vansmack wrote:K8teebug wrote:vansmack wrote:
Do me a favor and trade for Jim Thome so the Rangers don't. He's a huge upgrade over Nick Johnson.
It happened. We'll see how that goes.
Well, you gave up almost no one for him, so it's worth the chance. He's a great presence in the clubhouse and that could help during the slide.
It would be ironic if I ended up regretting this….
Jim Thome's stake in the playoff chase
September, 27, 2012
BALTIMORE – In a city of row houses, it makes sense that the Orioles' success this year has been built game by game, at-bat by at-bat, pitch by pitch, brick by brick. They have one pitcher with more than 20 starts, a staff with one complete game and a bullpen that has contributed more than 500 innings. At the start of this season, their leadoff hitter was in Pittsburgh, their designated hitter was a pinch-hitter in Philadelphia and their third baseman was a shortstop in Bowie.
They had lost a few games this week, on Sunday to the Boston Red Sox and on Monday and Tuesday to the Toronto Blue Jays, shaving their lead for a wild-card berth enough to fuel anxiety. Deion Sanders was at Camden Yards on Wednesday to visit his old minor league manager, Buck Showalter, and to take some batting practice. When Showalter was asked whether Sanders' appearance might provide a needed distraction to lighten the mood, Showalter disagreed but acknowledged it was a fair question.
The Orioles needed a little jump-start, especially after falling behind 2-1 in the first 4½ innings against Carlos Villanueva, and it was Jim Thome who seemed to provide it.
Having faced Thome in the past, Showalter felt that the slugger would make needed adjustments pitch to pitch. A pitcher who stayed in a discernable pattern would become more vulnerable, because Thome would change when necessary.
And Villanueva had consistently pitched backward to the Orioles in the first innings Wednesday – that is, throwing off-speed pitches in ball-strike counts when hitters might usually look for fastballs. Some hitters, who have made a lifetime of feasting on fastballs, struggle to adapt.
But in Thome's second at-bat, leading off the bottom of the fifth, he looked for a changeup and crushed it over the right-field wall for his 612th career homer. Thome explained after the game how Villanueva had been throwing so much off-speed stuff and how they talked about it in the Orioles' dugout, the type of group thought that can work.
Three batters later, Manny Machado – who wasn't born until 10 months after Thome made his major league debut – had a 2-1 count, and he jumped another non-fastball, a changeup, for the Orioles' third homer of the night. (Nate McLouth had homered in the first). Before the inning was over, Chris Davis – who had seen nothing but sliders – hammered a slider for a three-run homer.
Showalter mentioned after the game, after the Orioles finished with seven homers, how Thome had changed a lot in this victory with his adjustment.
Pitch by pitch. At-bat by at-bat. Brick by brick.