Monday, April 18, 2005
Three Is A Crappy Number
Every sweep has three losses
Every bad inning has three pitchers
Every opponents' rally uses gopher-ball tosses...
Yes, three, it's a crappy number...
Apologies to Schoolhouse Rock, but when you lose three games in a row (for the third time in a row) by scoring three runs each game, it's time to abandon in-depth analysis for snarky rip-offs of songs familiar to thirty-somethings.
But it's not like it requires incredibly in-depth analysis. Our bullpen collapsed on Saturday and Sunday and our offense, which looked so good that first week of the season, has become much, much quieter. Was it a minor slump in a pitcher's park, or was the first week the outlier?
Sunday's 7-3 D-Backs loss to the Nationals looked a lot like Saturday's 7-3 loss. Substitute generally reliable setup guy Mike Koplove on Sunday for generally reliable LOOGY Randy Choate on Saturday and it's the same implosive story. Yes, lots of bullpens are shaky in middle relief (they are, by definition, the least best pitchers on the staff), but it doesn't make it any less frustrating.
The nice thing about this being the beginning of the season is that a couple collapses like we saw this weekend is still more likely to generate frustration than the resignation with which we fans greeted such collapses for the second half of last season. We still feel like the D-Backs have something to play for, so these two games are symbolic more of lost opportunities than lost causes.
Drop by later today for some Three Weeks thoughts.
Every bad inning has three pitchers
Every opponents' rally uses gopher-ball tosses...
Yes, three, it's a crappy number...
Apologies to Schoolhouse Rock, but when you lose three games in a row (for the third time in a row) by scoring three runs each game, it's time to abandon in-depth analysis for snarky rip-offs of songs familiar to thirty-somethings.
But it's not like it requires incredibly in-depth analysis. Our bullpen collapsed on Saturday and Sunday and our offense, which looked so good that first week of the season, has become much, much quieter. Was it a minor slump in a pitcher's park, or was the first week the outlier?
Sunday's 7-3 D-Backs loss to the Nationals looked a lot like Saturday's 7-3 loss. Substitute generally reliable setup guy Mike Koplove on Sunday for generally reliable LOOGY Randy Choate on Saturday and it's the same implosive story. Yes, lots of bullpens are shaky in middle relief (they are, by definition, the least best pitchers on the staff), but it doesn't make it any less frustrating.
The nice thing about this being the beginning of the season is that a couple collapses like we saw this weekend is still more likely to generate frustration than the resignation with which we fans greeted such collapses for the second half of last season. We still feel like the D-Backs have something to play for, so these two games are symbolic more of lost opportunities than lost causes.
Drop by later today for some Three Weeks thoughts.
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