Next game: Today, March 11, 1:00 PM - Noon for you slackers out there...
Saturday, March 10: (9-5) Washington 0 - 2 Cal Poly (11-4)
W - LHP Kyle Anderson - stat lines for pitchers can be seen in either link below
L - RHP George Asmus
Well, no one likes to point fingers, so I'm not going to. This was another pitching duel, our entire team vs. their starting pitcher. Yeah, no one likes to lose that way. Who knows why, but the offense has gone inexplicably quiet since the long bus ride to San Luis Obispo. This was the first complete game shut out by a Cal Poly pitcher in 5 years. With that said, the good stuff about the Dawgs will come after the career night breakdown for Kyle Anderson.
Ahh, there it is: the collegesplits.com top 10 performers tweet of the morning (I live on baby time, its all a blur now). Yup, the No. 2 pitching performance in the land yesterday ladies and gents, administered to the Dawgs in painful fashion.
Cal Poly Skipper Larry Lee summed up the Mustangs keys to victory before the series in one word, "Pitching." He challenged his starting pitchers to go deeper into games, and his porous bullpen to shore things up ASAP. They only responded by pitching 17 of the 18 innings of this series so far.
This is the second time a Jamie Moyer clone has taken Washington to the kennel. This was the stat line for Anderson before the game. When they update come Monday it will look even better. From now on I will try my best to link all players with this data, and verily mid-week analysis will have more of a sabermetrics feel to it now that collegesplits is churning out data. Lineup and breakdown after the jump...
Ray CF
Meggs LF
Pehl 2B
Berry DH
Brown RF
Lamb 3B
Mitsui 1B
Santy C
Afenir SS
Asmus SP - Davis, Kane
Winning stat of the night: Washington gave Cal Poly 7 free base runners: 5 walks, 1 hit batter and 1 error on a would be ground-out to SS Afenir. Afenir received the start after Forgione airmailed two easy outs over 1B to L.A. in previous games, only to stamp one himself for delivery over 1B. Cal Poly Scrooge gave the Dawgs none. Not even a schilling.
The Mustangs only gave UW one free pass on Friday, in the form of a SS throwing error. That little area between the pitcher and 2B is haunted. Don't go there. Cal Poly will not beat itself, one must defeat them. With all due respect, they are not a Saint Joseph's or UC Irvine.
-Side note: Speaking of UCI, that series win is looking less and less spectacular as the weeks go by. The Anteaters have started the season far below expectations, minimizing those wins.
The Dawgs ran into a buzz saw of a LHP christened Erik Anderson who had a masterful night, utilizing a devastating change up and slider with a fastball that had great movement. He located around the strike zone all night it appears (I really wish I had video of this series; many, many questionable home cookin' calls by the umpires. The broadcaster needs to learn to hide his reactions better behind the catcalls of the crowd), and never hit the same mph on successive pitches all night.
Yeah, I had an entire paragraph about the not-so-subtle hints of massive home cookin' for the Mustangs. Apparently its Coach Meggs MO to visit an umpire an inning...?....It is what it is; Washington should have hit the ball, taking matters into our own hands. We had 5 looking strikeouts and 6 swinging,
-Crazy good stat of the night: Anderson threw 126 pitches, 88 strikes, only going into a:
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3 ball count 2 times
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2 ball count 9 times
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1 ball count 12 times
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0 ball count 8 times
When you don't work the count or hit early strikes in the at-bat, bad things happen. Two 3 ball counts; we are a much better team at the dish than that. What's with the vegan appetites?
It was the change-up and speed mixing that did the Dawgs in. Anderson kept 'em on their toes and guessing all night long, With Pehl striking out looking on three pitches in the 9th and Brown swinging at least to end the game. 11 strikeouts is a big number. 0 walks is even bigger.
Washington out-hit Cal Poly this time 6-5, but are still losing the series 15-11 hits, 8-3 runs. Without the walks and mistakes given to the Dawgs in previous games this year extending innings, the hot batters haven't been cycled around to. Hits are not coming in bunches; they haven't been able to string enough hits together so far this weekend to do much.
Starter G. Asmus continued his errant ways, giving another 4 walks to the opposition, 11 walks in 16 2/3 IP this year. Asmus had only 1 K, with 15 on the year now for a bright spot. Even with the off night for Asmus, the 'pen kept the Daws in the game until the very end. They should have earned a win; the offense can score more than 2 runs,we aren't the M's here...
Asmus did not get any ground ball outs, only 6 fly outs, 1 K and a runner thrown out by Santy attempting to steal 2B. It was the leadoff speedster Miller who walked in the 1st inning, so major props on the gunslingin' to B.K. He had a good game behind the plate, having to dance all night to keep the ball in front of him from Asmus.
Truth is Asmus just didn't have any control this time around. He gave up a run in the 2nd & 3rd inning each, and it was two too many. After a single and wild pitch to put a runner on 2B, Cal Poly DH Michaels, who had a pinch-hit RBI on Friday, singled to right-center when he should have been in the dugout already.
In the one Homecookin' Moment I will scrutinize from this contest (it is only a game), I will break down this at-bat. Its simple, Asmus went up a quick 0-2 on Michaels, and had him struck out until the home plate Ump decided to call him back out to the plate for some unknown reason, and told all the Dawgs to go back out to the field. EVERYONE in the stadium knew he was out, including their broadcaster. He said "TYVM BLUE!" the very next pitch. My notes:
>>>>>>>bot 2:
Torres: swing miss 0-1, Meggs at edge of track on heels makes catch on deep drive
Allen: 0-1, lifted to Right long chase for Brown diving catch, ball died off bat line drive not hit very hard, nice play
Armendariz: 0-1, line drive up middle single to CF, went over Asmus shoulder tried to half make catch, if would have landed square would have been an out/catch
Hoo: 0-1 check swing Armendariz steals 2B as ball got away for a second from Santy, swing miss gets away from Santy again; Asmus getting nervous with base runner, 0-2 pitch gets away outside again, Santy is doing spectacular keeping ball in dirt in front of him, 1-2 outside 2-2, low inside 3-2, slammed down 3B line foul, foul 7th pitch in AB, 3-2 pitch in dirt outside 8pitch walk, 2nd walk of game, 7 walks and 7 K's coming into game for Asmus, walked 2, 1K so far. Runners 1B & 2B
Michaels: pinch hit last night, Asmus comes back 0-2, swing just tipped foul, another call Huskies don't like Meggs comes out to home plate Ump once AGAIN this series to say WTF with the homecookin', ball lifted to right center going to drop 2 out RBI single runners on 3B and 1B, Michaels gets another RBI single, earning start tonight, 1-0 Mustangs
Git 'em next time guys.
The Dawgpen (ya like that? No?) did their best Superman impression, valiantly attempting to save the day with a scoreless 6 1/3 IP.
Tyler Davis is a stud. He came in with the bases loaded again to save the bacon of another starter, getting his first batter faced DH Michaels, yes the same dude, to hit a can-of-corn to Pehl to end the 3rd inning. His stuff was on-point once again, and is quickly earning the trust of the coaching staff, becoming a go-to guy in pressure moments. Davis allowed no runs, 1 hit, 1 walk and earned 3 strikeouts.
The Other Tyler, Tyler Kane, pride of Mill Creek, WA had another stellar outing as well. 1 hit, no runs and 2 strikeouts over the final 1 2/3 innings. He impressed with good power and had his curveball working just like Davis, mixed in his change when needed and he's starting to look like a Davis clone. Or is Davis a Kane clone? Maybe their twins of the bump?
I really don't want to go over our middle-infield defense again, so I'm going to log the deficiencies away for the post I'm building until the halfway mark of the season, to get a good sample size and true feel for the situation. Suffice it to say, Pehl had two line drives hit at him that a traditional 2B would have fielded. One he just couldn't jump high enough for, allowing the RBI single in the 3rd inning, proving again only special white people can jump. It might have been the broadcaster embellishing things a little, but I tend to believe the limited hops observation; Pehl is a big, strong young man, one I want at my back in a fight. He reminds of a bull in a china shop at 2B. He will get better as time goes on, just like Dustin Ackley.
Going through notes, finding anything worth your time reading. Ah, here's one. B.K. Santy flashed the gun again.
Davis led off the 6th with a walk, and subsequently got the hook for Kane immediately. A sac-bunt and runner on 2B, 1 out. The Mustangs wanted to pull a little something here, and got caught with their pants down. It was a designed fake-bunt then hit-and-run, only the batter didn't make any contact whatsoever, and the base runner was stuck between 2B and 3B in the middle of nowhere as far as baseball goes. Santy popped up like someone kicked him and threw a laser to 2B and the runner was out easy. I'd love to go down to the range with Santy, would be some good times.
Berry singled with 2 outs in the 9th to try and do something, but it was in vain as Brown struck out swinging. Ball game, 2-0 Mustangs, series clinched.
Time to save some face today. Go Dawgs!