17 August 2007

Who'd have thunk it. Cormier goes deep into the game, the eighth inning to be precise, having given up only one run (a solo HR in the third) and showed artful control by issuing only a solitary walk. So much for my prediction of doom and gloom yesterday. However, with one out he then gave up a 2 run longball to kill any chance of a Braves win. Webb was on the mound and he was simply awesome. He has extended his scoreless inning streak to an astonishing 42. There is an interesting discussion for the sabermetrically inclined among you on The Book Blog where MGL posits that Cox should have pulled Cormier before he gave up the home run in the eighth. MGL says:

Now, the question is always when do you take out your bad starting pitcher? Literally, the earlier you take him out, the better, as virtually anyone in your pen is going to be better. Practically speaking, you can’t do that. My opinion is that in a tight game and in a high leverage situation, you take him out as soon as you can, preferably when he is due up to bat. Now, he didn’t come out because he was pitching a 1-run game (he definitely gave up some hard hit outs, so I am not going to say that he was pitching a gem like Webb). In other words, Cox (who I DON’T think is a good manager, BTW) got fooled into thinking that he was a good pitcher and got burned. I think that we found in the research for The Book that pitchers who are pitching well are the same pitchers that they are before they start the game. I think. In any case, he had passed the 100 pitch mark before he pitched to Reynolds who hit the HR, so he was probably tired. AND he hit in the 7th inning. That would have been the time to take him out.

MGL is correct, of course. However, I don't think it would have mattered who was in there, the Braves were destined to lose. Webb is the best pitcher in baseball right now. Let's hope we can claw the game back tonight -- we need to.