Game 28 – It’s All About How You Finish
What a dominating game Zach pitched today against an extremely flat Chicago Cubs team. Impressive. Not only did he get his first complete game shutout, he did it facing only 4 batters over the minimum and only threw 112 pitches over 9 innings of work. Just 13 of 31 Cubbie batters even went past 3 pitches in their at bat. Awesome display of dominance.
The Cubs sent to the mound an AA pitcher with a relatively straight heater ala Snell, but Guzman features a nasty slider and change that Ian doesn’t have. You can tell this kid will be good in a few years but he is a ways from it and we beat on him pretty good. Kudos to the kid for taking the beating and learning from the experience.
How about Freddy Sanchez today? Batting in the 3 hole in front of Bay he went 3-5 with 3 rbi’s and 2 runs scored. Freddy loves fastballs and he ate Guzman for dinner. Nice to see Tracy mix up the batting order a bit.
Speaking of a mixup, Joe Randa went to Pittsburgh to have an MRI done on his foot today. I don’t really understand why he would go all the way to Pittsburgh just to be seen unless the team doesn’t expect him to travel to NY. Looks to me like Freddy will be anchoring 3B for a few days until they come off this road trip. We’ll have to see.
A solid source in the industry told me this eve that it looks like Burnett’s last surgery might have finished him off. One scout who watched him pitch the last two outings said he doesn’t look healthy at all and could very well be on his way back to the DL. The org will have a tough decision to make on whether or not they are going to continue to pay for his downtime and medical work or release him ala Bradley. And another one bites the dust..
Doumit has been recalled and Edwards sent back down to Indy. The team will go with 3 catchers for now. I will assume Tracy and Littlefield will try to find Ryan another position to play. Can you shag fly balls in CF Ryan?
I wonder if we can just forfeit the next two games? I mean, do we *really* have to face Pedro and Glavine back to back? Gee.. we throw Ian Snell and Paul Maholm at them.. two pitchers who haven’t even been to Shea yet, much less had to pitch there. Man, are we in trouble or what? Maybe I need to make another call for some more Mojo? Naw.. let’s see what happens. I mean, everybody has said Ian looked sharp his last few outings, right? (excuse me while I laugh my but off hysterically). Well, the Mets aren’t really hitting all that well.. especially against left hand pitching at Shea. Maybe there is a chance for Maholm. This will be a serious test of his maturity.
After this series in NY, the Pirates take a loooong train ride to DC to play the Nats. It will either be a Coors light express with music blaring and lots of fun, or the longest ride in team history.
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