4/26 Sox@Rays

[a700hitter]

Unless I'm mistaken' date=' the Ray bullpen is really good so far this year. It's a safe bet that it's better than ours...[/quote']

It's only April. We'll have to see what their bullpen looks like in a couple of months. I'm sure that the hitters are glad to have Jackson out of there.

[Beaneater]

It's only April. We'll have to see what their bullpen looks like in a couple of months. I'm sure that the hitters are glad to have Jackson out of there.

 

True enough, on both counts. Jackson was pretty hoss.

 

What's up with Manny looking at strike 3?

[ORS]

He's throwing BB's late in the game, and that curve is a thing of beauty.

[a700hitter]

Bulcholz on the hill in the 8th. That's been a very rare occurrence for our starters. And he is still throwing unhittable strikes as he k's the first batter.

[Beaneater]

7-8-9 hitters = Buchholz back out for the 8th. Apparently he has decreed that all Rays will strike out for the rest of this game.

[ORS]

Unfair change to Navarro.

[Beaneater]

He's throwing BB's late in the game...

 

A nice change of pace from our other pitchers, who issue BBs late in the game. Early in the game too.

[a700hitter]

That was a squeeze job on what looked like a strike 3 curveball

[ORS]

The hook was a strike.

[a700hitter]

I hope that doesn't cost the kid.

[MANNYHOF24]

Clay Buchholz without question is da future.

[ORS]

The BS call on the 0-2 to Navarro hurts now.

[a700hitter]

The BS call on the 0-2 to Navarro hurts now.

He would have been out of the inning.

[SchillingIsTheNatural]

rare to see Francona let a starter go 8 innings....I think it will be even more rare after this....in this day and age teams adjust too well

[ORS]

Gameday shows it just inside of center and about 4" above the knee.

[a700hitter]

Bottom half of the order for the sox this inning.

[SchillingIsTheNatural]

Red Sox now have a 4-game losing streak and 2 1-run losses to the Tampa Bay Rays....hopefully they show up tomorrow afternoon and figure out how to get a win

[Jayhawk Bill]

Gameday shows it just inside of center and about 4" above the knee.

 

This is a case where Pitch f/x proves that an umpire's bad call decided a ballgame. It wasn't a borderline pitch--Iassogna made the wrong call.

[ORS]

And it wasn't even close. That pitch had to move a noticeable amount to even become borderline.

[a700hitter]

It was an obvious blown call even with the naked eye.

[a700hitter]

It was great to get a complete game, but the ump cost him the game.

[schillingouttheks]

The Sox need a day off.

[Beaneater]

This is a case where Pitch f/x proves that an umpire's bad call decided a ballgame. It wasn't a borderline pitch--Iassogna made the wrong call.

 

And may I suggest that it really bites to lose a game that way? Especially that game, where Buchholz was mowing them down mercilessly.

 

Edit: And it was a freaking .213 hitting second baseman with 1 extra base hit all year that hit the homer! A guy slugging .223! That's just ridiculous.

[Mr Crunchy]

rookies will do that on occasion

liook at the positives in bucks effort and move on

theres 5 months left to get this flat offense going

[VA Sox Fan]

Great outing by Clay. What a heart breaking ending. Let's win today!

[Jayhawk Bill]

This is a case where Pitch f/x proves that an umpire's bad call decided a ballgame. It wasn't a borderline pitch--Iassogna made the wrong call.

 

 

OK, I was wrong--or, at the least, incomplete--here. In fairness to Dan Iassogna and MLB, I'll post what I've learned.

 

I went through every pitch of the game using the actual MLB-norm called strike zone width. In the at bat in question, while Iassogna "blew" the call, he had blown another in the other direction two pitches earlier. The pitch was outside the actual strike zone by two inches, and outside the "called" strike zone by a quarter-inch. That called strike should've been a ball.

 

Over the entire game, Iassogna "gave" Buchholz six calls and "took away" five calls. He "gave" Buchholz a "free" strike to each of the next two batters, too, as two of those six cited calls.

 

Yes, in isolation that particular call we all saw changed the game, and the pitch was five inches inside the zone--but it's important to show the context in which that call was made.

 

***

 

Tough loss, nonetheless.

 

Pitch f/x raw data file, XML format, for Buchholz last night:

 

http://gd2.mlb.com/components/game/mlb/year_2008/month_04/day_26/gid_2008_04_26_bosmlb_tbamlb_1/pbp/pitchers/453329.xml

[ORS]

How many of them were decisive calls? In my viewing experience, some umpires' 3-0 strikezone is 2x the size of their 0-2 strikezone. It's as if there is a bias of expectation. They expect nothing other than a strike at 3-0 and expect something out of the zone at 0-2. Anything within 4" of the border, either way, seems to get called regularly in accordance with what the expectation happens to be.

[Jayhawk Bill]

How many of them were decisive calls? In my viewing experience' date=' some umpires' 3-0 strikezone is 2x the size of their 0-2 strikezone. It's as if there is a bias of expectation. They expect nothing other than a strike at 3-0 and expect something out of the zone at 0-2. Anything within 4" of the border, either way, seems to get called regularly in accordance with what the expectation happens to be.[/quote']

 

One of the earlier "given" strikes was strike three to Barlett in the third inning. One of the two "makeup" strikes was strike one to Iwamura, and giving a batter strike one on a first-pitch ball changes the entire tone of the plate appearance.

 

FWIW, ORS, I don't see what you're describing when I check Pitch f/x files this year, but it's well-known that umpires have changed in games where their pitch locations are being tracked. Perhaps what you've seen is now happening less? :dunno: