I had the great fortune to watch the game last night. Sure, Brandon Webb showed why I rank him among the top 3 or so right-handers in the league, if not baseball. But Eric Milton was magnificent. In the first inning, I immediately noticed that his velocity was back up from his previous start, routinely hitting 91 mph on the radar gun. This is still down from where he was earlier in the season (I saw him hit 94 mph in an earlier start), but this is at least back to the velocity he had last year. But what was really impressive was his location. When he struggles, Milton tends to miss up in the zone a lot, and I just didn't see that from him yesterday. And the results were amazing, with a staggering 9k's, 0 walks, 0 hr's allowed. Very encouraging. Hopefully he can keep it going next start.
I also wanted to say a few words about Eddie Encarnacion. EdE made a critical error as he rushed to get the ball out of his glove, though its impact was eventually lessoned by a rare set of mistakes from Todd Coffey in the 9th. But I also want to point out that Eddie made at least two outstanding defensive plays yesterday as well, including a thrilling pick, spin, and throw to his left. I won't apologize for his errors, but the kid has a great future defensively. A few years from now, we'll be singing his defensive praises.
Well, the next game's starting up, the kid/wife are asleep, so I'm hopefully going to be able to get a good part of it in as it happens. Hopefully Harang can continue his recent dominance and get the Reds back on track with a win.
I'm really tired of Marty Brennaman telling people that Encarnacion needs to change positions. Marty has become such a know-nothing blowhard.
ReplyDeleteMarty's always been a "what have you done for me lately" kind of announcer. I remember one interview with a manager (Bob Boone?) in which he proposed that Pokey Reese was the best clutch hitter on the team. :) I still like the guy, but I don't count on him for intelligent performance analysis any more.
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