TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

At-bat of the Year Nominee No. 4: The Rocket vs. Ichiro

The Astros under Clemens takes a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the 7th. Clemens and Joel Pineiro of the Mariners have been engaged in a classic pitcher's duel, and the tie has just been broken in the top of the inning on a sacrifice fly. Yes, it's a case of little ball, and Roger's got to face the king of contact, slap bunts, steals, and manufactured runs, Ichiro Suzuki.

Clemens has faced Ichiro three times already this game. The first time up, Ichiro grounded out. The second time, amazingly, Ichiro was struck out looking. For a man who doesn't strike out much and always seems to be able to foul anything not to his liking or on the border off, it's a sign of how good Clemens is this year that Ichiro got fooled. But it's an even-up duel: in the fifth, with two out and a runner on second, Ichiro was walked intentionally to set up a force and let Clemens face Randy Winn. Winn drew a five-pitch walk, loading the bases, but Clemens survived a scare on the next batter, Edgar Martinez, when the world's greatest DH flied out to deep right.

So Clemens starts the 7th against Hiram Bocachica. Roger is still bringing it hard in the 90s, and gets off to a 0-2 lead, and Hiram is looking silly doing it. Clemens wastes one, then comes back inside hard and fast and plunks Bocachica. Runner on first, nobody out, for Ichiro.

Now Hiram's got some wheels, and this is the kind of situation that calls for advancing the runner by any means. So Bocachica is cut loose to steal during the AB. He doesn't go every swing, but it seems like it from about the fourth on. Here's how the at-bat went:

Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Ball, Foul; Suzuki reached on fielder's choice to shortstop, Bocachica out at second.

The marathon 12-pitch AB is really much longer if you count numerous throws to first (which I unfortunately failed to take note of at the time, or we might be up into Alex Cora territory in terms of actual wear and tear on the soup bone).

Every one of those fouls was a hard fast ball, thrown out of necessity to keep Bocachica from getting that extra step. Every time Clemens throws the ball, Ichiro is gauging his swing just a bit more, and Bocachica loses a fraction of an inch off his sprint towards first. It's a race, only Clemens keeps getting just a bit more giddyup on the old fastball and beats Ichiro down the stretch by a nose. He starts the AB at 105 pitches, and ends it at 117.

Here's why Randy Winn won't be a good major leaguer, ever: after all that, he swings at Clemens' first pitch -- with a base stealer named Ichiro on first with fresh legs and Clemens out of gas -- and flies out. He got a hold of it, and with another smidge on the ball it would've gone out, but it's just a fly-out to left. Clemens is yanked at that point, Brad Lidge comes in to ice the inning against Martinez with a K, and Octavio Dotel survives the usual scare to save the game in the 9th (surprisingly, striking out Ichiro looking again in the ninth). Clemens got overextended, but not overly-overextended.

One is well-reminded that the great pitchers are great because in so many of these situations they come out ahead -- they make the adjustments on the field, to the situation, dig down, and get that last out.

posted by The Crank 2:04 PM