Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Masterful Dickey, "slump bunch" power Mets to win over Rays



If not for the whim of an official scorer, we might have had out second-ever franchise no-hitter on Wednesday.

And if not for another botched play by David Wright and two passed balls by Mike Nickeas, R.A. Dickey would be continuing an amazing shutout inning streak.

Such are the things we can worry about when the Mets are winning. After getting swept by the Yankees, the Mets have now taken two in a row over the Tampa Bay Rays – and in convincing style, too.

After Jordanny Valdespin beat up on the Rays in the 11-2 Tuesday win, the “slump bunch” kicked things in gear for Wednesday’s 9-1 pounding. Imagine: three hits from Andres Torres and two each from Daniel Murphy, Nickeas and – imagine! – Ike Davis. Even Jason Bay got on base.

But the second run was really all that was needed, as Dickey continued his masterful ways. He now leads all MLB pitchers with 10 wins – and leading to the Flag of Victory flying proudly again.\

Yeah, we took the Yankees series off. To many undeserved gnome appearances.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, since I can't seem to find any video of the play anywhere, I can't say definitively whether that was a hit or not, but as a former official scorekeeper, I can tell you a few things:

1.) If that's not the only hit in the game, no way does anyone question whether the play should be changed to a hit.

2.) If the play originally were scored as an error, chances are more likely that the team would bitch that that ball, hit that way with that runner, was a hit--every time.

I don't buy that. The rule is ordinary effort, and I looked at the barehanded attempt this way: Was the barehanded attempt necessary to make the play or just a lazy attempt at a showy play? If the former, I ruled it a hit. If the latter, it was an error. Without videotape, I can't say in this case, but I know that that play in general is called a hit 99 percent of the time in the major leagues.

YKW

Anonymous said...

And of course by "changed to a hit," I mean "changed to an error." Sorry about that.

YKW