From Left Field

Toronto 7, Cleveland 6

ap recap :: box score :: game log :: last year

I used to "like" the Blue Jays. They were my "adopted" team back in the '80s. They were good, the Indians sucked and it was a way for my dad to have a baseball fan in the family. It didn't work out too well. I didn't follow them, I didn't really care all that much. My father would say to me periodically "your team won last night" but I didn't really pay attention. What I actually liked was the city of Toronto. We had visited it a couple of times--I was even there sans parents--because we had relatives living there. Of course, they could have sent me to Nome, AK in the middle of winter and I would have loved it there simply based on the fact that I was in the world without my parents.

Now I am most definitely not a fan of the Blue Jays. And I'm becoming less of a fan of umpires these days as well. I used to list the umpires in the old plus column when thinking about baseball compared to other professional sports. I mean, you're not ever going to be a fan of lines people in tennis or referees in football; they make too many mistakes. But umpires, well, I could get behind them. And I still can, for the most part. Perhaps it's just home plate umps that get my goat. Can these guys find the strike zone or at least invent a consistent one for each game? And can they grow up and start understanding that every bit of frustration and anger shown by players is not directed at them? Maybe, just maybe, a player slams his bat down after being called out on strikes because he's frustrated with himself, not the call. Can they hold off on kicking people out of games until after they deserve it, instead of calling them out before they've done anything? By trying to make the game sterile and non-confrontational, they are making it more contentious. Sorry, but I thought that "precogs" were people in the movie Minority Report. As far as I know, its impossible to ascertain future behavior (otherwise, we'd all have made a killing at the track by now).

Yes, the Indians lost last night. I do not place this squarely on the shoulders of the home plate umpire. Sure, he called a strike (3) a ball (4), and by doing so the Jays took the lead. But if the Indians had not gotten themselves into the situation they did, they wouldn't have lost. Let's not forget that bases were loaded with 0 outs when Betancourt left the mound.

So, what's going on with the team? They are now 1 game under .500, having just been 4 games over. Instead of the bullpen rising to the level of the offense and starting pitching, it seems that it is pulling the rest of the team down to its level. Bats are quieting down and starting pitching is in shambles. Cleveland's bullpen has saved just 18 of their 42 opportunities. That means that if the 'pen had done its job and saved just half of those 42 games they lost, the Indians would have a 74-33 record. If they had saved just 1/3 of them, they'd have a 67-40 record. That's Cardinals good. That's Twins (60-45) ass-kicking good. That's just plain good. They lead Major League baseball in key offensive numbers.

But no. It is just a dream that people like David Riske, et al. can hold leads (sometimes BIG leads) given to them. Those leads will be harder to come by now that starting pitching and offense are starting to crack. I still maintain that this team will not be able to keep their excellent offensive numbers going into August--the season is just too long and too strenuous. But it sure would have been nice to be in a position to go on some losing streaks and still stay with the pack!

Posted by Elizabeth at August 4, 2004 04:45 PM