Mariners 7 - Diamondbacks 4 on TV
(AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
I finally got to see the Diamondbacks on TV today. Eric Byrnes bounced out to second for the last out of the game, the end of his hitting streak–he went 0-3 with 2 BB–and the reminder that the D’Backs will take up a lot of my evenings with some rather long games.
Micah Owings pitched four innings and struggled in the first two. He gave up 5 earned runs on 6 hits on the night. But he was great the last 7 batters he faced, and in an interview with D’Backs broadcasters Daron Sutton and Mark Grace, he said he would build on those last 7 batters.
Owings batted for himself despite the fact that the Snakes could have used a DH in the Mariners’ park. But he struck out twice and said later he would have to take batting practice tomorrow.
The guys with the bats for the Diamondbacks were Justin Upton, who went 3-3 with a double and an RBI, and Chris Young, who went 2-2, including a double, with 2 BB and an RBI.
Byrnesie did a whale of a job walking his first time up after he was down 0-2, and then Mariner’s first baseman Jose Vidro called off catcher Kenji Johjima on a Byrnes pop foul but failed to catch the ball. It was a rather long AB, as Byrnes kept fouling off pitches, and laid off a couple he might have otherwise swung at, and eventually the pitcher, Jarred Washburn, threw one outside for ball four.
His second time up, he flied out to left on what I thought was a pitch high enough to be a ball, but we all know how Byrnesie likes those high ones. Next time up, Ryan Rowland-Smith, a tall Australian dude, K’d him looking on a curve ball that totally buckled Eric. Evil Pitch. The moment I recognized it as a curveball I knew Byrnesie was in trouble. Nasty, Nasty Pitch. Oh well, sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. The Bear was burping and picking his teeth after that one.
The next time up, Byrnesie worked another walk. If you’ve got to take an o-fer, and least the walks help keep up the OBP. And then the ground out to end the game.
OK, when one hitting streak ends, the next thing you do is start another one quickly.
The one swing I really didn’t like was when he lunged for a pitch outside. Clearly he was guessing, and he guessed wrong. I don’t understand why hitters try to guess. It makes sense to know what a pitcher likes to throw for a strike, but when you guess you commit your body one way or another (to either swing or take) and it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to change the body’s programming on the fly. Guessing is not the same as waiting for a pitch in a certain zone and then swinging if it’s there. In fact, it’s the very opposite of doing that. Byrnesie was committed to swinging at that pitch before it was even thrown and he looked foolish doing it.
By and large, though, he was swinging solidly although his timing was just a wee bit off. Several shots down the line in both directions were inches foul.
Byrnesie and Orlando Hudson each got 5 plate appearances, so you know it’s almost time to play for real.
Happy Spring!
ByrnesBlogger1
// Click here to read the rest from Down the Left Field Line: Life, Baseball & Eric Byrnes
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Posted by ByrnesBlogger1
Kellia Ramares is a freelance journalist, poet and baseball blogger from Oakland, CA. Kellia writes (and does some audio work) about baseball, especially the Arizona Diamondbacks, on her blog, Down The Left Field Line: Life, Baseball & Eric Byrnes. (http://byrnesblog.azsportshub.com), under the name ByrnesBlogger1. She expects to expand her sports journalism from baseball fandom to stories on social issues in a sports context in a website she is building in the fourth quarter of 2007 to be an annex to the "Byrnesblog".
Contact: ByrnesBlogger1[at]azsportshub.com
http://byrnesblog.azsportshub.com
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