Game 49 recap – Shaun Marcum’s father is Greg Maddux, and his grandfather is Tom Seaver

Let me begin with a declaration: I am not a fan of the ESPN broadcast team.  I am sure they are nice guys, and John Kruk’s self-deprecating brand of humor is better than listening to Hawk Harrelson, but generally, I prefer other broadcasters (read: any broadcaster).  The problem with national broadcasters is that they do not offer any interesting insight to players on either team, aside from what they gleaned in their scramble to do game prep, but because I am a silver-linings kind of guy, I can say that I am happy to be privy to the fact that John Kruk sweats through his shirts to the point they morph from clothing into garbage.  But I digress.

Tonight the Braves attempted to take a patient approach with Shaun Marcum, in the same fashion they had with Dillon Gee and Jeremy Hefner.  The results were nothing short of calamitous.  Thanks to Marcum’s Hall of Fame pedigree and Bill Miller’s idea of a strike zone, Marcum breezed through seven innings racking up twelve Ks before giving up a two-run blast to Dan Uggla on a hanging breaking ball. 

Julio Teheran did not have his best control, allowing three walks, but his command of his fastball and curve was good enough to mask the control issues, and he continued his streak of strong starts.  He was the biggest question mark in this rotation going into the season, and after his shaky start, he seems to have found his groove.  Luckily for him, he has exclusive rights to the team talisman, Gerald Laird.

It is situations like the one Cory Gearrin found himself in during the bottom of the eighth that I would love to see Fredi Gonzalez go to Kimbrel for a five out save (or hold, in this case).  The strategy of baseball managers for as long as anyone can remember is to save your closer for ninth inning.  Well, when your lead is on the line, why not bring in your best relief pitcher to stop the bleeding?  You can talk about saving him for the ninth all you want, but if the other team has the lead, there may not be a ninth inning for him to pitch in.  After John Buck tied it up, and Mike Baxter was brought in to PH for Marlon Byrd, there was no reason for Gearrin to be in the game.  After Gearrin hit Baxter, there was really no reason for Gearrin to be in the game.  It is easy to sound confident about this move after the game is over and we know the outcome, but that does nothing to invalidate the point.  In a high leverage situation, one would ideally want to put the best reliever in baseball in a position to help the team win.  Gearrin stays in, Ike Davis gives the Mets the lead, and in the midst of these happenings, Craig Kimbrel is listening to Anthony Varvaro talk about the great deal he just got on his Maserati.  Ugh.

The score held, and the Mets took the final game of the series, 4-2. 

TANGENT ALERT:

Individualism is one of many qualities that make this country great, and I know that I am most certainly in the minority as far as my musical tastes and preferences are concerned, but I struggle to think of a more inferior rendition of “God Bless America” than the one delivered by the “Liberty Bells” during the seventh inning stretch.  I do not understand the need to take creative liberties with a 95 year-old song just because you’re in front of 27,296 people.  Irving Berlin just texted me (from beyond the grave, mind you) and said he and Kate Smith are preparing to get their haunt on.  I am usually anti-ghost, but am all too willing to make an exception in this case. 

(Leverage Index courtesy of FanGraphs)