Friar Watch

I didn’t see much of the game and for some reason there’s no Enhanced Gameday data so I’m just going to make some general observations here.

David Wells: Actually pitched better than I thought but there was still no reason to let him come out for the 7th. When Boomer goes past 5 or 6 innings he really starts to over-rely on the curve and starts to leave them up in the zone. I’m sure opposing teams have this in their scouting report and look for it:

Castillo caught Wells while they were teammates in Toronto in 2000. He said the big left-hander threw one too many curveballs.

“I was thinking, ‘If he keeps throwing me those breaking balls, one of them is out of here.’ And look what happened.”

Said Wells: “I tried to throw a slow curveball and I guess he was guessing with me. He hung in there. It was my bad. I must have got it up there too much.”

It was Castillo’s first homer since 2005.

Heath Bell: Bell came in with men on and got a line drive double play. This was one time I had no problem with sending him out for a second inning. Unfortunately Bell didn’t get the job done, iving up 2 more runs.

Cla Meredith: The Claw gave up a couple of hits and a run but it doesn’t sound like he pitched badly. One of the hits was an infield single and he was able to get out of the inning with a GIDP.