10 replies to this topic

[SirCub]

Matt Cain was dominant last night. He had nasty stuff, great control, and unbreakable concentration. So I don't want to sell him short when I say, this was *not* the greatest game ever pitched. Not even close. That honor still goes to kid K in my book. But I'll go one step further and say that Matt Cain didn't even pitch the greatest game of the day.

That's right. RA Dickey was better. I said it. Look at their lines:

Dickey 9 IP 1 (unearned) R 12 K 0 BB 1 H Pitches-Strikes 106-79

Cain 9 IP 0 R 14 K 0 BB 0 H Pitches-Strikes 125-86

Pretty similar, with the slight edge to Cain. But if you actually look what each pitcher did in the game, I think its clear that Dickey was more dominant.

"How dare you?!" you exclaim, "It was a perfect game!"

A perfect game for the Giants.. If you look just at what the pitcher on the mound did, taking defense out of the equation, DIckey was superior.

The "hit" he gave up? It came in the first inning when David Wright tried to make a dumb barehanded play on a pretty routine groundball. Yes, BJ Upton was running, but he totally could've gloved that and thrown. And the other batter that reached? Another groundball to David Wright in the 9th, which he promptly threw away. Then the runner came around to score on two(!) passed balls and then a grounder. As far as RA is concerned, he was flawless. Perfect, you might say.

As for Cain, he got squared up hard twice in this one, and his D bailed him out. Once in the 6th, when Chris Davis crushed a ball to left that would've been out of a lot of parks, and Melky Cabrera made a running catch on the warning track. And again in the 7th when Gregor Blanco made an unbelievable play on a ball roped into the gap in right-center.

RA DIckey gave up zero hard contact. No highlight reel catches. In fact, he pitched around two misplays by his thirdbaseman, meaning that he actually was *perfect* for two more batters than Cain was. And he did it in 20 fewer pitches!

Another thing to consider here, is how exactly each guy accomplished their feat. Cain did it my displaying a masterful mix of pitches. Great breaking balls, a brilliant change, and an overpowering fastball. Very impressive.

But Dickey did this with essentially one pitch. 98 of his 106 pitches were knuckleballs. 28 of the 29 batters he retired (or at least did his part to retire (struck out or induced a ground ball or pop fly)) were on knuckleballs. At one point, he threw 26 knucklers in a row. Basically, he had one pitch that was so nasty, that over 9 innings, having seen it in 3 (and in some cases 4) AB's, nobody on the team could square his knuckleball up. That is dominance.

[Cubbie Blues]

There is no way Wright had to bare-hand that one. Upton didn't get out of the box that great. R.A. was purely dominate.

[SirCub]

There is no way Wright had to bare-hand that one. Upton didn't get out of the box that great. R.A. was purely dominate.

David Wright is a moran. They say that they're going to apeal the play to MLB to get it changed to an error, so that Dickey'll get the no-no. But I think the fact that Wright tried to barehand it (even though he didn't need to) makes it not a routine play, so I'm not sure.

I just think it's stupid that what a scorer says about the play that a fielder made changes people's impression of the pitcher's performance.

[Cubbie Blues]

There is no way Wright had to bare-hand that one. Upton didn't get out of the box that great. R.A. was purely dominate.

David Wright is a moran. They say that they're going to apeal the play to MLB to get it changed to an error, so that Dickey'll get the no-no. But I think the fact that Wright tried to barehand it (even though he didn't need to) makes it not a routine play, so I'm not sure.

I just think it's stupid that what a scorer says about the play that a fielder made changes people's impression of the pitcher's performance.

If the play could have been turned into an out by using the glove instead of a bare-hand, it should unequivocally be an out.

[Stinky Pete]

There is no way Wright had to bare-hand that one. Upton didn't get out of the box that great. R.A. was purely dominate.

David Wright is a moran. They say that they're going to apeal the play to MLB to get it changed to an error, so that Dickey'll get the no-no. But I think the fact that Wright tried to barehand it (even though he didn't need to) makes it not a routine play, so I'm not sure.

I just think it's stupid that what a scorer says about the play that a fielder made changes people's impression of the pitcher's performance.

Does Wright play for the cardinals now?

[Cubbie Blues]

There is no way Wright had to bare-hand that one. Upton didn't get out of the box that great. R.A. was purely dominate.

David Wright is a moran. They say that they're going to apeal the play to MLB to get it changed to an error, so that Dickey'll get the no-no. But I think the fact that Wright tried to barehand it (even though he didn't need to) makes it not a routine play, so I'm not sure.

I just think it's stupid that what a scorer says about the play that a fielder made changes people's impression of the pitcher's performance.

Does Wright play for the cardinals now?

I get a kick out of that photo every time I see it.

[TWC]

There is no way Wright had to bare-hand that one. Upton didn't get out of the box that great. R.A. was purely dominate.

David Wright is a moran. They say that they're going to apeal the play to MLB to get it changed to an error, so that Dickey'll get the no-no. But I think the fact that Wright tried to barehand it (even though he didn't need to) makes it not a routine play, so I'm not sure.

I just think it's stupid that what a scorer says about the play that a fielder made changes people's impression of the pitcher's performance.

Does Wright play for the cardinals now?

I get a kick out of that photo every time I see it.

Every. Time.

[Luke]

Cubs have a knuckleballer of their own in the Daytona bullpen: Joseph Zeller. I hope he gets stretched into a starter and makes the Cubs rotation one day. I love watching knuckleballer pitch.

Even more, I love watching the catcher try to catch him.

[T C]

Cubs have a knuckleballer of their own in the Daytona bullpen: Joseph Zeller. I hope he gets stretched into a starter and makes the Cubs rotation one day. I love watching knuckleballer pitch.

Even more, I love watching the catcher try to catch him.

It's easy to catch a knuckleball. You just wait for it to stop rolling, and then you go and pick it up

[fromthemitten]

according to some statistic of pitcher effectiveness, Matt Cain's start was the second-best all time.

The best?

Kerry Wood's 20K 1 hit shutout.

[BlueHorizons]

I've heard many players, managers, broadcasters and sports analyst say that Kerry Wood's Strikeoutfest is the best pitching performance of all time. I tend to agree, as well. If only it hadn't been for the wrongly scored KO play (uhh, as in Kevin Orie), that SHOULD have been an error, rather than a hit...

Pure domination that made many players look silly while they tried to hit the nasty stuff Kerry that came across home plate. Only 8 guys were even able to make contact and try to reach first. AMAZING! Wood's game should be viewed as BETTER than perfect, because it was more of an individual performance, rather than a team effort that is required for a perfect game.