Chad Moriyama Dodgers, Sabermetrics, Scouting
After yesterday’s debacle, today certainly seemed to be must see television, but after Clayton Kershaw pitched normally to Gerardo Parra in the third inning, it did seem like today’s game would proceed normally.
In the top of sixth inning, however, with Parra at-bat for the second time, Kershaw threw a strike and then grazed Parra on the elbow with an inside fastball, leading home plate umpire Bill Welke to eject him.
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Thoughts on it?
Jim Bowden: “Clayton Kershaw in an obvious Cy Young Award race with Roy Halladay is ejected after 5 scoreless innings by HP umpire Tim Welke w/o warning?”
Tim Brown: “Total overreaction by Welke. That’s just sad.”
Jimmy Bramlett: “I think I’ve been a very impartial observer w/r/t the #Dodgers this season, but that’s the biggest load of bullshit I’ve seen this season.”
Clayton Kershaw: “I understand he has a job to do, but just pay attention to the game and understand what’s going on a little bit better.”
Clayton Kershaw: “First at-bat, I threw them all away, and he hit a double. Next at-bat, I have to pitch him in. It’s just unfortunate in my opinion.”
Rick Honeycutt: “I think it was a BS call. If we were going to hit him, it’d be in his back”
As for me, as I said earlier on Twitter, I just think that if Kershaw wanted to hit Parra intentionally, he would have done it in a way that the intention was explicitly clear.
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Reaction after the pitch was amusing though, leading to GIF fun.
WAT
Don Mattingly getting insanely mad was definitely the highlight of all this.
I gotta admit, it was a fun couple of days.
What a bunch of BS…glad Kid K still picked up the W, and Parra airmailed that throw in the 8th.
yeah that was lame. he wasnt trying to hit him at all. umps had it made up that if anyone gets hit, Kershaw is out. But when that pitcher threw up and in to Kemp in the 8th, nothing. he should have been kicked out too if Kershaw was. warnings basically are to end the inside pitch. kemp then gets an easy steal on first pitch. awesome
My opinion of Kershaw vs. Parra was that Clayton was trying to buzz him way inside, and if Parra doesn’t get out of the way fast enough, then so be it, tough shit, you’re getting nicked. Not ejection-worthy. If Clayton had been trying to hit him on purpose, he would have thrown it at Parra’s back, where he wouldn’t be able to avoid it.
In Parra’s first AB, Clayton threw one pitch that was kinda sorta up and in, but it didn’t drive him off the plate far enough, because when Clayton went outside on a later pitch, Parra lunged over and drove it to LF. Pretty obvious that Clayton wasn’t going to let him do that again.
No warnings before the game either, so…