Game 128 – Taking the Defensive Indifference

Marcum’s control was not there again today. He threw 46 strikes to 31 balls. Of the 20 hitters he faced, 12 of them took first pitch balls. Marucm’s control really cost him in the 4th as the Sox scored 4 runs. The inning went 1B, then back-to-back BB’s to the 7 and 8 hitters, he then beaned the 8 hitter to push in the 1st run, and that was followed by an RBI 1B, RBI groundout, and a SF. All told Marcum gave up 5 runs in 3.2 IP.

The bullpen struggled to keep it close (although they didn’t let it get out of hand either) giving up 3 runs the rest of the way. Those add-on runs can really hurt as instead of just being down one (as they were after the 4th) late in the game, you are now thinking about needing a big inning to get back in the game.

The Jays offence came from a pair of 2-run HR’s from Rios and Overbay. However, that was all they could manage despite facing Byrd for his 3rd straight start. I guess some credit needs to be given to Byrd here. Byrd has never been one to get by on his pure stuff, he has had to rely on knowing how to pitch and outthink the hitters. Generally the more a team sees a pitcher, the advantage swings to the hitters. The reason being they see all his pitches and learn exactly how hard they are and how much they break. They also can pick up on tendencies of the pitcher. Of course baseball is a game of adjustments and the ones who adjust the quickest will succeed more often than not.

The Jays had some chances against the Sox bullpen but a couple of DP’s hit into by Inglett certainly hurt. In the 7th after a leadoff 1B by McDonald, Inglett grounded into a 4-6-3 DP. That was followed by back-to-back walks but Wells could not come through w/the 2-out hit. In the 9th McDonald got a 1-out 1B, but again Inglett grounded into a DP, this time ending the game.

The DP in the 9th could have been avoided if McDonald had taken off for second base during the AB. I can say w/about 99% certainty that if McDonald had took off for 2nd the Sox would have done nothing allowing him the base. They had a 4-run lead in the 9th w/1 out and were playing behind him. It should have been a classic case of defensive indifference but instead McDonald stayed put. Sure in the grand scheme it probably won’t change the outcome of the game, but there will be that once a season maybe where by removing the DP and extending the inning they will start a 2-out rally to come back and win the game.

One thing I noticed and it happens on occasion is when the 2B or SS breaks towards second base on a pickoff play even if the pitcher decides not to attempt the pickoff they should at least step off. The reason being you need to give your defender time to get back into position. You don’t want them trying to run back to their position while you are delivering the pitch. It can make for an awkward time if the defender has to switch directions on a ground ball.

Let’s see some stats:
Adv: Ellsbury
P-Adv: Marcum (6)
Adv+: Crisp
P-Adv+: Marcum (5)
NAdv: Scutaro (5)
P-NAdv: Byrd
WG: Lind (2)