Results tagged ‘ Pitcher ’
A Crazy Series Unfolds
With
the Athletics one is never bored.
Today saw the removal of Dan Johnson from the team, which makes me very
sad, and Harden looking like he will not be ready for his next start. Room had to be made on the roster to
bring up a pitcher to start the game today and Dan Johnson was designated for
assignment as a result. He was
drafted seven years ago with the Athletics and was a big part of the team the
past few years. Johnson was always
a fan favorite nicknamed DJ, and was an extremely nice guy. But as my father
said earlier today “Its business”.
I wish that were not the case.
Harden is still experiencing soreness in his right shoulder blade ans
was quoted today saying” I don’t know if it’s too likely that I’ll be starting
Saturday, but we’ll see. It’s the
one spot on my body that I don’t take any chances with.” That is enough however
on the negatives and now on to the past two games. This has been a crazy series and both teams will be
glad to see it end.
Tuesday’s
game was won on an RBI triple from rookie Ryan Sweeney for a final of 9-8. The
game was a rollercoaster with the Athletics ahead 8-6 in the 8th
inning. Embree walked Wells and
then former Athletics player Thomas hit the long ball for a two run shot. Thus the game was tied. Luckily the Athletics had a powerful
top of the 9th. It all
began in the second for the Athletics with a five run 2nd inning
that saw Buck hit an RBI double.
He finally was able to break his 0 for 22 streak becoming the hitter he
was last year. Street cam in fir
the 9th doing what he does best aside from one walk. All in all it was a positive game much
better than the negative injury reports coming out of the Athletics camp.
Today’s
game again was crazy. Ellis
recorded four hits, which included a game tying triple in the 9th. He is having a fantastic start to the
season and so are the guys being brought in with the disabled list announcements. Today was Greg Smiths first major
league game and he was the starting pitcher. He seemed nervous in the first giving surrendering three
runs but after the 1st inning he was able to rally within himself
and settle down. Smith had five
shutout innings after the first and I was impressed that he was able to stabilize
and get the job done. When he left
the game it was 3-2 and at one point he got eight men out in a row. Very impressive stuff for a rookie in
the beginning of the season. Smith
looks very promising if he is able to repeat today’s performance . Today was the day for rookies with
Fernando Hernandez also making his debut, pitching a scoreless 8th and
receiving the win. The final was
6-3 and boy was I glad to see the game end. What I take away from this is that the Athletics have
talented rookies and are able to rally back after falling behind. All positives.
This is Not Good
This
is not good. There is hardly any
good news coming out of the Athletics camp right now. The only positives I see are that our catcher Suzuki is on
fire in the batters box, and Buck broke out of his funk. He finally found that
oh so elusive first hit. Other
than these two bright spots things look bleak and here is why. The DISABLED LIST is back and in full
force so it seems. Today Duscherer was placed on the fifteen day disabled list
retroactive to April 5th. He will most likely miss two starts but it seems the
way things go for the Athletics is that it begins as two and turns into five
missed starts. Harden was also
scratched from his start today and Gaudin was brought up from Triple A to make
the start. Harden has been
extremely injury prone and while he was not placed on the disabled list I feel
that is in his future. Apparently
Harden has a mild subscapularis strain
in his right throwing shoulder and felt it the first day back from the Japan
trip, which leads one to believe that the disabled list will be immanent for
him. Gaudin is himself coming off
of two surgeries so fingers crossed he doesn’t get hurt or the Athletics will really
be in a pickle. The Athletics
website when listing the starters for tomorrows game has a TBD and blank
picture while the Blue Jays are throwing McGowan. This is not a good sign! Click link below to see the picture!
Baseball In Poetry
9 Innings. 3 Outs. Pitch counts of around 100, a small white ball, 8 other men
behind you, supporting your every move.
These are the things a major league pitcher are given to craft their
art. Paper, pen, computer, language, their thoughts, these are a poet’s
supplies. In their elements
both strive to perfect the art of fooling their opponents: the reader and the
batter. Weather crafting an
unhitable pitch or tongue-twisting sentence both as the poet Robert Francis
states is trying to be “a moment misunderstood” in their art. Robert Francis
uses a pitchers battle to fool a hitter as a metaphor to illustrate the battle
a poet goes through to mislead their reader all in an effort to be “a moment
misunderstood”, while seeming eccentric, errant, arrant, and wild but being in
control of their craft the entire time.
The poem The Pitcher line by line is the back and forth of an exciting match up
between hitter, pitcher, reader and writer. It is this exciting match up between poetry and baseball that I will be looking at in my new weekly Baseball in Poetry blog. Here is this weeks poem The Pitcher by Robert Francis
His art is
eccentricity, his aim
How not to hit
the mark he seems to aim at,
His passion how
to avoid the obvious,
His technique
how to vary the avoidance.
The others
throw to be comprehended. He
Throws to be a
moment misunderstood.
Yet not too
much. Not errant, arrant, wild,
But every
seeming aberration willed.
Not to, yet
still, still to communicate
Making the
batter understand too late.
mlblogsbaseballkate
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