Although I love baseball, I rarely get to attend games in person.
When my oldest daughter told me that her sixth grade class was taking a
field trip to
Miller Park, I put in a time off request at work so I
could go with her. I've been to enough games with children to understand
that I'm not there to watch the game, but
a taste of love is better
than none at all, so even though it rained continuously while we were
tailgating, the dismal weather failed to dampen my enthusiasm. As a fan,
I believe that the first pitch is critical. For me, it sets the tone of
the game. It starts the game, and as I heard the crack of an opposition
bat, I wondered what travels through the mind of a
starting pitcher when the
leadoff man puts his first pitch into play?
During Wednesday's game, the Brewers rallied during the eighth
inning, but they were unable to gain the advantage before they walked
off the field. Miller Park has a retractable roof, but there were fans
holding umbrellas in front of the press box during the game. Memories of
the game were my forlorn companions as I drove home. The following is a
sampling of what I was thinking as I arrived at the term Pitcher's
Duet: The
Dodgers are not a great team, they're not even a very good team. They
won, so they must be the better team, but as the guy sitting next to me
commented; after Peralta was pulled, from a pitching perspective, the
Brewers were not that bad. Wily Peralta
helped the Dodgers score by pitching poorly, without his aid, I doubt
the game would have progressed as it did.
During a traditional Pitcher's Duel those in charge of the mound
use
their speed, cunning, velocity, pickoff moves, and intimidation against
the opposition. This type of a game will often feature a lot of
strikeouts, see few, if any hits, and it can be heartbreaking to see a
great pitcher lose a game if he fails to gain run support from his
offense. On the dance floor, a duet has two people moving in opposite
directions, when the leading partner steps forward, the other dancer
must step away or the dancers will collide. During a duel, the people on
either side are matched, but not as partners who are dancing. Their
goal is to maim, hurt, or kill their opponent. While dancing, the
partners must cooperate with each other if they are to be successful. A
pitcher's duel has two pitchers of similar ability hurling their best
towards the plate. A pitcher's duet has a good pitcher holding the
offense of the other team at bay while his opponent counters by throwing
easily hit pitches at the batters he's facing, not on purpose, but
because some days you just don't have your best stuff with you.
If we could travel back in time to watch Rick Porcello start against
the Angels on the twentieth of April, we'd see that he gave up nine of
the ten runs the team eventually scored. What makes this situation
unique, is that this occurred before the first three outs. It was a
disatrous game for him, and if you take those nine runs from the first
out of the equation, that suddenly becomes a lead of one which is much
easier to overcome. Garrett Richards pitched well, the Tigers had only
two hits that game, had it not been for Porcello's help, I'm guessing
that game would have been a lot closer. Although it's hard to predict
what could have happened had another pitcher started for the Tigers,
Detroit pitching has been very good so far. Anibal Sanchez recently lost
a no hitter bid on a Joe Mauer hit, he has two games with double digit
strikeouts, and Max Scherzer competed against King Felix Hernandez in a
pitcher's duel where both the Tigers and the Mariners recorded double
digit strikeout numbers.
Most of the time people consider a pitcher's duel to be a battle of
two pitcher's who are considered aces, however, I'd like people to
consider a less traditional type of pitcher's duel where two inept
pitchers are both throwing garbage. Fans attending this
type of a game would see a lot of walks, scoring on wild pitches, poor
pitcher fielding, and batters being awarded bases after getting hit by
pitches. This would be a game where few runners slide when they steal,
and there would be a lot of stealing because pitchers would not be
reacting to stolen base attempts in a timely manner. A game like this
would probably end with incredibly low strikeout numbers,
and high scores for both teams as the offense feasts on the offerings at
the plate while the over taxed defense scrambles to try and stop the
hemmorhage.
This past Wednesday, I needed a
way to come to grips with what I saw before Peralta was pulled from the
game. I wish I could say that I saw Ryu dominating the Brewers, but the
truth is that after Peralta was relieved, the pitching was more evenly
matched leading me to believe that Ryu was not having a Matt Harvey
type of day. I don't think Ryu pitched poorly, however I don't think he
pitched his best game either. Peralta's pitching enabled the Dodgers, he
helped his opponent instead of devastating or dominating the
opposition. Pitcher's Duet may seem like a silly term, there may not be a
lot of point in talking about similar scenarios as pitchers are
typically pulled after that type of underwhelming performance, however, I
think there's a potential danger in celebrating a win that came because
your opponent was unworthy, and you came armed with less than your
best.
The Brewers lost, however I can not say that the Dodgers played well.
Nick 'Shredder' Punto was the starting shortstop, he was charged with
two errors, Adrian Gonzalez had an unspectacular game, Matt Kemp had a
nice routine catch, but the only really amazing play of the game came
against the Dodgers when Ryan Braun made a terffic leaping catch to
grab a ball before it went over the wall in left field. He also took Ryu
deep in his next at bat, eliminating the possibility of a shutout. As I
left the game, I had a chance to talk briefly with a Dodgers fan who
was in town on business. Although he was happy with the victory, he was
disappointed that his team had fared so poorly thus far. He had hoped,
along with many others, that a team with the type of payroll the Dodgers
support would be playing better than they have this May.
Although I'm going to continue to use the term Pitcher's Duet to
describe matchups like the one I saw on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, I'm
not going to glory in the creation of a new term. What happened was sad
that day. Two teams with several errors, a team with a decent pitcher,
and an offense that knew how to take advantage of another team's
weakness, against a team that allowed more runs than they drove in that
day. Had Ryu pitched a no hitter, or a complete game, perhaps I would
feel differently about what I witnessed. The term I coined is nothing
more than a name for the exquisite pain I felt watching what unfolded
before me at Miller Park. Futher I'd like to postulate that in my
opinion, the pitcher's duet is more harmful to a team, and the losing
pitcher, than the nobler piercing a pitcher sustains after the team he
plays for loses a one-nothing game after he strikes out looking in the
bottom of the ninth because he gave up a single moon shot earlier.