Short and sweet
Jul. 17th, 2007 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rscConsidering how rare complete games are in Major League Baseball these days, it's kind of remarkable that we've been to two of them this year, out of the 7 games total that we've attended. And that's two out of the three that Red Sox pitchers have pitched this year (and the other one was in Oakland).
What was especially nice was that this was a three-hit shutout pitched by Kason Gabbard, the rookie who's filling in while Curt Schilling is on the disabled list. He's been OK -- he pitched really well against the Braves in May -- but nothing to get over-excited about so far. Yeah. this was only the Royals, but still.
It was a very nice game overall, well-pitched on both sides; the unfortunate Kansas City pitcher made a few mistakes, which lwft the park, and that was enough to give the Red Sox a 4-0 win. Some brilliant defense on both sides (although KC left fielder Emil Brown made one really embarrassing error -- a routine fly ball from Lowell that he simply dropped). Best part? Over in 2 hours and 18 minutes. On top of which, an Oak Grove train arrived at Ruggles just as we reached the platform. We were back in Gloucester before 11:00 PM.
Let's see if they can repeat all of that against the White Sox on Thursday. (Well, another complete game would be a lot to ask, although the pitcher on Thursday is Daisuke Matsuzaka, whom we saw pitch "our" other CG.)
What was especially nice was that this was a three-hit shutout pitched by Kason Gabbard, the rookie who's filling in while Curt Schilling is on the disabled list. He's been OK -- he pitched really well against the Braves in May -- but nothing to get over-excited about so far. Yeah. this was only the Royals, but still.
It was a very nice game overall, well-pitched on both sides; the unfortunate Kansas City pitcher made a few mistakes, which lwft the park, and that was enough to give the Red Sox a 4-0 win. Some brilliant defense on both sides (although KC left fielder Emil Brown made one really embarrassing error -- a routine fly ball from Lowell that he simply dropped). Best part? Over in 2 hours and 18 minutes. On top of which, an Oak Grove train arrived at Ruggles just as we reached the platform. We were back in Gloucester before 11:00 PM.
Let's see if they can repeat all of that against the White Sox on Thursday. (Well, another complete game would be a lot to ask, although the pitcher on Thursday is Daisuke Matsuzaka, whom we saw pitch "our" other CG.)
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Date: 2007-07-18 03:36 pm (UTC)These days a pitcher is rarely allowed to throw many more than 100 pitches in a game. Matsuzaka threw someting like 128 in his CG; it's been noted that in Japan pitchers tend to throw more pitches than in the US (but they also generally get one more day or rest between starts). Gabbard on Monday threw a nice efficient 107.
A couple of quirks about the scoring rules defining a "complete game": if the losing pitcher for the visiting team pitches 8 innings (because the home team doesn't bat in the 9th) he gets credit for a complete game; but a pitcher who pitches 9 (or more) in an extra-inning game, but then gives way to a reliever, does not.