Friday, May 28, 2010

The Good, The Bad, The Odd

Game 47: Durham Bulls 3, Rochester Redwings 4
Season: 26-21
Wrap, Box, Indy Week

For a more linear view of the game, see Adam Sobsey in the Indy Week link. For me, I’m still trying to get over my disappointment in Jason Cromer’s first appearance. But, surely no more disappointed that Jason himself.

Good:
  • Aneury Rodriguez. Although hitters were giving his pitches a lot of hard rides, they landed in the fielders’ gloves. A solid 5 ⅔ although he left a couple of runners on for Cromer.
  • Joe Dillon. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player crawl his way to home, but Joe did. After stealing second base in the 6th, Joe was dashing around third on an Angel Chavez single. Something went seriously wrong and he collapsed several feet from the plate. Sobsey reports that it was a hamstring and that Dillon will be out for a while. The only good is that he scored the run. Otherwise, everything else about the incident is not good.

Bad:
  • Jason Cromer. Can’t sugar coat it. He came on in the 5th and got his batter out. In the sixth he loaded the bases with walks and left with one out.
  • Angel Chavez’ error. Chavez was playing second base after the odd shuffle that resulted from Joe Dillon’s injury. Dan Johnson, who started the game as the designated hitter, move to third base and Chavez moved to take Dillon’s place at second. Although second isn’t his usual spot, he’s been there a couple of times this year. With the bases loaded he let a ball get by that resulted in two runs scoring.
  • Joe Dillon’s absence. Joe has made a difference this year, and last. He’s gonna be missed. We have no idea when we will hear what about his injury.
  • Fifteen strikeouts against the team with the worst ERA in the International League

Odd:
  • Because the designated hitter, Dan Johnson, moved to third on Joe Dillon’s injury, the pitcher was eligible to come to bat. I’d like to think that if the game had not been at risk Charlie Montoyo would have allowed it just for the oddity of it all. In practice, Chris Richard came to bat as a pinch hitter in the 8th (he struck out).
  • Catcher, baserunner, umpire and several others standing around home plate until Colina apparently hears the folks screaming at him and tags out the Redwing baserunner, who had apparently not touched home plate.


This is likely the last blog entry for a few days. We are off for a visit to one of the country’s most interesting institutions — the John C. Campbell Folk School. We think a lot of the place and have written about it previously. Although I will be able to track the Bulls and could probably make entries from time to time, seems like the whole point of going there is to get away from technology for a while.

4 comments:

  1. Every once in a while I have conversations with people who say that minor league ballplayers don't care about their teams or games, they just want to get called up. I wish those people could have been there to see Joe Dillon last night.

    Sadly, I would be very surprised if he isn't out for a long time. I don't know much about him off the field, but he seems like he would be the type to work pretty hard to rehab as quickly as possible.

    Anyway, enjoy the trip. We will hope things don't fall apart here while you are gone.

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  2. I agree about Joe. I have a query in to see if there was a clip of that extraordinary effort.

    Will be able to make game tonight. Just won't have time, I think, to blog about it.

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  3. Joe Dillon guts it out like a Medal of Honor soldier crawling to home plate and the Durham Bulls website does not include it in the small video highlights of the game? Boooooooooooooooooooo

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  4. I've asked that question and was told that the TV crew did not keep the camera on Dillon enough to get the story. Remember that the TV crew is an Explorer Scout troop. But maybe there's something somewhere within their system. I believe that the query is being made, but I'm not hopeful. Too bad.

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