The Squeeze

The other day I saw a successful suicide squeeze play at Nationals Park. Sitting on the third base side of the field, I saw the base runner suddenly break toward the plate as the pitcher delivered. As the crowd gasped, the batter, Nyjer Morgan, laid down a perfect bunt and the runner scored easily. It was fantastic. And it occurred to me that it was because I was there, with a view of the whole field, that the play was so exciting. If I’d been watching on TV or listening on the radio, the experience of seeing the runner break and realizing what was happening would have been diminished. No amount of replays or slo-mos could duplicate being there.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


This is the time of year when teams who are not in contention (and some that are) have pitching rotations filled with inexperienced, young arms. These pitchers by and large seem to pitch 5 2/3 inning and are out. They get through the opposing team’s lineup twice and can’t make it through the third time. We hear a lot about pitch counts but the reason that pitchers are running up 100 pitches in 5 plus innings is, in part, because they can’t get through the line-up three times.