Belliard

[Palmer Esque]

Needs to get one in the numbers next year. He totally just showed up George and the O's with his walk halfway to first. And yes this is a reactionary thread.

But that is unfortunately how some players are bred these days. It all ties in with hip hop and the feeling of being a street thug. When society changes, baseball with change.

[millartime15]

That was pathetic.

Belliard is a punk and deserves to get hit, that was completely uncalled for. Your some 30 year old bench player and your showing up the other team. Shows alot of class.

[bluedog]

Between this game and the earlier unfinished game in Chicago, we've learned that George Sherrill is very effective except...

against crummy, fat, middle infielders with bad attitudes in extra innings (Belliard, Uribe). Then Sherrill sucks.

Why in the world Sherril is throwing a breaking pitch inside to a right handed veteran with a slider speed bat in a situation where the only thing that hurts him is a home run, I'll never know.

Sherril should have pitched away from Belliard - particularly after the non-call on the prior fastball. If Belliard slaps one to the opposite field, big deal. Dmitri was clogging the bases and the Nats would have probably needed two more hits to plate Young.

I'm not sure if that was Sherril or Quiroz who chose to throw an inside breaking pitch in that situation but it was beyond stupid.

[gallden]

Why in the world Sherril is throwing a breaking pitch inside to a right handed veteran with a slider speed bat in a situation where the only thing that hurts him is a home run, I'll never know.

Sherril should have pitched away from Belliard - particularly after the non-call on the prior fastball. If Belliard slaps one to the opposite field, big deal. Dmitri was clogging the bases and the Nats would have probably needed two more hits to plate Young.

I'm not sure if that was Sherril or Quiroz who chose to throw an inside breaking pitch in that situation but it was beyond stupid.

I'm going to say it was Sherril, because he pitches.

[Old#5fan]

We go 3-3 against a ballclub that may lose 100 games, that's a shame.

Not only that but virtually their entire starting lineup (at least middle of the order is on the DL). Kind of pathetic, after beating the Cubs two out of three at Wrigley to the point of embarassing.

[Intimidator301]

Needs to get one in the numbers next year. He totally just showed up George and the O's with his walk halfway to first. And yes this is a reactionary thread.

Its just Ronny being Ronny. I figured that since he can't emulate Manny's talent, he can try and emulate his HR walk. But, since he's just not that good, it comes off as classless, as it should.

He has always been a wannabe Manny. Too bad he's just not that talented, so the one moment he has a season, he has to make the most of it.

All that being said, I hope he's on an AL team next year, or atleast a NL team we play. That bulls eye has already been painted I'm sure by the O's.

[elsid]

It.

Was.

Not.

A.

Strike.

Sherill shouldn't have thrown a meatball with the next pitch.

Then you, the ump and the 30 people wearing red were the only ones in the world that didn't think it was strike 3.

The last pitch wasn't a meatball. It would help if you might know anything about pitching whatsoever. Yes, it wasn't a good pitch since it wasn't where he wanted it. However, just becuase it was an HR doesn't mean that it was a meatball. It was a slider down, which wasn't down far enough and broke too early so it caught the inner half of the plate.

Why in the world Sherril is throwing a breaking pitch inside to a right handed veteran with a slider speed bat in a situation where the only thing that hurts him is a home run, I'll never know.

Sherril should have pitched away from Belliard - particularly after the non-call on the prior fastball. If Belliard slaps one to the opposite field, big deal. Dmitri was clogging the bases and the Nats would have probably needed two more hits to plate Young.

I'm not sure if that was Sherril or Quiroz who chose to throw an inside breaking pitch in that situation but it was beyond stupid.

Quiroz calls the pitch, Sherrill agrees to it. There was no shake. He knew where he wanted to put it, but spun the slider. It broke early, so it ended up over the inner half instead of near his back foot. If he hadn't swung at the pitch it would have landed about in the middle of his feet. It wasn't where it needed to be, plus was a little faster than the previous sliders to Belliard.

The reason they didn't go back away is because the fastball wasn't called. If he had thrown another fastball, no telling. If he had thrown another slider out there Belliard would have gone with it. Belliard guessed right, slider down and in. He might have gotten a peek at Quiroz moving in as well. Quiroz moved after the signal, not just before the pitch. As he said in the post game, "it was a bad pitch", becuase he didn't put it where he wanted to.

[baltfan]

From the postgame interview, it appeared that Belliard's attitude was because he thought they had pitched around Young to get to him.

Not really a valid excuse, but that is where this was coming from.

[Lucky Jim]

Then you, the ump and the 30 people wearing red were the only ones in the world that didn't think it was strike 3.

The last pitch wasn't a meatball. It would help if you might know anything about pitching whatsoever. Yes, it wasn't a good pitch since it wasn't where he wanted it. However, just becuase it was an HR doesn't mean that it was a meatball. It was a slider down, which wasn't down far enough and broke too early so it caught the inner half of the plate.

Quiroz calls the pitch, Sherrill agrees to it. There was no shake. He knew where he wanted to put it, but spun the slider. It broke early, so it ended up over the inner half instead of near his back foot. If he hadn't swung at the pitch it would have landed about in the middle of his feet. It wasn't where it needed to be, plus was a little faster than the previous sliders to Belliard.

The reason they didn't go back away is because the fastball wasn't called. If he had thrown another fastball, no telling. If he had thrown another slider out there Belliard would have gone with it. Belliard guessed right, slider down and in. He might have gotten a peek at Quiroz moving in as well. Quiroz moved after the signal, not just before the pitch. As he said in the post game, "it was a bad pitch", becuase he didn't put it where he wanted to.

Rationalizations, insults, and defensiveness (brotherly or otherwise) aside, this is going to happen from time-to-time with Sherrill. It's certainly not the end of the world. And the loss - in the end - has virtually nothing to do with George. He gives up fly balls. He'll give up an occasional HR. It would be nice if his command would return to last year's (and the year before's) level, meaning fewer two run HRs. But, whatever.

He's been mostly lights-out this year. And we scored one run. Including two caught stealing.

These things happen. But, while George made a bad pitch that was exacerbated by the circumstances, the loss shouldn't hang on him.

This is the same mindset that blames Armando Benitez for losing in the ALCS when - surprise, surprise - it was an offense that couldn't do squat.

[davearm]

The guy just hit a 2-out, 2-strike, walkoff HR to beat their rivals and clinch a series.

You guys do realize that the majority of MLers would've reacted that way, or some other showboaty way that could be misconstrued as showing up the other team?

Not too many players just put their head down and sprint around the bases with a blank look on their face after doing that.

Much ado about nothing here.

[Lucky Jim]

The guy just hit a 2-out, 2-strike, walkoff HR to beat their rivals and clinch a series.

You guys do realize that the majority of MLers would've reacted that way, or some other showboaty way that could be misconstrued as showing up the other team?

Not too many players just put their head down and sprint around the bases with a blank look on their face after doing that.

Much ado about nothing here.

Were you watching it?

You seem to think everything around here is "much ado about nothing." Look, Belliard did what he did. Whether other folks would've done it is another story and, frankly, irrelevant. Besides, there's a difference between a head down sprint for home and an extended display of one-up-manship.

It's not either/or.

But - you know - answer the first question first, so we can tell if you even have a right to be opining about it.

[davearm]

Were you watching it?

You seem to think everything around here is "much ado about nothing." Look, Belliard did what he did. Whether other folks would've done it is another story and, frankly, irrelevant. Besides, there's a difference between a head down sprint for home and an extended display of one-up-manship.

It's not either/or.

But - you know - answer the first question first, so we can tell if you even have a right to be opining about it.

It's on MLB.com. I saw the same coverage you got on MASN.

[Lucky Jim]

It's on MLB.com. I saw the same coverage you got on MASN.

And you didn't think the response was excessive even by today's standards? Probably because you were doing the same dance around your living room.

I don't really care - in the sense that I wouldn't give Belliard the dignity of drilling him next time we saw him. He's a fringe major leaguer.

But it was classless. Concluding otherwise is simply being contrarian for the sake of being a contrarian.

[Lucky Jim]

By the way, I'd like to take back "fringe major leaguer" - he's not, really. Nothing special. But not a fringe major leaguer.

[The Wedge]

The guy just hit a 2-out, 2-strike, walkoff HR to beat their rivals and clinch a series.

You guys do realize that the majority of MLers would've reacted that way, or some other showboaty way that could be misconstrued as showing up the other team?

Not too many players just put their head down and sprint around the bases with a blank look on their face after doing that.

Much ado about nothing here.

You do realize that in the postgame Belliard pretty much flat out admitted to showing up Sherrill because HE felt disrespected because HE felt that they pitched around Young to get to him?