I noticed we took a lot more pitches right down the middle of a plate last night than normal send like another poster said he heard that we were told to run the pitch count up is that the case? I’m not sure it is because Casey Martin sure wasn’t following it. Either way I hope we come out and be a lot more aggressive tonight kjerstad hit a line drive double his last time up by swing at the first pitch
I have no idea what they were told, but it didn’t seem to me that kjerstad cured his ills by swinging at the first pitch on that at bat. The difference was that he put the barrel on the ball on that swing. He swung & missed several times last night & did that in the game against UF, too.
However, if DVH is telling them to take, I’m very confident it’s the best call. Their starter was on fire until he finally lost it completely in that 5th inning. That might have been due to exhaustion. It obviously worked out. We might have a completely different strategy tonight. I’m sure they’ve scouted this pitcher, too.
The strike zone made taking pitches hard to do. It seemed to me that the umpire for both pitchers was giving a very generous “High-outside” and low pitches. What I thought was very inconsistent was that the very same “High-Outside” pitch that he would call a strike would be a ball if it was “Inside”. Casey did not look good at all seeing the sliders.
DVH pointed to the fact that last night was the third start for LH in 12 days. He wanted them to work the pitch count, which paid off with his wild fifth inning and four runs. I don’t know that the plan was to take good pitches down the middle of the plate, but it did work in the fifth inning. Not sure that was the plan with Chamberlain.
Dave Van Horn green lights this team. There is not near the takes sent from the dugout as in the past. They weren’t getting take signs last night. They were trying to pick up spin and it’s not always easy.
The early innings it’s really tough because the pitcher is in sun, the hitter in shade. You just can’t pick up spin real easy. They were trying to see if it was slider or fast ball and it was tough to read in the early innings.