Thursday, October 30, 2014

World Series note

I was rooting for the Royals, but obviously had to admire Bumgarner's performance.  (Plus, extra bonus points from me because he's left-handed.)

The interesting thing was that he appeared to realize, within a few batters, that he simply didn't have his usual command or velocity, so he adapted.  Rather than throwing nothing but strike after strike (to all four corners of the strike zone), he kept on moving the ball around, but frequently missed the strike zone on purpose - especially high.  The Royals, knowing his usual style by now and presumably over-anxious as well, couldn't adapt and kept swinging at pitches a foot out of the strike zone.

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