Notes From Ed Smith Stadium 4/1

[JayThomas]

I had never been to Ed Smith before. As others have said, it was a wonderful experience. Great to be there.

As for the game - not so much. I'll put this one into the "I hope they got that out of their system" category. Tillman was, literally, hit-or-miss. He ended up with a lot of K's (8 apparently), including Andrew McCutchen twice, but he also gave up a lot of loud hits and outs. Pedro Alvarez hit a no-doubt-about-it dinger early on. Tony Sanchez flied right to the wall in right. Neil Walker had a good night for the bad guys including a double high off the left center field fence. Tillman made it through five, but it sure seemed like a lot of Pirate at bats found a lot of the ball. I saw him at 93; not sure if he got higher.

Meanwhile, Francisco Liriano started and looked sharp for 2 innings, hitting 93 for the Pirates. Remind me again why we didn't get this guy? In the first he K'd Reimold, Davis, and should've had Adam (but for Adam golfing one off his feet). By the third Liriano had lost a bit. Everth Cabrera hammered a homer. Nolan followed with a rope to left.

Gerrit Cole looked good out there for the bad guys. He also hit a rope to Pearce in his only at-bat.

Matusz looked better than his line (at least for 2 innings). One of his hits Manny just couldn't get to. Another was an infield slow chopper that it looked like Brian actually shoveled to CD in time but he didn't get the call. The run scored on a leadoff double to right center his third time out, and it was kind of a cheap run. The runner advanced to 3rd on a slow infield chopper that O'Day couldn't get to and it was too slow for the infielders. The run then came home on a double play ball. Brian looked much less fidgety out there than I remember him.

For them, Sanchez had a really rough night. 3 stolen bases (Young, Machado, De Aza) came on two bobbles and a high throw. Ouch. I did not see anyone try to run on Lavarnway.

Everth planted a flag tonight. He'll be starting at SS while JJ recuperates. Not only did Cabrera hammer a homer early on, he drove in the tying run in the 7th with a triple that only he would've turned into a triple. He then trotted home with the go-ahead run on a ground out.

The eighth inning, while unproductive, was encouraging. Chris Davis got into one to left, which Starling Marte went over the wall to get. Steve Clevenger followed that right up by backing Marte up to the wall again. No runs, but two left hand power bats driving the ball to left with authority.

9th inning: Zach time. 'nuff said.

10th inning Mychal Givens came on and looked good. He looked like he knew what he was doing out there.

Anyway, I'm glad I finally got that Ed Smith experience in, even if it was a forgettable game.

[Frobby]

Seemed to me that it was a vintage Tillman outing. 50 pitches in the first two innings, 35 in the final three frames. How many times have we seen that? In the regular season he'd throw two more shutout innings and call it a night. Admittedly, I only heard the second and third innings on the radio, and didn't see or hear the rest, so I can't judge how he looked. But 0 BB and 8 K's suggests he had decent stuff.

[33rdst]

I was able to watch the whole game on MASN. I thought Tillman pitched well. Other than one change up that he left up in the zone to Alvarez he looked good. Three hits, no walks and 8 Ks in five innings against a very good line up is a heck of a game. His change up was unhittable at times and he even brought out the curve. The offense on the other hand struggled but they faced some tough pitchers.

[weams]

Once Tillman's curve came around, he was just mowing dudes down. Nasty stuff last night, good firm fastball around 93, too.

The strikeouts were magnificent.

[mdbdotcom]

Once Tillman's curve came around, he was just mowing dudes down. Nasty stuff last night, good firm fastball around 93, too.

That was the most unhittable I've seen him.

[Redskins Rick]

That was the most unhittable I've seen him.

Another thread a OP said he didn't show too much and went deep too many counts.

Are we talking the same guy?

[JayThomas]

No offense, but I've never seen Clevenger referred to as a left handed power bat.

No offense taken. I think I've heard it said that he has some pop. If he has a tool, that is the one.

My point on Tilly wasn't that he didn't have stuff. His offspeed stuff was clearly swing and miss. My point is that there was a lot of really squared up balls that don't show up in the box score. It was vintage Tillman. Ferguson Jenkins - ish. He does seem to start slowly and get stronger as the game goes on. Whatever FRobby said - during the season he probably would've gone two more scoreless innings.

[JayThomas]

Not trying to be argumentative but Steve Clevenger's one tool is not power. He has one career home run in 341 PA's. In the minors, he has a .311 career avg (one tool is the hit tool) but just 30 home runs in 2488 PA's. He has very little home run power. Not a lot of pop.

OK. I'll eat crow. My bad.