What a game to attend in person! Great energy at Safeco.
Well, that’s what a bad King Felix start looks like. Ill control, weird pitch selection, hassled by inconsistent umpiring. I don’t particularly care if you want to call a wide or a small strike zone, though I’d like to see someone call the rulebook strike zone once… but if someone puts the same pitch in the same spot three times, it should be called either a ball or a strike each time. Nobody’s happy if down-and-in is randomly a strike.
Anyway, the unhappy totals:
15 ground balls, 2 fly balls. 7 strikeouts, 4 walks, 2 home runs. I've spoken before about how every long-term successful pitcher keeps the ball out of the air. There is no great pitcher in baseball history who gave up more fly balls than groundballs. Not even close, ratio-wise.
In other words, that’s pretty sweet.
So basically, Bad Felix equals most Good Anybody Else. I'll take it. And about 20 more seasons just like it.
Not to slight Randy, who clearly still has it when he's locked on course. And it's such a visual, visceral pleasure to watch him wheel and deal in that great lopsided corkscrew motion of his. I'm not sure he'll get to 300 wins, but hopefully there's not one voter out there dumb enough to think that artificial standard should stand between the Unit and a first-ball Hall of Fame induction.
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