IGT: 06/04/2014 Mets at Wrigley

[Zvon]

I'll join you for the 9th. No one should have to go through this alone (meaning me).

[Edgy MD]

Wow. Ends with a lefty hitting into the shift.

[Zvon]

Glad to have joined you. A wild pitch, huh?

[Zvon]

Frayed Knot wrote: Now THAT* was a break going our way! * hard shot off Matsuzaka's ankle right to Tejada for a 1-6-4-3 inning-ending DP

Is this why he didn't get through 5?

[Frayed Knot]

No, he didn't get through 5 because he was pitching like shit.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Wow... it looks like this is the first IGT I've started since June 8, 2011.

Maybe I'll try again in another three years minus four days.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: Ceets, remember when I said that a game characterized by walks and strikeouts and few balls in play made for a lesser appeal?

Yeah. Last night was certainly not an appealing game, although I haven't really had the time to sit down and _just_ watch a Mets game in about a week. I know I sat down to watch "the rest of this half inning" in I think the third and it seemed to take 6 years to not score.

Perspective plays in too though. If this was a battle for first place, don't you think we'd feel differently? They're under .500 so it feels like a battle of ineptitude, for any number of reasons. But if the walks and strikeouts and stranding runners were happening in a back and forth battle for first, wouldn't it feel more like a pitcher's duel than a game of offense hot potato?

I just enjoy the mind games of the pitcher-batter matchup. The "should I swing?" struggles, the pitch that hits the corner. The just-missed meaty fastball that gets fouled off to make it 0-2 and puts a batter in a tough spot. The tailing slider that makes a hitter look foolish and walk back to the dugout. The balance of bouncing a curveball to make a hitter flail versus the chance it'll bounce away from the catcher allowing a runner to advance. The 10-pitch battle AB where a pitcher just can't quite get it past a batter and the batter's fighting off good pitches just waiting out the pitcher to either float one or walk him. I'm sure I'm not alone in this, particularly because of all the pitcher gifs I see posted of great pitches. The pitcher is doing the most interesting thing on the field on any given day.

But of course, that's the ideal. Dice-K and Jackson are crazy slow (the time between pitches is more of a bore than walks/Ks) and often struggle to even throw strikes. It's not so much a pitcher-batter mental joust as it is batters waiting around for reasonable pitches to offer at.