11 Comments
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David W. Reed's avatar

Great analysis. We watched every pitch and I learned plenty reading your piece. Kudos!

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Lance Richardson's avatar

Fantastic analysis.

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Nicole's avatar

Incredible writing as always. Hit the spot because the vibes are high and the hype for tonight is insatiable!!!

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Jay Stokes's avatar

Would have preferred adding a few more runs and taking a 8-3 win but Adam-Scott-Suarez playing out exactly as presumably envisioned in a high stakes situation is pretty sweet.

King got a bit unlucky but also not his normal, sharp self. FWIW, pretty sure Manny's baserunning probably won the game. With Merrill's speed, doubt they get the double play but to go from runner on first, one out to runners on the corner and no outs is huge. Guessing Freeman's ankle a factor in not hopping to his feet to get the sure out. I guess I can write the same about Merrill but that seems like much more intuitive hustle plus speed.

Fun analysis, thank you.

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WMM's avatar

Closed out substack, reopened and more videos are playing. A couple toward the end didn’t have sound. Maybe just getting loaded?

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“Archi Cianfrocco”'s avatar

It’s the wonky substack app

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WMM's avatar

Love the recaps. So many good things.

(Don’t know if it’s me or not but a bunch of the embedded videos don’t play.)

Something Shildt mentioned about X’s “hit” in the 2nd inning. Not only was X hustling out of the box but if you watch, he stepped right on the edge of the bag with the front part of his foot. Probably didn’t matter on this play but that’s the level of detail that can matter at some point and I love seeing that execution. Every edge matters in this environment. No room for giving away little edges.

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“Archi Cianfrocco”'s avatar

Not sure about the videos not playing, just checked and they all played for me.

Interesting that Shildt mentioned a detail that small. Wonder if it was a point of emphasis over the season.

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WMM's avatar

I’ll check again later on the videos.

Shildt said something to the equivalent of “hitting the front of the bag that grounder.” I don’t think he misses much and seems like a real stickler for the small things. And by publicly calling it out, he’s effectively encouraging others to do more of the same.

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WMM's avatar

I could watch that last slider to Ohtani for hours and not get tired of it. So good.

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WMM's avatar

Wish we could insight into the thought process that leads to Suarez throwing 10 out of 11 at 99/100 to Hernandez, Muncy, Smith, and then putting Lux into the spin cycle with alternating FB / Change ups. Granted, one great change up to Muncy might have been enough but man, when I see Suarez pumping gas exclusively to Hernandez and Muncy, I get really nervous.

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