Hernandez: Poised under pressure
Sometimes, I think you learn more about a pitcher during his more vulnerable moments, and I think that might have been the case tonight in the fourth inning after he faltered briefly with a 6-0 lead.
It was an important juncture in the game, especially in the wake of two disappointing losses in a row. Hernandez was cruising before Juan Rivera's two-out double. He quickly walked Kendry Morales and then gave up his first run of the game on a flyball double by Macier Izturis.
Right there, the game was hanging in the balance. If Hernandez wilts and the Angels get one more hit to cut the six-run lead in half, the shift in momentum would have been dynamic. Instead, he made a very good 1-0 pitch to Jeff Mathis to get out of the inning. He showed some toughness there and he has been better than his numbers so far this year.
Late to the party: I didn't tune into this game until the third inning because I went to see the new gangster flick Public Enemies. It was fun and Johnny Depp's take on Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger was interesting, but I was a little disappointed that the movie focused so heavily on Dillinger, who has been portrayed in several previous films. The book that the screenplay was based upon was a far more wide-ranging look at the high-profile outlaws of that time. I wish this new take on the era would have developed those characters a little more.
Comments
I thought you were being a little silly when you bring up the "MASN jinx", when a MASN announcer says something to praise an Oriole or a statistic and something happens right away to dispell such a notion. Well, with a 6-1 lead, Jim Palmer was praising David Hernandez to no end and went on to say that the O's would find themselves over .500 if the young pitchers that will come up pitch like Hernandez. Next pitch, boom. Some LA Angel crunches one over the big wall in right. And it was smashed.
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Pete's reply: I don't think that counts. Now, if he had said, "David hasn't given up a home run since..." that would be different.
Posted by: Luke | July 4, 2009 12:02 AM
He was rolling till he gave up the HR...dang! "Looks" a bit tired to me. Now let the pen do its job.
Posted by: jongermany | July 4, 2009 12:22 AM
I agree, Pete. That was a critical point in the game and Hernandez held up very well.
It would be huge if he pitches well the rest of the season. He definitely seems to have the ability to do so.
Posted by: Jess Kvetchin | July 4, 2009 6:38 AM
Disclosure: I haven't seen the movie (although it looks great). But I have to assume that when you only have two hours to delve into a topic, especially when that topic is a man's life, then it precludes too much straying from that single story.
In other words, had they done all the relevant public enemies of the time, time would have dictated that hey do a half-assed job on all of them instead of a good job on just one. The movie might very well have been a mess.
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Pete's reply: I'm sure you're right about that, but the movie didn't really have a plot. It was just a narrative on Dillinger, who was the most dynamic character of the "Public Enemies," and that was fine, but the Dillinger thing has been done before, so I was looking for something different. Just me.
Posted by: Fang Guy | July 4, 2009 11:45 AM