I didn’t get to see any of this game, missed the whole thing. Lot of noise about the last pitch of the game afterwards. It got Joe Nathan his 300th career save, and if you watch the pitch itself, it does seem like we caught a break on that. After the game, Joe Maddon of the Rays threw a major wobbler on Twitter about it. But even the ump came out and said he blew the call. Check this out..
I bet you Joe Nathan would have rather gotten his 300th save more cleanly. It’s not like he wouldn’t get it anyway, but still. It’s like breaking up a no hitter on a ball that could have been called an error. Hate to see it go down that way. Still, a win is a win.
Alexi Ogando started, and got his second win of the season on a pretty decent performance. He went 5.1 innings, allowed just three hits and three walks. Just one run. His ERA is 0.77 after this outing. He did have 90 pitches, which isn’t exceptionally high, but a little. Not having seen the game, I can’t comment on whether his outing looked like as to why he came out when he did.
He was followed by Joe Ortiz, who finished out the sixth, pitched the seventh, and had a great line. He was perfect in his 1.2IP. Had one strikeout.
Kirkman had his first bad outing of the year – two runs on two hits and a walk in 0.1 IP. Ugh.
Joe Nathan was a bit rocky before his save – allowed two hits and a run. Had just one strikeout – the last pitch.
Offensively we got a couple of home runs – one by AJ, and another by Mitch Moreland. Back to back, I believe.
I saw in the game coverage on Tuesday that Joe Maddon signed his lineup card from the Rays, and addressed it to Joe Nathan. That was a nice touch. They showed a picture of it on the Tuesday game (I’m actually writing this during the Tue evening game). Because Joe Nathan getting his 300th save, however the last pitch happened is an event worthy of celebration, not controversy.