Friar Watch

Chris Young: 7 IP, 3 H, 4 BB, 5 K, 0 ER. Despite the 4 walks I thought CY had very good control with his fastball. He had trouble controlling the curveball but it was mostly missing out of the zone, he didn’t hang any where it could hurt him.

CY was able to dominate tonight despite not being quite as sharp as we’ve seen in the past. There were some questions about some calls on the inside corner to left handers, let’s take a look.

Chris Young - all pitches to left handed hitters
Green = ball
Red = called strike
Yellow = swinging strike
White = contact made

Anything near the inside corner was called a ball. Most of CY’s pitches were away and those calls seem ok. We’ve seen this before, when a pitcher isn’t throwing strikes on one side of the plate the perception is that the ump is squeezing him when in reality he’s just not throwing strikes.

How did CY pitch to right handed hitters?

The first thing I thought of when I saw this chart was I must have screwed up, there’s no way Young threw that many pitches outside. But I double checked the data and it appears to be correct. Look at that location! CY only had two pitches on the inside half to right handers, and those were well within the strike zone. Right handers had NOTHING to hit all night. As Tony Gwynn would say, Chris Young didn’t give them a cookie. Chris Young is for real folks. We have one of the best 1-2 punches in baseball and they’re both under contract for at least 3 more years.

Scott Linebrink: Scotty gave up a single but once again was never in any real danger. His strikeouts are way down but he seems to be more dominant than last year so no complaints here.

Trevor Hoffman: Trevor Time in the 9th. You don’t think Trevor is going to let the Dodgers snatch one back do you? Write it down: save number 499. I’ll be at the game tomorrow night, if I’m lucky I’ll get to see number 500 in person.