Waste pitches and a game foolishly given away.

[ramfandan]

Interesting how some create to fit their narrative..

1st pitch- sinker -in strike zone swing and miss
2nd - sweeper low/away. Nick C. Bites and check swing
1st base ump calls it strike 2
3rd — same sweeper lower bounced in dirt a bit ball 1
4th - sweeper over the plate lower than strike zone
Nick C. Tips it foul .. off cup of bat shattering tip .
Inches from striking out
New bat

5th —sinker —ball thrown in upper quadrant outside corner of strike zone…he fouls it off. Still 1-2
6th sweeper. low below outside vertical line of zone
Chip declares ‘Just missed ! 2-2

7th.. high hard fastball.. up and inside both. Ball..
3-2 now

8th sinker. In strike zone .. fouls it off
9th /. 2 seamer..99 mph inside part of strike zone—HR

The scenario of wasted pitches after the first two strikes is
Not the case.
Note: above pitch by pitch is from DVR recorded video.
If you recorded it, check it out.

Don't confuse the complainers with facts!!

LOL Some must be watching a different 9th inning at bat than we did or they need an eye appointment soon.

[rockondlouie]

To quote me (who better?) from just yesterday,
"the Cardinals (far from being the only team), have a ridiculous and highly counterproductive habit of intentionally calling "waste" pitches well outside the zone (either in the dirt or a foot outside)."
And less than 24 hours after that brilliant insight, that habit just cost them a game which was nearly impossible to lose.
Two "waste pitches" in the 9th gifted the Padres with 2 runs, and another "waste pitch" in the 10th gifted the winning run.
Amazingly stupid habit on the part of the Cardinals.
And amazing how good I am at understanding this stuff.

Drives me nuts too

When you've got a guy in the hole, then go after him.

Trying to get him to chase outside the zone may work a few times, most times they just spit on it and get back into the count.

Bad strategy

[Adam2]

To quote me (who better?) from just yesterday,
"the Cardinals (far from being the only team), have a ridiculous and highly counterproductive habit of intentionally calling "waste" pitches well outside the zone (either in the dirt or a foot outside)."
And less than 24 hours after that brilliant insight, that habit just cost them a game which was nearly impossible to lose.
Two "waste pitches" in the 9th gifted the Padres with 2 runs, and another "waste pitch" in the 10th gifted the winning run.
Amazingly stupid habit on the part of the Cardinals.
And amazing how good I am at understanding this stuff.

Drives me nuts too

When you've got a guy in the hole, then go after him.

Trying to get him to chase outside the zone may work a few times, most times they just spit on it and get back into the count.

Bad strategy

You don't know he was intentionally going outside the zone on those pitches. He's never been an elite reliever. He just missed. Have you ever played beyond high school? I have at a decent level. Pitchers miss all the time. It doesn't mean he was trying to throw a slider in the dirt.

[rockondlouie]

To quote me (who better?) from just yesterday,
"the Cardinals (far from being the only team), have a ridiculous and highly counterproductive habit of intentionally calling "waste" pitches well outside the zone (either in the dirt or a foot outside)."
And less than 24 hours after that brilliant insight, that habit just cost them a game which was nearly impossible to lose.
Two "waste pitches" in the 9th gifted the Padres with 2 runs, and another "waste pitch" in the 10th gifted the winning run.
Amazingly stupid habit on the part of the Cardinals.
And amazing how good I am at understanding this stuff.

Drives me nuts too

When you've got a guy in the hole, then go after him.

Trying to get him to chase outside the zone may work a few times, most times they just spit on it and get back into the count.

Bad strategy

You don't know he was intentionally going outside the zone on those pitches. He's never been an elite reliever. He just missed. Have you ever played beyond high school? I have at a decent level. Pitchers miss all the time. It doesn't mean he was trying to throw a slider in the dirt.

H.S.? I played in college so I think I know what I'm talking about.

Actually we do know it was intentional adam, from O'Brien:

O’Brien said the approach against Castellanos was, “Get him to two [strikes]. Expand......

As in expand the strike zone and hope he expands his too.

You should know this if you did play in HS.

[11WSChamps]

https://x.com/stl_stats_facts/status/20 ... 40310?s=46

I wasn't watching the game but was following on the MLB live feed. Seemed like O’Brien was super sharp. One strike away from winning. Looks like fantastic pitches that were hit.

He was not.
Multiple sweepers more than a foot outside the zone is not sharp.
And stupidly throwing it multiple times - badly missing every time - in put-away counts was nonsensical.
I told my wife if he went to a 3-2 count, he would lose the game.
He did.
And he did.
You simply never put a .192 hitter in a spot where every single person watching knows the next pitch is going to be a straight FB in the middle of the zone.
Unbelievably stupid to intentionally waste pitches and give the hitter a huge advantage in that game situation.

That 98 mph fastball was not in the middle of the zone. It was on the inside corner. Just stop.

Belt high.
Middle in.
That is the definition of being in the middle of his zone.

It was on the inside corner. And almost a ball. Look at Gameday!

Look at where the ball landed.

It was a good pitch. And a good hit by Castellanos. That's baseball. Give the batter some credit. He fouled off a couple of those wicked waste pitches before hitting the HR. A 9-pitch PA. That's being competitive.

Exactly.

All this over thinking and moaning about a veteran taking a great AB and running into one.

Get over it.

[blackinkbiz]

I think it comes down to Riley wasn't nearly as sharp yesterday as many previous--dominant--outings. And that washed-up SOB put together one h*lluvan AB. And he obviously cheated by grabbing an illegal bat that clearly must have been corked. Okay that last sentence is just a joke, fyi.

For real though, just look at the pitch-by-pitch to Casty. Everything's either up or in the dirt. When O'Brien's dealing he's painting the bottom of the zone. Just didn't have it yesterday.



All TBS, I do agree with Melville that the Cards throwing away non-competitive pitches just to change eye angle (I'm assuming?) is annoying and at times wasteful, although every MLB team does it. Cards have been doing it since Molina's catching days. He called for a lot of pitches waaay out of the zone.

[Pura Vida]

I would hope a lesson/experience for O'Brien, and the team in general for an underachieving offense. Not going to win many scoring 2 runs.

[icon]

I can only imagine the caterwauling on here if O'Brien had served up a HR on an 0-2 or 1-2 count. How could he have done that?!

And future HOFer Yadi Molina often called for pitches out of the zone on 0-2.

And that fact of the matter is that Castellanos chased and fouled off the 2nd and 4th pitches of the PA, both sweepers, that were far out of the zone. Hitters often chase. He came very close to fanning.

And the HR pitch was hardly a meatball. It was a 99 mph pitch on the inside corner on the 9th pitch of the PA. Give some credit to the hitter for extending the PA that long.

[ramfandan]

I can only imagine the caterwauling on here if O'Brien had served up a HR on an 0-2 or 1-2 count. How could he have done that?!

And future HOFer Yadi Molina often called for pitches out of the zone on 0-2.

And that fact of the matter is that Castellanos chased and fouled off the 2nd and 4th pitches of the PA, both sweepers, that were far out of the zone. Hitters often chase. He came very close to fanning.

And the HR pitch was hardly a meatball. It was a 99 mph pitch on the inside corner on the 9th pitch of the PA. Give some credit to the hitter for extending the PA that long.

Exactly .. Wonder how many games I watched on my directv games listening to the opposing team announcers when Cardinals had Pujols up late in the game.. Albert cracks a game -winning HR and what does the announcer say 'Oh my gosh .. the pitcher made a mistake ! Ex. He hung a curve ball ! He got that ball 'up' in the zone instead of 'down' ! blah blah blah ... Never crediting one of the best HR hitters of all time . It was always the mistake of the pitcher . So I learned many years ago that pitchers threw Albert Pujols over 700 mistakes in his career . One of the all -time players hitting more mistakes than any other player.

[hmoss859]

The effort in the top of 10th Sunday was very disappointing.

They didn't even think about walking Walker in top of 10th and the whiffs came in a hurry

[Melville]

5 intentional, uncompetitive, unserious waste pitches in the 9th inning gave away a 2 run lead tonight.
Fortunately, the offense bailed them out.
Nonetheless, it is a stupid way to call a game.

[Ozziesfan41]

5 intentional, uncompetitive, unserious waste pitches in the 9th inning gave away a 2 run lead tonight.
Fortunately, the offense bailed them out.
Nonetheless, it is a stupid way to call a game.

Definitely need to replace pages he’s awful at calling those