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This Day in Baseball Ricky Has One More Letter & One More Win Than Rick

In a first time showdown of two first round picks making their major league debut on the mound, "Rockin' " Ricky Romero bested Rick Porcello in Thursday afternoon's 6-2 victory at the stadium formerly known as SkyDome.



In the beginning, Ricky was on a roll!  Get it?  Hang on, I need a minute here!   Aidez-moi!  That is Comedy Gold, kids!  Anyhoo, Romero faced just one batter over the minimum in the first two innings and got the first two men out in third.  It was afterwards that things got rocky for Ricky.  He gave up a homer to Curtis Granderson, a triple to Marcus Thames, and an RBI single to Magglio Ordonez.  He yielded another single and then plunked Carlos Guillen but he managed to keep Brandon Inge in the infield (no mean feat in this series!) to strand the bases loaded.  Clearly, Romero was never going to give it up - to the Tigers or anybody!

The lefty's adventures weren't over yet, though.  In the fourth, Ramon Santiago tried to score from first on an Adam Everett double but Alex Rios shook off a ball to the noggin on Thames' triple earlier to execute a relay to Aaron Hill who fired the ball to home where Michael Barrett applied the tag on Santiago for the out. 

That finally sparked the offence in the next half inning as Barrett came up with a two-out single to score Jose Bautista.  It takes a strong, strong man to put one over the fence and that's what Aaron Hill did to tie the game at 2-2.  Then the offence erupted in the sixth as Adam Lind homered to put the Jays ahead 3-2 and that was followed by another Bautista single.  That made Porcello cry for help to the Tigers bullpen.  They didn't answer it!  Travis Snider punked Nate Robertson in a battle of lefties with a two-out double to score Lyle Overbay.  Snider then got to take a leisurely 180 foot jog to home plate when Marco "Scoo!  Scoo!" Scutaro homered off righty Juan Rincon to make it 6-2.  The bullpen moves weren't working for Tigers skipper Jim Leyland.  He could've brought in Willie "Guillermo" Hernandez back from the 1984 time machine and it wouldn't have mattered!

That was pretty much it.   Romero settled down again and induced his second ground ball double play to get him through six innings.  Jesse Carlson worked two-thirds of an inning, Brandon League got the next four outs, and Scott Downs plunked a batter but also struck out the side in the process to end the game.

The Jays collected 13 hits and everybody save Rios and Vernon Wells had a hit.  Lind had the good hat trick while Scutaro, Overbay, Bautista and Snider had a pair each.  Hill and Barrett slacked off with one.  Kidding!  They both drove in a run as well.

The Batter's Box Jay of the Game is Ricky Romero.  He made the Tigers bats look , shall we say ghastly (chuckle!), by allowing just two runs on seven hits, two walks and a hit batsmen over six innings.  He struck out 5 and his groundout/flyout mark was 8-3.  He threw 93 pitches, 59 for strikes.

Today, the 3-1 Jays hit the road as they visit the 0-3 Cleveland Indians for their home opener.  We go from a battle of Ricks to a duel of Scotts in this one.  It's Richmond versus Lewis at 4:05 p.m. EDT from Progressive Energy Field.

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In other TDIB notes..........

*  The Angels and A's postpone Thursday's game in the wake of Nick Adenhart's death.

*  Rays get another good pitching performance to beat the Red Sox 5-3.

*  O's lose their first to the Yankees 11-2 as a former Jay gets the "W".

*  Another former Jay gets the win as the Cards edge the Pirates 2-1.

*  The M's stymie the Twins 2-0 thanks to someone whose first name begins with "J".

*  The Red Rangers sweep the Tribe with a 12-8 victory.

*  The Reds have their first win of  '09 by beating the Mets 8-6 thanks to local boy Joey Votto.

*  The Giants stomp the Brewers 7-1 but not before a Giants reliever was seriously injured. 

*   The Royals rally to beat the White Sox 2-1 in the Windy City.

*  The Padres pull out a 4-3 win over the Dodgers at Petco.

*  You might see hockey pucks at Fenway Park soon.

*  A Pirates phenom makes good in his first pro game.

*   The guys most likely to rear back and fire away today.

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Batter's Box would like to wish you and yours a safe and happy Easter holiday.

 

Posted by #2JBrumfield on Friday, April 10 2009 @ 01:22 AM EDT.
Ricky Has One More Letter & One More Win Than Rick | 26 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Richard S.S. - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 06:17 AM EDT (#198132) #

Happy Easter.  Toronto will have 5 starts in April from Doc, Purcey, Litsch, Ricky and 4 starts from Scott, before they play an AL East game.  This should be enough time (24 games) to determine the starters performance.  Minor league starters should have 4-5 starts to settle out who is ready, soonest.  The batters will show the abilities through 50 ABs, in case replacements are necessary.  Purcey will stay and may yet live up to the #2 starter position he's in.  Toronto looks to have a good schedule for the month and might be playing teams at just the right time.  The more starts, the more confidence everyone gets.

 

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brent - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 06:53 AM EDT (#198133) #

http://www.fangraphs.com/boxscore.aspx?date=2009-04-09&team=Orioles&dh=0

You can check out Burnett's complete pitching line here. I am somewhat curious what kind of pitcher AJ will be away from Arnsberg and Doc.

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Chuck - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 07:15 AM EDT (#198134) #

The batters will show the abilities through 50 ABs, in case replacements are necessary. 

What if Rios is 9 for 50 with no homeruns? What conclusions would you feel comfortable about drawing?

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Richard S.S. - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 07:59 AM EDT (#198136) #

What if Rios is 9 for 50 with no homeruns? What conclusions would you feel comfortable about drawing?

Rios is seldom in a longish slump, so he's either hurt or he's confused with what he's supposed to do.  One can be dealt with (D.L.), the other  will be much more difficult - suggestions?

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ayjackson - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 08:00 AM EDT (#198137) #
Oh Chuck.  C'mon now.
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Chuck - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 08:47 AM EDT (#198139) #

I was just trying to point out (admittedly with a tad too much implied snark) that small sample sizes can lead to faulty conclusions.

Looking at some crude math of what I proposed, that Rios would hit .180 (or worse) in a 50 AB stretch, here's what we get.

Let's say that Rios is inherently a .300 hitter, that all pitchers are uniform (I know they are not) and that Rios himself is "uniform" from AB to AB (because of health reasons, among others, he probably is not). Then we can model this as the random flipping of a coin 50 times where the probability of heads is 30% (for Rios's .300 batting average). The question then, is, what is the probability that we will get heads 9 times or fewer in 50 flips, i.e., what is the probability that an inherent .300 hitter will bat .180 or less over a 50 AB stretch?

Using the binomial distribution, this is 4%. So sticking with our model, Rios, an inherent .300 hitter, has a 4% probability of starting the year hitting .180 or worse in his first 50 AB, just due to random chance.

If Rios were to get 600 AB this year, he will have 551 stretches of (admittedly non-independent) 50 AB stretches (AB 1-50, AB 2-51, AB 3-52, etc.). He will also have 12 discrete 50-AB stretches (AB 1-50, AB 51-100, AB 101-150, etc.).

Looking at the discrete stretches alone, Rios would be "expected" (in statistical terms) to have 0.48 50-AB stretches (out of his 12) where he bats .180 or less, just due to random chance.

Looking at the overlapping stretches, this figure would be much, much higher.

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Richard S.S. - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 11:57 AM EDT (#198146) #

small sample sizes can lead to faulty conclusions.

Small sample sizes are indicators of possible problems, injury, confusion and/or dogging it.  Toronto is healthier and players further developed than Cleveland and Minnesota; and should win 5 of 7 games (11 games = 45-55 ABs).  The Kids will play as long as they play.  The regulars are as good as they'll be.  The Bench is under scrutiny, but changes are unlikely in April:  18 games against AL Central, 6 games against AL West, before any decision(s) is made.  Toronto needs 18 wins this month, because after this month, it gets harder.

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92-93 - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 12:34 PM EDT (#198148) #
"Toronto needs 18 wins this month, because after this month, it gets harder."

Toronto simply needs to win more games than everyone else in their division. Playing the "they have to go X-Y in this month and X-Y in that month" to make the playoffs just never works. They all count, let's take "one game at a time" and win them all.
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Greg - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 01:08 PM EDT (#198149) #
Well extremely poor numbers in small sample sizes CAN be caused by potential problems...or they can just be, you know...small sample sizes.
If Rios is batting under .200 by the time April ends, that would suck...but I'm not sure if there are any conclusions we (or the Jays) can draw from that.
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Mick Doherty - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 03:16 PM EDT (#198150) #

"Scoo!  Scoo!" Scutaro

This really demands that some intrepid Bauxite pen a theme song to the tune of the old Phil Collins headscratcher, Sussudio.   I am willing to pen -- okay, keyboard -- the opus if other Bauxites out there can give me some ideas. Frankly, I don't know all that much about Scutaro other than "solid bench player, great guy to have on the team." Not very lyrically inspiring!

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Greg - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 03:56 PM EDT (#198151) #
I nominate The_Game to pitch in on that song, I think is The Box's resident Scutaro booster, if I'm remembering correctly.
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Waveburner - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 04:46 PM EDT (#198152) #
Where can I find the actual 40 man roster? The one on the official site has just 34 names and a few guys missing who should be on it (D. Romero, Castro, etc).
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greenfrog - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 06:13 PM EDT (#198153) #
This is a bit random, but I just noticed that after Cleveland the Jays play a four-game series against the Twins. Minnesota is without the injured Joe Mauer for at least a couple of more weeks, which is a nice break for the Jays. Especially in light of the tough April/May schedule (only one day off before May 11).
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scottt - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 06:54 PM EDT (#198154) #
With Richmond luck, I'm expecting the game to be canceled with the Jays ahead 2 outs short of an official game.

There's never a good time for a makeup game in Cleveland, but a doubleheader in the middle of a long stretch without break is particularly unattractive.

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christaylor - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 07:18 PM EDT (#198155) #
I thought the rules had been changed such that if a game was called short of the 5 it could be resumed the next day without re-doing what had already been played? Is this the Jays' only trip to CLE?

Poor Mr. Richmond... from "Barnacles to the Bigs" and now this... ah well, it allows me to pay more attention to this LaTeX window with the title "Thesis" - go me.
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scottt - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 07:39 PM EDT (#198156) #
There's still  hope. Nobody like to refund their home opener. Richmond is done either way after 74 pitches.
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scottt - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 07:51 PM EDT (#198157) #
I'll add that I'm delighted to see only one left handed bat in the lineup today. The lineups were driving me nuts last year.
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greenfrog - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 08:11 PM EDT (#198158) #
Anyone know the game status?
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ayjackson - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 08:47 PM EDT (#198159) #

The game is still under "delay" according to MLB Gameday.  I'm not sure that doesn't mean they haven't all gone home though, with the aim to finish it tomorrow.

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ramone - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 09:05 PM EDT (#198160) #
Tarp is off, 9:20 start time.
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scottt - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 09:08 PM EDT (#198161) #
From what I can find, only tied game can be continued. If it's called now, it basically becomes an exhibition game and the real game must be rescheduled.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/start_end_4.jsp

Is that the official site?

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westcoast dude - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 10:57 PM EDT (#198162) #
Gameday went into coronary arrest with the scored tied at seven. Fortunately the scoreboard still works and its 13-7 in the 8th. This has been one wierd ball game. Man, it's been brutal on the West Coast, I can imagine anybody in Atlantic Canada where it's now after midnight must be totally exhausted or completely obliterated.
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Leigh - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 11:03 PM EDT (#198163) #

anybody in Atlantic Canada

We're holding up okay.

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scottt - Friday, April 10 2009 @ 11:32 PM EDT (#198164) #
Yeah, that turned out OK.

Looks like Cito would like to use Tallet as a long reliever.

The Cleveland rotation looks suspect with Carmona-Pavano-Lewis-Reyes, but like Toronto, they think they have a strong pen.

I thought it was weird to let the lefty Perez face so many batters after he came in to face the only left bat in Lind. When he left  Lind was back on deck.

League picks up the cheap win, on 9 pitches, half of them balls.

Wells hitting cleanup has 1 RBI while Lind behind him has 11.

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TamRa - Saturday, April 11 2009 @ 12:51 AM EDT (#198166) #
Best offense in the AL?

it is right now, lol.

13 runs on 17 hits tonight! First seven hitters in the order with 2 or more hits....Lind and Rios with 4 RBI apeice...Rolen, Lind, and Scoot all hitting over .400...

As a team the run diffirential is +14 - the next highest in the AL is +5

The jays have scored more runs so far than any team in the majors.

Of course, it really means almost nothing but it feels good to be able to brag

Hopefully they can keep the roll going and build up some wins while they are hot.


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Richard S.S. - Saturday, April 11 2009 @ 03:51 AM EDT (#198167) #
Ugly day, ugly game; 1st  starts for back end of rotations, full of nerves; one team on a roll, another team not.  The team is doing exactly what they must, stepping on a weaker opponent.  Toronto has a better team right now, meeting their opponents when they're not at their best.  This will continue the next 6 games.  First time through the rotation: 4-1, a good beginning.
[ Reply to This ]
Ricky Has One More Letter & One More Win Than Rick | 26 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.