First I’d like to say for all of you Pirate fans to check out a friend of mine’s blog on blogspot, his name is, most appropriately, Max. Check him out
here.
Well I’m tuned in to the Cardinals vs. Diamondbacks game here tonight because of the absence of Pirates baseball tonight. If you didn’t read my last entry, I’m a big Max Scherzer fan, so let’s talk about him tonight.
1st inning: Scherzer has pitched one inning, and is perfect so far. He got Shumaker to ground out to second, Rasmus to fly out to center, and then Pujols to fly out to right. Scherzer can throw gas. He reached 98 on a fastball to Pujols, and 97 on the fastball he got Pujols to fly out on. This guy has serious stuff, let’s hope he can keep up the good work and bring the D-Backs (and my fantasy team) a victory tonight.
2nd Inning: Scherzer misses his shot at perfection by walking Rick Ankiel after getting Chris Duncan to pop out to 3rd, but quickly makes up for it with a beautiful strikeout of Khalil Greene and a Yadier Molina ground out. He threw his first breaking ball of the game to Khalil Greene which was a great pitch, and then just threw a fastball past him. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a snapshot of him walking off the field, because the DVR stuff on MLB.TV doesn’t work too well.
Well now MLB.TV just stopped working all together and I can’t watch the game anymore… way to go MLB.TV, I didn’t pay $100 for you guys to have technical difficulties every other night.
3rd Inning: Alright we have MLB.TV again, however the Next Def (high definition) feature is “temporarily unavailable” as I mentioned earlier, but that’s alright for now. Anyways, Scherzer gave up his first hit in the 3rd inning. After getting Joe Thurston and Chris Carpenter to ground out, he gave up a dink shot ground ball up the middle to Skip Shumaker that ended in a single to Stephen Drew. Scherzer got back on it though and retired Colby Rasmus with an unassisted play to first base. 3 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K
4th Inning: Max Scherzer faced Albert Pujols to start off his 4th inning of work. It’s probably a good thing that Pujols led off, because he smacked a double into right center field. Man, that guy can hit. That double was followed by another double off the bat of Chris Duncan, and Scherzer had given up his first run of the season. Scherzer then walked Rick Ankiel and Khalil Greene laid down a beautiful sac bunt to move the runners to second and third with one out. Then stepped in Yadier Molina, who is one of the best contact hitters in the game. He had a great at bat and ended up driving in both runners with a double on a fastball. 3-0 Cardinals. He then settled down and retired the next 2 runners to keep his hopes at a quality start alive. Let’s hope the Diamondbacks can get some runs!
Now Chris Carpenter is hurt and has been removed from the game, let’s hope that’s not anything too serious, Carpenter is a great pitcher and a great guy. He’s all around good for the game of baseball.
5th Inning: Scherzer took the mound in the 5th looking to get some confidence back. He got Shumaker to ground out quickly, but then surrendered a base hit to Colby Rasmus. Then stepped in Albert Pujols for the 3rd time. Scherzer threw a ridiculous 3-1 breaking ball that rubbed the corner and got called for strike 2. Pujols continued to foul off many good pitches, and finally got his pitch. A fastball right over the plate which Pujols drove deep. It proved that Pujols just missed it and the ball was caught near the warning track. Scherzer than had another long at bat but eventually got Chris Duncan to pop out to right field on a changeup. He’s one scoreless inning away from a quality start!
Well Mark Reynolds came on to pinch hit for Max Scherzer in the bottom of the 5th after Justin Upton reached on a throwing error, so his day is done. No quality start, and pretty crappy overall fantasy numbers. The only way he could be worth a start is if the D-Backs score 4 here and don’t give up the lead again, then he’d get a win. Aside from fantasy, I liked what I saw from Scherzer. I mean Albert Pujols is going to hit any pitcher in the majors regardless, and Yadier Molina just had an unbelievable at bat to hit that double. Just great hitting performances led to runs. Scherzer really didn’t make any big mistakes, and pitched well enough to win, but the offense just didn’t do it for him early in this game. However, Mark Reynolds just hit a 2-run homer as I typed that, so maybe the Diamondbacks have life! I’ll be looking forward to Scherzer’s next start. Let’s Go D-Backs!
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