Saturday, April 18, 2009

Winning Pitchers

Last night, I almost turned off the radio to go to bed in the middle of the eighth inning. I've followed baseball long enough to know better, so I decided to listen to the very end. A bullpen meltdown and a Jason Kubel grand-slam later, the Twins had completed a dramatic comeback. Kubel deserves plenty of credit for the victory- particularly because he was one of few players who didn't wait until the last minute to try to win the ball game.

As is usually the case after a game like this, I had no idea who picked up the win. Apparently, surrendering two of your predecessor's runs in the 7th followed by one of your own in the 8th is all it takes. The 9 runs allowed really were a collective effort of Blackburn, Crain, and Guerrier. In such circumstances, I propose that the scorekeepers credit the win to the player most responsible for it. Last night, that would either be the Twins left-fielder or possibly Angels manager Mike Scioscia for over-managing the 8th inning. Any one of those pitchers could have recorded three outs before giving up 7 runs.

Finally, let's not forget the contributions of Brendan Harris. Sure, he struck out with the bases loaded in the eighth. But he had a solo HR early and a sacrifice fly in the 7th. Those two runs were the margin of victory.

1 comment:

  1. If baseball were run by more cynical people perhaps then Mike Scioscia would somehow be credited with the win. It would certainly be humiliating, so maybe FOX would broadcast baseball as a Reality Show.

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