CHC 4, MIN 1: Dead Bat Era Continues

For all the sabermetric haters (yes, I was one of you once), Trevor May today reinforced the value of making batters miss pitches. Strikeouts are good. In the 6th inning of a tie game, with runners "on the corners" (I invented a phrase!) and nobody out, May got three straight outs on Ks. That was a goodish thing. (There was a walk and stolen base between all the Ks, which made those Ks better-er.)

Unfortunately, should you be a Twins fan (it certainly sounded like they were outnumbered when hearing crowd cheers on the radio), May's many-pitches 6 and Casey Jones Fien's sharp 2 were peed/pooped on by Minnesota's remaining ex-Padres reliever, Blaine Boyer. I guess we can't get too hard on Blaine. Somebody wuz gonna cough up the tie. It's hard to win when you don't score. (I coined another phrase! I'm rollin'!)

Byron Buxton continues to work diligently at making us all think better of Aaron Hicks. He's 2-22, and after a leadoff walk in the 8th tried tagging up on a fly to right. It didn't work. He looks very speedy in the outfield and not so speedy as advertised on the basepaths, if that makes any sense. He's got a very long running stride which allows him to cover a ton of open ground yet doesn't make for fast, quick takeoffs. That's just my opinion, which reads unfortunately like I'm grading a racehorse and not watching a young human with hopes/dreams.

I hate "Comment Of The Thread" with a ferocious, impassioned hate (we're not competing, here!) but this by MNWildcat was so gloriously non-sequitur I had to highlight it:

I see everyone writing "Bux" and all I can ever think of is in Pokemon Red/Blue when you trade a Spearow for the Farfetch’d and it’s super disappointing but its name is Dux and that’s the point of my story.

POSTSCRIPTS: Somebody changed the lead photo! I liked the photo, it was a glove! In case ya didn't notice, Crow T. Robot's head was basically a baseball glove, and we do Robot Roll Calls here, so . . . Crooooooow!

Also, I wandered over to Bleed Cubbie Blue and their recap of the game had 166 comments. Despite the author admitting "I really wasn't sure what I was going to be able to write about this game," which is a perfectly honest and acceptable admission.

Huh? 166 comments? I know I suck, but dammit, we have Stu! We should be doing better! Anyhoo, RRC: