On an ugly loss, Ray's run, Ray's disaster, Vlad's moment, Judge's power, a late hook, dominance from Pearson, offensive woes, grim hopes, Jays vs. Baltimore, scoreboard watching, and more!
Pulled up the statcast for all the balls called in the game. Six, and possibly seven, all to Robbie Ray that ought to have been called strikes. Three of them came in the 6th. One to DJ might seem inconsequential, except he makes the adjustment and puts it a little higher to Stanton...still a ball instead of strike three. The Yanks had exactly one like this each.
Despite the result I can't cast any serious doubt on not pulling Robbie Ray. Hudson was awful, and his terrible strike zone affected far too much of this game. In the walk to Stanton that followed he threw a 2-2 slider that ought to have been called strike three also. He'd been calling a low zone all game and then suddenly a pitch that actually caught the zone is a ball. You add that to the terrible call on Rizzo's AB and this inning never happens.
While it certainly happened to the Yankees too we also had other ABs where early strikes that were 4 to 6 inches outside put Jays hitters behind and left us right where Kluber wanted us. A pitcher working us away with 6 inches of extra strike zone to work with.
I can't hang it all on Hudson of course. We got plenty of cookies we didn't hit too, but coupled with terrible umpiring in the Twins series I do get incensed about the outsized roles some umpires have had in mucking up game outcomes.
Good recap of a very painful evening! I think you nailed the Ray situation. It is not hindsight to have wanted him out before facing the Yankee sluggers a third time. Ironically I feel like Ray having a Cy Young season actually hurt the team in this situation in the sense that he mistakenly had an extended leash in a must win game. I think almost any other starter with those numbers 3rd time through the order would have been pulled after the Rizzo homer (especially considering Judge had one moonshot already). The way Pearson was throwing (this IS for sure hindsight) they had him, Richards and presumably Mayza and Romano for 11 outs, so I think the bullpen was in decent shape to finish that game. I don’t think these decisions last night were especially egregious but they do point to an overall theme I’ve felt this season where the team isn’t optimizing their chances to win like they could be. I hate to always bring up the Rays but you see the way they manage that team and it doesn’t seem like a fluke how often they win. Whether its bullpen management or lineup construction, they’re giving themselves the best chance to win every game using the incredible amount of data available. It feels like the Jays have dipped their toes into this management style with shifting differently with 2 strikes, 4 man outfields, etc but still aren’t fully committed. Overall I would love to see the Jays fully commit to trusting the numbers and I’ll live with the results
When Kevin Cash pulled Blake Snell in Game 6 of the world series last year, I wondered to myself -- What would feel worse? -- pulling your starter and then losing, or letting him pitch and then losing. I thought at the time that 'letting and losing' would feel worse. Now I know that I was right about that -- at least about my feelings.
Pulled up the statcast for all the balls called in the game. Six, and possibly seven, all to Robbie Ray that ought to have been called strikes. Three of them came in the 6th. One to DJ might seem inconsequential, except he makes the adjustment and puts it a little higher to Stanton...still a ball instead of strike three. The Yanks had exactly one like this each.
Despite the result I can't cast any serious doubt on not pulling Robbie Ray. Hudson was awful, and his terrible strike zone affected far too much of this game. In the walk to Stanton that followed he threw a 2-2 slider that ought to have been called strike three also. He'd been calling a low zone all game and then suddenly a pitch that actually caught the zone is a ball. You add that to the terrible call on Rizzo's AB and this inning never happens.
While it certainly happened to the Yankees too we also had other ABs where early strikes that were 4 to 6 inches outside put Jays hitters behind and left us right where Kluber wanted us. A pitcher working us away with 6 inches of extra strike zone to work with.
I can't hang it all on Hudson of course. We got plenty of cookies we didn't hit too, but coupled with terrible umpiring in the Twins series I do get incensed about the outsized roles some umpires have had in mucking up game outcomes.
Good recap of a very painful evening! I think you nailed the Ray situation. It is not hindsight to have wanted him out before facing the Yankee sluggers a third time. Ironically I feel like Ray having a Cy Young season actually hurt the team in this situation in the sense that he mistakenly had an extended leash in a must win game. I think almost any other starter with those numbers 3rd time through the order would have been pulled after the Rizzo homer (especially considering Judge had one moonshot already). The way Pearson was throwing (this IS for sure hindsight) they had him, Richards and presumably Mayza and Romano for 11 outs, so I think the bullpen was in decent shape to finish that game. I don’t think these decisions last night were especially egregious but they do point to an overall theme I’ve felt this season where the team isn’t optimizing their chances to win like they could be. I hate to always bring up the Rays but you see the way they manage that team and it doesn’t seem like a fluke how often they win. Whether its bullpen management or lineup construction, they’re giving themselves the best chance to win every game using the incredible amount of data available. It feels like the Jays have dipped their toes into this management style with shifting differently with 2 strikes, 4 man outfields, etc but still aren’t fully committed. Overall I would love to see the Jays fully commit to trusting the numbers and I’ll live with the results
When Kevin Cash pulled Blake Snell in Game 6 of the world series last year, I wondered to myself -- What would feel worse? -- pulling your starter and then losing, or letting him pitch and then losing. I thought at the time that 'letting and losing' would feel worse. Now I know that I was right about that -- at least about my feelings.