RMJ 109 June 3
TUESDAY, JUNE 3 ● Houston, vs Dodgers
Short night for the weary. Home at 11:30. Packed by 12:15. Asleep by 1:30. Cubby arrived at 9 a.m. Whomever made this schedule has surely never traveled the baseball circuit. The computer may tell them it’s possible, but anyone who knows would tell them it’s beyond difficult.
Darryl Kile finished second in the May Player of the Month voting. He was 5-0 with a 1.20 ERA. I felt pretty good about his chances to beat Pedro Astacio.
D.K. didn’t have great command. In fact, home plate umpire Terry Tata didn’t call one curve ball a strike in the seven-plus innings Darryl worked. Most of the pitches were, indeed, balls. But I have to believe some were in the strike zone.
This makes two games in a row where I feel we have gotten the short end of Tata’s stick. Do I think he’s sticking it to us? Hell, no. He’s not out to get us, any more than Jim Quick is. It just seems that way at times.
We might be wrong, anyway. Tata certainly has a better vantage point than we do. Still, sometimes it just looks like their pitcher is getting strike calls on borderline pitches, and our pitcher is not. Luckily, D.K. is so confident that he pitched a great game anyway.
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darryl Kile | 7 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 2.27 |
| Blas Minor, BS (1) | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Russ Springer | 1.1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2.03 |
| Mike Magnante, W (1-0) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Team Totals | 10 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 2.70 |
Springer lucked-out in the ninth. With one out and a 1-2 count, Nelson Liriano broke from first, and Mike Piazza lined a shot into the right field corner. Liriano should have scored for sure, but he didn’t look back to pick up the ball off the bat. As he approached second, Biggio ran to the bag and hollered for the ball. Liriano slid in, and by the time he realized what had happened, he had to stop at third. He would have scored from first if he had not been running.
As it turned out, he did not score. The Dodgers are struggling worse than we are.
It was another blow to them — and a lesson, I hope, for Biggio. He insists that he cannot run as fast to second on a steal if he looks back to see the pitch go through the hitting zone. The coaching staff disagrees. How much time could you lose with a brief glance back, compared to the information you can gain if you look?
Earlier in the series, Brett Butler stole on a wild pitch. If he had looked back, he could have continued to third. Instead, he had to stop at second.
After the game, I went up to Bidge and said, “Great decoy. See what happens when you don’t look back to pick up the ball?” He smiled. I hope it made an impression, but I doubt it. His view of the game is about as flexible as the Rock of Gibraltar.
Mike Magnante
Mike Magnante, our other new pitcher, got them out in the tenth. Then with two out in the bottom of the inning, as we came close to the end of our pitching resources, Jeff Bagwell hit a home run to win the game. What a feeling! As he crossed home plate, teammates were beating him about the head like a World Series hero.
On the airplane to Cincinnati, I asked Gonzo if he had packed the monkey. “No,” he said. “But we have the tape.”
I don’t know what the tape is, but if we don’t win here, I’m calling Federal Express. Not that I’m superstitious, or anything like that.