boxscore. The only gaffes I saw were by Utley early in the game. Must've gotten ugly out there. I'll check the highlights later.
ATL showing what they did best in baseball for most of the season - late comebacks. I'm 100% pulling for SF in this series. Too bad. Still a tie game at home but Wilson's been used now. Need to get out of this and strike back quickly or somebody else will be closing/finishing off this game.
I just got home and watched the Reds collapse, ouch that will be hard to take for Reds fans. Oswalt had his first rough outing in a while but he really isn't needed till the NLCS and then its on!
Wow, I still haven't seen the highlights of the Phillies-Reds game from past the 4th inning but I didn't realize it was THAT bad. I've been reading different stuff between innings of this Giants game. 7 runs without a single XBH... 4 errors... 3 hit batters??? That's nuts.
This has been a painful inning, sucks to see one of my heros go out like this. Wags has been so good for so long, I hope he reconsiders retirement for one more year.
Wow, that sucked. Posey could've taken his newfound stardom to another level right there. He'll get more chances though.
Sorry to you and Hayesfan. I know this kind of stuff hurts deep for diehard sportsfans. If it's any consolation, I'm an Indians and Astros fan. Plus, it ain't over til it's over as they say. Try to enjoy it til the last out. Anything can happen. You also have a great team, loaded with young hitting and pitching talent. You guys should be the best in the NL Central for the next several years.
The Braves slumped offensively down the stretch, as r934 pointed out, but they were the comeback kings for much of the season. It seemed like they were pulling off late comebacks every other night at one point. They picked a good night to get that going again... for them and their fans at least.
