Quote:
Originally Posted by cumberlandreds
That was the Leake we all knew for most of last season. Great effort by him. He should have had the chance to finish it. That decision almost cost the Reds. Keep getting good starting pitching and I believe in the end this team will be just fine.
I agree with RM about Ludwick's AB's tonight. He battled everytime up. He just couldn't get the hit or walk in the end.
|
Found what I was looking for on Gameday, very easy way to click on the Play By Play and see each batter's AB.
Here's what Ludwick did: in the 1st, he faced 7 pitches, fouling off 3 and getting out on a curveball; in the 3rd, it took 9 pitches and he fouled off 5 of those, finally being put out on a change-up. In the 5th inning, Minor made short work of him, three pitches, all 89 MPH fastballs, popping him up to first. Finally, in the 7th, he had 7 more pitches, fouling off two of them.
I can't say whether it will turn on for Ludwick and I agree that one game doesn't portend anything. But he didn't look overmatched in most of those at bats and he made Minor work two of the three times he faced him. Now obviously, Minor won out each of those times, but it took a good bit of effort (19/113 total pitches - not quite 17% of his total). Both Ludwick and Heisey had a good week. It would be good to see both of them keep it up.
Of course, part of the team's problem has been that there have been few games when nearly everything was running in sync.