Remember the thrill you got finding that issue of Striparama Magazine with the tasty Cup-Cake Cassidy spread in it? This might be better.
JUST WHEN YOU think you’ve seen it all, something head-shaking happens. In the fifth inning Saturday of the Reds 7-4 loss, KC pitcher Kyle Davies walked two. Brandon Phillips was up and had a 3-and-0 count. Take one pitch? Take two pitches? Naw, he swung away and flied to right. Un-beeeeee-leeeee-vable. And at the time Davies had thrown 93 pitches in 5 2/3 innings.
Was he given the hit-away sign. Was he given the take sign. He was given the take sign and ignored it. Didn’t even look for the sign.
Manager Dusty Baker was not happy and said Phillips missed the take sign, but Phillips said, “Why shouldn’t swing in that situation? To tell you the truth, I didn’t even look for a sign.
“Honestly, in that situation, why wouldn’t I swing at a 3-and-0, that’s just my opinion. We only had two hits at the time and our offense stinks right now. I respect my teammates and they see what’s going on. We haven’t faced anybody that overmatched us. If we’re facing No. 1 pitchers, but we’re not and our team is too damn good to be making outs against the pitchers we face. We should be undefeated on this trip.”
Baker disagrees about Phillips swinging at the 3-0.
“That was the big play and Brandon was supposed to be taking,” he said. “That could have been the ball game. We had the pitcher on the ropes, he had just walked two and thrown nine balls, then threw three more balls and we gave Brandon the take. Said he didn’t see it. In that situation, you have to know to take that pitch even if you didn’t see the sign.”
Phillips disagrees with that, too.
“We were struggling getting men on base and we’re not hitting with runners in scoring position,” Phillips said. “I had the opportunity, I swung at 3-0. I was trying to make something happen and it didn’t happen. If I would have come through it would have been the best play of the year. For future reference, I will not do it again. I apologized to everybody.”
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1. Vaux, A.B.D. Posted: June 14, 2009 at 04:29 AM (#3218683)Now I have seen it all.
I guess "The Real McCoy" is technically a blog post, but would it kill them to have an intern scan this old dude's copy before it goes live?
Yeah, the entire point of a 3-0 green light (whether you get it from the manager or give it to yourself) is that you don't HAVE to swing, indeed you have the luxury of swinging only if the pitch is just exactly in your wheelhouse.
But you didn't.
I thought the Reds would last till Mid-to-late July before they collapsed. Is it time for the 2010 season yet?
He represented the go-ahead run in the situation and with Votto out Phillips is the only bat in the lineup.
The Reds were hitting Laynce Nix clean up. Yeah, LAYNCE. NIX. CLEANUP.
Phillips is your big bat. I don't see what him walking would have accomplished. With 2 walks already issued and a 3-0 count the odds of him getting a fat fastball down the middle were huge.
Granted, I didn't see the game, so maybe he swung at something terrible and he should be blasted, but if I need runs driven in would I rather see bases loaded for Laynce Nix or 2 on and a 3-0 count for Brandon Phillips?
Phillips everytime.
They moved Dunn down in the...oh.
Having said that... he just walked two? Threw 9 balls in a row?
Yeah, you should be watching that next one. To even CONSIDER swinging it had better be a meatball right down the middle.
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