Yea. Like many of these situations, a few things can be true at the same time.Prosperdick said:After thinking long and hard and rewatching the 5 pitch walk to Carter where two of the "balls" were actually strikes I've come to the conclusion that we were trying to brush Garcia back but Abreu lost a bit of control so there was SOME intent.Beau Holder said:Farmer1906 said:
I think y'all are nuts. If Maldy called it and Abreu trusted him to do it, then they're the dumbest players in baseball and we deserved to lose last night.
Agreed. I cannot imagine a single team in a pivotal game 5 of the ALCS would put two runners on with none out in the 8th in a two-run game. Much less one that's been in seven straight ALCSes. Thinking otherwise literally just demands suspension of disbelief to me.
I've seen JV say in multiple interviews that even he wasn't mad Garcia pimped it, he understood the moment. Why pick now and not Spring Training to make a point about it, assuming anyone else even cared?
However, I still cannot fathom purposefully hitting a guy to put a runner in scoring position in a 2 run game in an ALCS series tied 2-2 against a team WHO WAS THE FIRST EVER TO HAVE MORE BLOWN SAVES THAN SAVES.
So for those saying Abreu simply lost his grip...wrong. And for those saying he wanted to hit him to start some magical chain of events...wrong.
They wanted to brush him back and ended up hitting him instead.
On one hand, from a game strategy standpoint, of course it would be dumb to give the Rangers a free baserunner in that circumstance. First/second no one out, late in a game that we still have a chance to win.
On the other hand, it's a little far-fetched to think that Abreu (who's so damn good) just happened to miss by THAT much against THAT guy in THAT situation.
I agree that we tried to go up and in and brush him back. But I do think we were trying to bait a reaction out of him. The goal wasn't to retaliate (although we knew it would be perceived that way). It was to spark a 15 minute sequence of events to ice LeClerc. I checked my DVR yesterday... about 23 minutes passed between LeClerc's final pitch in the 8th and his first pitch in the 9th.
Actually plunking Garcia was almost certainly an accident because just going up and in and brushing him back would have served the same purpose. He's a loose cannon and easily provokable.
