Interesting as I watched game 7

[Java]

It’s no secret but pitching on short rest.  You’re not as precise.  To me it was obvious with ohtani.  And surprisingly glasnow.  Who should have been sharp and was not.  Snell too.  Even Yamamoto late was not as precise but his stuff is so nasty and his misses inside and low so he got away with it.   Only ohtani got burned but all of them were playing with fire.

So all series the jays have burned the bottom end of that strike zone. Pound fastballs to the knees and then throw sinkers and splitters so that they look like a fastball.  You jump on it. It dives to the dirt and kike and Muncy and teo and Shohei even Freddie sit down.   Definitely pages and edman too.

so as this game goes on they bring in Yesavage. Sp?  And first thing I notice is wow this kid is up.  Not sure if the umpire last night zone was higher but this kid is not at the knees.   He survives the 7th but is  all over.   In the 8th I comment that Muncy when younger would have destroyed several pitches he’s fouled off or missed tonight.  Age does that.  Down 4-2 yesavage leaves a meatball halfway up the zone and Muncy second decks the thing.  To me it’s the most underrated moment of the night.  Muncy has sucked. Yesavage has owned the dodgers.  In fact if they win he is Yamamoto.  2 wins and a stud relief shut down.  Either way it’s 4-3 and now tell my wife we are one swing away and the crowd and blue jays know this.

Their closer Hoffman comes in  the 9th.  4th appearance this series.  4 out save.  That rest can mess w a closer.  Had not allowed a run in his previous 3 games and 4 innings to la and also had not allowed a run in 5 innings over 4 games to Seattle.  He hadn’t allowed a run in almost a month. One in the playoffs.  And precisely one at that.  But again. Nerves?   Fatigue?  He seemed up.  Maybe the ump wasn’t giving it to either team low.  So with 1 out in the 9th Rojas drives him out of the park to left field.  Quiet stadium.  PT there’s your steroid shot.  It was low. He was off balance.  He leaned into it.  Looked like the Kirk Gibson swing.  How does he hit that?  Sometimes you catch the fat part of the bat.   Only explanation I can come up with   Unreal.    There are 3 save from death home runs in Dodger history.  Gibson.  Freddie and Miggy.  But only miggy was saving the season.  I might argue this was the greater hr in Dodger history.  Still too fresh but I’ll argue that later.

Dominguez comes in and he’s all over the place.  2 walks.  One hit.  5th appearance against La and had only given up 1 run.  Survives the 10th.  La blew an opportunity because again. He was up.  I keep thinking this looks way different.  Previously Yesavage glausman. Bieber.  These guys all were pounding the knees and then throwing off speed in the dirt.  this looks different. And in fairness.  La pitchers were the same.   Maybe fatigue?  With all of them doing this I have to believe that some of this is the umpire and this guys zone was higher.

bieber comes in  not Justin   Though I hear the little relative of his attended several games   Again  he’s up   Smith goes to 3-2 and I mentally comment to myself that I’m always amazed that will smith doesn’t slap hit on 3-2 but he tends to swing big even though he’s a high BA% hitter   And I wonder if with the high strike zone   Fatigue   Starter not used to relieving  3-2 count   Smith swingi……CRACK   And it looked like too high a fly   Smith is a strong boy but the lark had held similar flies by ohtani

this one landed 5 feet over the wall and I turn to my wife and said “we might have just won this thing”.  Being the road team and the stadium being quiet you don’t have the same level of euphoria knowing it’s not over.   But mentally you know it’s big and that 3rd hr in 4 innings might just have won it.  It did as we know.

when Smoltz would comment through the series he would notice when guys location or velocity was off   When certain pitches weren’t working  and he’d  be like yeah this guy is off   He’s playing w fire   And sometimes it would work out. Sometimes Smoltz would be predicting something that didn’t happen   But he knew that he saw something and the P was vulnerable   I felt the same way watching most of those pictures last night. And I would love to be able to ask the players whether it was the umpire or just the general fatigue of the series. Or the nerves of a game seven but there was something clearly different.

And I noticed it more with the Blue Jays guys because it had been so frustrating for me to watch the Dodgers Fish for pitches in the dirt repeatedly.   then magically last night everything was about 6 inches higher    I thought that presented an opportunity    Obviously for Muncy  Rojas and Smith it did

 

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