Thursday, July 30, 2009
GREINKE DAY.
I headed to Baltimore yesterday to meet up with a fellow blogger who was in the area, and to watch Zack Greinke pitch. My only chances of seeing him were to go to Baltimore, or to trek up the House of Evil, and even then it all of course depended on the rotation. I chose the Baltimore option because it’s a much nicer place to see a game, and because you could buy seats five rows behind the visitor’s dugout for the princely sum of $32 (which was about $16 below face). There was no way I was going to watch Greinke from the upper deck in the Bronx, surrounded by Yankees fans. Yes, we ended up sitting behind a large group of O’s fans who had no idea that their pitcher tonight (Chris Tillman) was making his MLB debut, and were only there to drink beer and scream for balls from the Royals between every inning, but they were pleasant and delightful company compared to what I would have encountered uptown if I’d been cheering for the opposing pitcher there.
I’d like to report that Greinke was electric and completely in command, but this was not his best outing. He struggled early, giving up two home runs a single, a HR, and a double in quick succession. I was impressed by his ability to keep his focus and get right back into the game. He got run support a few innings later when Mike Jacobs and Alberto Collaspo each sent monster shots literally out onto Eutaw Street.
If I was an Orioles fan, I’d have been delighted at the way they worked Greinke deep into the count. In the 5th inning he was already up to 96 pitches and he was over 106 when I left shortly before 10pm. I don’t leave games early, but I came to this one with a purpose and I also had a three-hour solo drive home. (There was also a rain delay earlier which had pushed the start of the game back until 7:45pm, which didn’t help things.)
I am still endlessly glad I went and saw Greinke this year. While he wasn’t 100% on, there were enough moments where you could see that it was possible. If he keeps this up, this is an outing I would embark on again.
Here’s a selection of some of the best shots from yesterday. You can also, of course, view the whole set here. I am not 100% happy with the outcome - I didn’t shoot enough (only about 200 images), and should have made some setting adjustments early on. But that’s valuable experience too.
Back to Citi Field tomorrow. I will be braving BP again to see what I can get.
Posted by Caryn at 11:19 AM
Great shots!
I really liked your blog entry, especially the disparaging comments comparing how different your experience would’ve been watching and shooting from THE stadium…hee hee!
I was in Kansas City this past weekend to meet up with family. We did see a game at Kauffman Stadium, but Grienke pitched Friday’s game and we attended the following night…sigh.
We were right behind the visitor’s dugout (Texas Rangers) and I think I got some good shots of Omar Vizquel (Man, that guy is AGELESS!) as well as Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton. (I’ve been super-busy since returning and haven’t had a chance to see what I got.)
Even though he’s not in a Braves uni anymore, there was still something comforting about seeing Andruw Jones strike out. (I think he got the sombrero that night.)
I wondered if you had the same feeling at the Royals/O’s game as I had at the Rangers/Royals game: how nice it was to watch baseball and not really care one hoot about the outcome of the game or who was hurt or even about missing parts of the game to walk around the stadium! Did you experience that?
Anyway, I enjoyed your written and visual remembrances of an AL game and of Zack!
A quick correction to an otherwise interesting entry - he gave up a single, homerun, and then a double to the first three batters, not two homeruns. The two runs on the homerun were the only runs allowed.
You are correct that this was not Greinke at his best; actually, this is not far from his worst start of the season. He did not have the same kind of command of the slider as we are used to, and so a lot of swings and misses became foul balls, which led to the high pitch count you noted.
Under no circumstances should anyone ever be forced to watch the Royals “middle relief”; if Greinke can’t either finish the game or hand the ball directly to Soria, then they lose.
You may not have seen the Cy Young winner, but you did see the best pitcher in the game. Thanks for sharing the pictures!!
Thanks, Curtis, for the correction. I probably should have checked the box score before writing but I thought I remembered it correctly.
Susan, you’re gonna think I’m crazy, but I don’t walk around during games, no matter who it is. I’ll get there early to do my walking around. And in this case, I very much did care about the game action, since the purpose was coming to see Greinke. Not having the emotional attachment to the outcome was nice and being able to leave once they pulled him without feeling endless guilt or unworthiness was nice, too.
Julie, I may have rounded up the time. I did make good time, though, just because the roads were clear on a Wednesday night and the rain had luckily stopped.
I checked out the whole set of pictures and I think they are great!
Also, it only takes you 3 hours to drive down there? And I thought I was speedy driver.