Sunday, April 17, 2011

Do The Hustle Or You're On The Van To McCoy

Green Monster standing room tix available for tomorrow! I'm not going tomorrow, but I'm just glad it's official: they will be releasing those right on the site this season. A great deal for $35, and like I've said in the past, I've often just sat in a seat the whole game, sometimes in the front row.

But moving on to today's win: It's good to just have these "normal" wins where you have a nice lead, your starter is on, and you don't feel much pressure. We're gonna get a lot of those this year. We're only a couple games out of second place right now, so we'll be movin' on up. Nice job by Lester. Nice majestic dong by Jacoby. Key double by Sodium. 8-1 us. We're 4-10 going into Pats' Day.

Let's talk about hustle and stuff. Early in today's game, Adrian Gonzalez went from first to second on a pitch that went to the backstop. But he did it as if the ball went into the stands and he was only allowed one base maximum. Now I know that sometimes you just jog because you're sure you can only move up one base. But he was just barely moving by the time he pulled into second, looking down at the bag and not the catcher. As soon as that ball gets away, you should be thinking third base. The catcher was also not going very hard after the ball. Round second and make him make a throw. I know Adrian's the slowest runner since Mike Lowell, but still. Then later, Jed Lowrie hits a pop up and assumes it's in the stands. The left fielder also assumes it's in the stands. It lands on the field, fair, so the fielder misses a chance at an easy out, while Jed misses a chance at a double, ending up only at first. What do you have to lose by just running as fast as you can every time you hit the ball? And you know what the worst part about this is? Non-hustling makes Jeter look like a god, because he does merely what you're supposed to do. (Not all the time, though, let's be very clear about that.) Anyway, this isn't a Red Sox-specific criticism, players around the league are like this. What's the deal, millionaires? You could pay me zero dollars a year and I'd be getting the extra base every time!

Comments:
Imagine if Manny had hit the "single" instead of Lowrie. Would we have ever stopped hearing about it?
 

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