Listening to Maddon's post-game remarks, how he likes their intensity, etc., I kind of felt I had watched a different game. Actually, all these games against the Giants, like those against LA last weekend, had a kind of playoff intensity, or a playoff preview intensity. In this game, though, the Cubs left the bases loaded twice late in the game. Arrieta also let Crawford walk to third base and then threw a wild pitch to allow him to score what turned out to be the decisive run. Also, Rizzo made an inexcusable base-running error in the ninth inning to get himself picked off second base on a successful sacrifice.
Actually, I really thought this game was played a lot sloppier by both teams than the first two games of the series. Two of the Giants runs scored on Cubs misplays and the other was tainted as well by the wild pitch. On the Giants side of the ledger, although Baez scoring on the infield hit was a marvelous display of alertness, it should never have happened.
On the subject of Arrieta, I saw an interesting piece on Fangraphs. It is full of a lot of analysis and statistical stuff, but the gist of it is that Arrieta is having trouble commanding his slider, especially against left-handed hitters, because of a recently developed mechanical flaw. I cannot speak to the validity of the claim, but Arrieta since July has not, by and large, been the same pitcher he was last year or earlier in the season. He has a lot less command of his pitches, is getting the pitch count way up early in many of his starts, and he is just over-throwing some of his pitches in key situations. Hence all the wild pitches that have really hurt his performance. It cannot all be the result of the inexperience of Contreras. Hopefully, he can right the ship before the playoffs.
No comments:
Post a Comment