The Movement of Body Parts
Well, that series in Boston was not so much fun. The first game was, but dragged on and on because of the rain delay. But Bautista's homer that nearly hit a kid sitting in the seats above the Green Monster made me giddy. Bautista hit another one in the Wednesday that went over the Monster and dented the roof of one of the cars in the parking lot back there.
Which is unfortunate, I guess, but I think if it had been my car, I'd totally keep it that way. That's an artist's work. Show some respect. Plus, I'm big into having stories and that's a pretty good story, especially since there is video footage of the ball hitting the car.
Bautista has had an amazing month. My buddy Ian over at The Blue Jay Hunter broke it down for all to see plainly. Bautista is back, in a big, big way. Oh and apparently it costs 40 dollars to park there, in a place balls could land, so I once again shake my head at Bostonians.
Ricky Romero has been off for most of the season, despite his amazing win-loss record. But that just proves the silliness of the pitcher win-loss record. Yesterday's loss was particularly disturbing because Romero's command was so off, he couldn't throw any of his pitches consistently for strikes. In three and two thirds, Romero gave up nine runs and walked six. That is all kinds of ugly.
To his credit, Romero talked to reporters after the game and tried to explain himself. Not that he has any answers.
“At the end of the day, it’s one thing, and that’s just not being consistent in the [strike] zone,” he said. “That’s something I was good at last year and early on [this] year. “Right now, it seems like when I’m missing, I’m missing bad. I’m not even coming close. I don’t know, I don’t know. It’s just disappointing.”
John Farrell dismissed a mechanical issue at fault, and cites what he suspects to be a mental block. “When the mind interrupts the movement of body parts and a consistent delivery, that’s where you get inconsistent release points and inconsistent stuff overall."
“Physically, everything is fine,” he said. “It’s a matter of having conviction, trust and overall belief in the abilities and the stuff that he possesses.”
I've written earlier about what I think Romero needs to be doing.
Romero thinks he is trusting his stuff. But clearly feels down. “I’m embarrassed in myself more than anything,” he said. “I felt like I left the team down.”
Romero, though he is quiet and maybe even shy, seems like a guy you don't want to piss off. He has a swagger about him and it seems to be gone.
I dunno how to explain it.
This is where I brag for two seconds (or however long it takes for you to read this.) At the start of the month, I designed a digital postcard to encourage people to vote Edwin Encarnacion into the All Star Game. The guy has been the most consistent hitter on the team and has played a very decent first base when he isn't DHing. When I finished it, I sent it to Encarnacion via Twitter.
He loved it, favourited it, retweeted it and made it his Twitter avatar some time last week.
Yesterday, Jose Bautista tweeted encouraging people to vote for Encarnacion and included the postcard I designed.
Like, whoa.
Hat tip to John Lott, whose quotes I stole liberally.