Up and Downs and Some Pitch Talkin'

I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him...

Tonight's game was 1000 times more entertaining than last night's. “It was bad,” Hutchison said after Monday’s ignominious failure. “It was probably more than bad. But there’s nothing you can do when you have a performance like this other than come back and show what you’re made of.”

I watched Drew Hutchison start a tire fire last night, and then Brad Mills poured gasoline on it. I made this face:


And took the dog for a walk. I love that vintage v-neck Cubs shirt Jack White is wearing. I want one. I wonder if he knows "Seven Nation Army" is played at sports stadiums everywhere, that it's become like "Rock N' Roll" or "Thunderstruck".

Tonight was much more fun. You can tell by Jose Reyes' face. His face is a litmus test.


J.A. Happ annoys me. I don't really know why. But I suspect he knows he annoys me and he feeds off that annoyance, pitching well and making my annoyance that much more illogical. He was fantastic tonight and used his curveball like a boss. Gibbons thought that was the key.

“That might have been [Happ's] best outing of the year, simply because he had a good curveball going that he established and used quite a bit,” Gibbons said. “He primarily relies on his fastball. He’s got a good one, but he had a good curveball tonight that he was throwing over the plate, and a good changeup. That was a big part of the reason he held them in check.”

I was in Toronto late last week, post All Star break. On Thursday, I participated in a really great event called Pitch Talks. I sat on a stage with Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet, and answered questions about baseball. And then Drew Fairservice talked, followed by Melissa Couto and Bob Elliot.

We talked with our hands. (John Lott took these pictures.)



I was not particularly satisfied with my own performance. I didn't feel like I sunk my teeth into it the way I wanted to, despite that picture looking like I'm about to eat your soul. I very much enjoyed meeting Bob Elliot, John Lott and Drew Fairservice, though. The event in general was great. I also got to meet and talk to other female baseball writers (ones with actual press passes) Melissa Couto and Alexis Brudnicki. I gained a new appreciation for Bob Elliot for the way he supports those two young writers. He also called me "kiddo." And he indulged me in my warnings about the dangers of Diet Coke.

Post event, I saw Drunk Jays Fans get actually drunk. I can't recommend these events enough. It's baseball and beer. Why haven't they been happening for years? Next one is on August 21. Follow @pitchtalks for more info. And just go.

Now for a Mark Buehrle moment of wisdom:

“I say every spring that the big thing is health with any team, I say that every year,” Buehrle said. “Not too many teams could have the depth to handle the injuries we have had this season. Is the first half a success or a disappointment? Both. We rode the wave for a while then lost some guys, but we’re not 10 games out, we’re four out."

Bless you, Mark Buehrle.

The Colby vs Colby "controversy" over the weekend was fantastic. Here is everything Lewis had to say:

"I told [Rasmus] I didn't appreciate it," Lewis said, according to MLB.com. "You're up by two runs with two outs and you lay down a bunt. I don't think that's the way the game should be played."

"I felt like you have a situation where there is two outs, you're up two runs, you have gotten a hit earlier in the game off me, we are playing the shift, and he laid down a bunt basically simply for average," Lewis said.

On top of the bunt, Lewis said the fact that Rasmus didn't try to steal second base further proved he was just concerned about upping his average.

"[Rasmus] didn't steal within the first two pitches to put himself in scoring position," Lewis said. "That tells me he is solely looking out for himself, and looking out for batting average. And I didn't appreciate it."

I can just imagine a group of reporters huddled around with their recorders, worried one of them is going to do something that makes him stop talking. I wonder if Lewis sat at home and thought about how ridiculous he sounded. When something Colby related happens, naturally I converse with Rasmus Pater.