Erik Bedard garners his first win in about two years and looks efficient for the first time...well, ever. 7 innings, 89 pitches. Not 5 innings, 101 pitches. Amazing.
What's more, instead of the litany of fly balls that he has been getting so far (half of which seem to have flown over the fence), he had a 52.4 GB%.
Bedard threw strikes early and often. Bedard got outs early and often.
How much of this was Bedard and how much was the Tigers' lineup being surprisingly aggressive towards Bedard is an open question. After the 4th inning (up until which Tigers batters had swung and put the ball in play within the first two pitches in a majority of their at-bats) they seemed to notice that they weren't following the tried-true-strategy of allowing Bedard to slowly asphyxiate himself and they started taking more pitches.
By then it was too late. Bedard had made it through Four with a stunningly low pitch count and was within the first groove we've seen from him in quite some time.
* Miguel Olivo is really stinging the ball. His LD% is above his career average so far and at long last he is finding holes in the infield and gaps in the outfield. There is hope yet that he will elevate the Mariners offensive standards at catcher back to mediocrity.
No comments:
Post a Comment