April 22: Rays 10, White Sox 2
For the third time this season, Jake Peavy was given a two-run lead.
For the third time this season, Peavy blew it.
Maybe the Sox should have scored more off an erratic James Shields in the first inning, when he threw 34 pitches and loaded the bases with one out. The Sox needed Jason Bartlett to botch a double-play ball for the second time in two nights to get a run, which at least spared A.J. Pierzynski some grief.
But when Mark Teahen homered in the second inning to give the Sox a quick 2-0 lead, that seemed to ease some of the pain.
That’s when Peavy piled it on. He walked a career-high seven over the next 3 1/3 innings, leaving after allowing a two-run single on his 108th pitch. The Sox trailed 5-2, and Randy Williams allowed a two-run double to Carl Crawford to put the game out of reach.
The Rays made their share of mistakes. Reid Brignac and Evan Longoria both booted hard-hit grounders in the fifth, but Shields got Pierzynski to ground out and Carlos Quentin to strike out to end the last threat of the game.
There was at least one moment of levity. Mark Kotsay laid down a beautiful bunt, and he pressured Longoria into an awkward throw that escaped Carlos Pena as Kotsay dove into first base. The throw went down the right field line, and Kotsay got up to run to second. Second baseman Brignac backed up the play well, and his throw beat a diving (again) Kotsay at second for the out.
Record: 5-11 | Box score | Play-by-play
Comments
Let me start by saying that due to where I live, the only games I get to watch are the ones on WGN, so I am basing this mostly off of the iffy-at-best info provided by mlb.com
It appeared that Peavy had some more velocity on his fastball. A couple of them were on the good side of 95- at least, at first. He wasn’t hitting his spots with it (though mlb.com shows just about every pitch being far outside, from both pitchers, so not having seen the game I’m not too confident in this information) but he was throwing it fast enough and well enough that he was getting bye ok.
As the game progresses, he starts going with more offspeed stuff, and we see the the curve, cutter, and changeup appearing more. The fastball is still there, but the velocity dips to closer to 90. mlb.com doesn’t differentiate between a two seam and four seam fastball in their little pitch thing, but the 94s, 95s, and 96s disappear real quick.
I admit to not being the best pitching analyst, but this strikes me as strange. Not just the dramatic dropoff in velocity, but the fact that he’s basically abandoned his fastball once the trouble starts. A number of the hits came from hanging breaking balls that missed out over the plate, or at bats that saw mostly off-speed pitches. Two changeups, the second of which goes for a hit, or a curve followed by a changeup, or several pitches, only a few of which are fastballs.
Peavy said earlier he was working on getting his fastball where he wanted it, and while not location-wise I thought he had it worked out velocity-wise at the start of the game, only to see fastballs pretty much disappear from his repertoire as the game wore on. What’s the deal?
Ok, so I may have been a bit off on some of the velocity numbers, but hey, it was late.
Looking at pitch f/x ( http://brooksbaseball.net/pfx/index.php?month=4&day=22&year=2010&game=gid_2010_04_22_tbamlb_chamlb_1%2F&pitchSel=408241&prevGame=gid_2010_04_22_tbamlb_chamlb_1%2F&prevDate=422 ) the dropoff in peak velocity isn’t as bad as I made it out to be.