There are times when it is good for a manager to let his starting pitcher work his way out of a jam, to try and build his confidence, or to preserve a tired bullpen. A 0-0 game against the Dodgers in mid-September in the heat of a pennant race is not one of those times.
This was not a game I expected the Giants to win, but Barry Zito came out totally locked in throwing magical stuff. He matched the hard-throwing Clayton Kershaw pitch for pitch, inning for inning through 5. I really thought Zeets might be pitching the game of his life right here tonight. Then, in the 6'th, with one out, Zito hit Reed Johnson with a pitch that Johnson actually started to swing at. Not sure if the rule saying the batter has to try to avoid getting hit applies here, but it never does, and the Giants have benefited from this type of HBP several times in the last couple of years, so I can't really complain, just dumb luck, I guess. The next batter was Clayton Kershaw, who got the sac bunt down sending Reed to 2B. No big deal, right? There were 2 outs, right? Well, except that the next batter was Rafael Furcal who has absolutely worn out the Giants and Barry Zito all year, so it was no surprise that Zito pitched around him walking him on 4 pitches, none of which were intended to hit the strike zone. Unfortunately, the next batter, Andre Ethier, who Zito had made look silly in his previous AB's drew an unintentional walk to load the bases with Casey Blake coming up.
Bruce Bochy had correctly gotten Santiago Casilla up in the bullpen, and the situation seemed to be tailor made for him. RH batter Casey Blake, a Giants nemesis who has 3 career HR's off Barry Zito, an out you have to get, no way is Clayton Kershaw giving up so much as a 1 run lead in this game. Buster Posey went out to the mound to talk to Zito. I figured that he was just buying time for Casilla to get in a few more warmup pitches. The ump went out to break it up and Posey returned to his post behind the plate. I waited for Bochy to come out of the dugout.......Bochy let Zito pitch to Blake! Granted, Zito just needed one out to get out of the inning. Granted, he had given up just 1 hit and faced the minimum number of batters coming into the inning, but the batter was Casey $#&@ Blake and Zito has a history of falling apart rather quickly. Also granted, Zito pitched ol' Casey pretty darn good. In the end, Blake hit a hard grounder up the middle that Zeets managed to deflect off his glove, which gave Juan Uribe a chance to field it......and Uribe booted it! Everybody was safe and the run that I knew in my heart was the winning run crossed the plate. Uribe was charged with an error, but I'm not absolutely sure he would have gotten the runner at 2B even had he fielded it cleanly. His momentum was carrying him in the wrong direction and it would have been a tricky flip even with a clean pick. In any event, the damage was done.
I know it can be argued both ways, but I would have brought in Santiago Casilla to pitch to Blake without a moment's hesitation. I really expected that was what was going to happen. Watching Santiago Casilla come in and blow 96 MPH fastballs by Matt Kemp, balls that Kemp is still trying to catch up to, just made the realization that the game was probably over even more excruciating.
The Padres held on to edge the Rockies one more time, 7-6 to extend their lead in the NL West to 1.5 games over the Giants and 3.5 games over the Rockies. In the Wild Card race, the Braves lost to the Nats 6-0 to remain 1.5 games ahead of the Giants.
This was not a must-win for the Giants. As I said before, I didn't expect them to win this game. It just makes the next two games near-must-wins. Matt Cain takes the mound tomorrow to face another tough customer in Chad Billingsley. Unfortunately, this is another game in Cainer's career where he could pitch absolutely great, and still lose as Billz has pretty much dominated the Giants this season. Come on Giants hitters, at least go up there looking to run up his pitch counts a bit. Try to foul some balls off with two strikes just to keep the AB alive a bit longer, if nothing else!
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wanna freak out? the merc is reporting that torres was experiencing pain for weeks...but took "pills" to deal with it.
ReplyDeletenow tell me...why doesnt the guy consult with the giants medical staff
if they were prescription pain meds...how did he get them without a full exam?
im getting pretty tired of this medical staff...and i dont like that a player thinks he shouldnt talk to someone if he is experiencing pain (which may have been affecting him on the field) especially since, had his appendix ruptured, he could have died.
this is very bothersome.
I'm guessing that most players play through significant pain every day, especially by the end of a long season. As for pills, there is a lot of stuff you can get OTC nowadays that you don't need a prescription for, or he may have had some leftover pain meds from a prior injury or something. Lots of possible explanations. I really don't see anything sinister here.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit of an unusual history for appendicitis. Usually there isn't a several weeks long prodrome like that. On the other hand, I've read and heard about cases of appendicitis that resolved without ever getting surgery, although I don't know how that diagnosis was confirmed in those cases. I'm glad they got the CT Scan(BTW, CT Scan for acute abdominal pain is pretty standard these days) because the history sounds so atypical. When I was an intern, I took care of a kid in his 20's who had been operated on for appendicitis only to turn up with a big colon cancer about 6 months later.
BTW, I recently took Advil and Aleve for about 6 months for a toothache that finally got so bad I went to the dentist and ended up with a root canal. I guess stupidity isn't limited to ballplayers!
It's the baseball code: real men play with their pain, they take one for the team.
ReplyDeleteAnd the blog post only stated that he took "some pain pills", nothing sinister implied anywhere in the post. To DrB's example, Torres probably just took regular pain pills, as the pain was not that great yet, until it forced him to the emergency room.
Also, someone on MCC (I think, or was it ELM?) alluded to Torres AHDH medication's possible link to appendectomies, I did not read all the links but the implication was that it is not clear or not if the medicine's possible side affects causes medical personnel to think that the patient has appendicitis.
That could explain the anomaly that DrB noted about the length of the prodrome (don't know what that is but assume it is the sign that it is coming). Perhaps DrB can check on that, sorry I don't remember more.
Sudden memory jog: I think it was Lyle who noted the medication problem, I think it was noted to just google "ADHD" and "appendicitis" and it would pull it up. Oh, I think the medication is Adderall.
ReplyDeleteOGC,
ReplyDeleteYes, a prodrome is a period of mild symptoms leading up to the full manifestation of the disease state. I hadn't heard of the link of Adderall to appendicitis. I don't deal with ADD or ADHD much in my practice. Sounds interesting. I'll have to look it up.
I figured the odds are low that you have direct experience in your practice, but figured that you at least have the background to legitimately check into it without being mislead by a website, as most of us would. :^)
ReplyDelete