Anatomy of a Loss

[FredJacket]

Sunday’s loss to Pittsburgh was frustrating. Lots of the frustration in other threads is aimed at coaching. I don’t have a problem with that criticism in so much as the coaches recruit the players on the roster (or don’t recruit those we never see), they instruct them on a game plan/approach in general and specifically for a given opponent, put together the lineup, and make in-game decisions in an effort to stop the opponent from scoring and maximize runs for Tech. It is very difficult for me to objectively analyze that long list to assign the proper amount of blame on losing the way we did on Sunday to the coaching staff. Clearly… some… or a lot …(but not all)… goes to coaching; and other threads have that covered.

I’d like to breakdown something easier for me to digest objectively….and that is just how tough this loss is to accept when you dig into the box score and play-by-play. There is plenty of blame to go to simple execution by the players. The general themes are:
- Walks are killer.
- Unable to close on 2-strike counts (many 0-2 counts).
- Making it too easy on Pitt pitching/defense.

B1 – Get first 2 batters on Ks (quickly) on 6 pitches. WALK third batter (count went full after starting off 1-2). Double scores the walked batter from 1st. Of note… Colin Hall makes a great defensive play to end inning throwing the would-be run #2 out at home.

B2 – Get 1st batter out. WALK next guy on 5 pitches. BALK him to 2nd base (CDH argued with 3 of the 4 umpires on this balk). Strike out on 3 pitches to get to 2 out…runner on 2nd. Single scores the WALK/BALK guy. Strike out ends inning. Of note... in judgement of Nick on WREK, the single that scored the run here was miss-played by Hall in RF and could have been caught. Hall saved a run in B1…FWIW.

B5 – Get 1st batter out. WALK next guy (count went full after starting off 1-2). Single on 0-2 count. Followed by another single on 0-2 count (WALK guy scores). Another single on 2-2 count (RBI). Hit batter loads bases… took a stellar DP on line out to Bailey to hold them to 2 runs.

The first 3 runs of the game for Pitt were guys that walked to get on. String of singles in 5th all come on 2 strike counts (2 of them 0-2).

Offensively… Way too many easy innings for Pitt pitcher/defense. Innings 1, 2, 3, 6, 9 were all 1-2-3 innings. Inning 5 only 4 batters.

Add all the above to “coach better” when breaking down this loss (and others this season). The game was winnable… easily winnable. Just did not close deal ahead in count and/or after getting early outs in the inning. Lack of execution. Frustrating.

 

[65Jacket]

Losing to GSU was disgusting, demoralizing , and avoidable. Our hitters must have to go to the cage every day, at least they should. On the road they turn to mush. They still are suckers to certain pitches , as a group, and two of those are high out side fastballs, and sliders in the opposet batters box. They have blown any chance hosting a regional with a disgusting four game performance, because they should have lost the game they won.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Sunday’s loss to Pittsburgh was frustrating.

Yep. When you are 1-2 on a batter, I think a solid understanding of where you are in the game and in the inning is important. Kind of like at the end of a basketball game if you get caught in a trap, call a timeout rather than end up with a jump ball. When you have someone 1-2, depending on the score of the game, if anybody is on base, and how many outs you have, you might want to pitch just outside the strike zone to tempt them into chasing it. You have a few pitches to try stuff like that. But, you have to balance 'being too cute' like I said with what's going on. If you have 2 outs and nobody on base, you (in my non professional baseball opinion) can't afford to take risks and end up walking the guy. Even if they get a bat on a ball its not a guarantee of a hit. Make them beat you. There were plenty of times in the game where this kind of thing happened. Pitt is not a bad team, but they're also not a great team. To be one swing of the bat away from getting swept by them is not a good show...especially when 2/3rds of their runs came from walks and we had plenty of errors in the series too. Frustrating indeed.

 

[senoiajacket]

It’s telling that the “things the team has improved on from last year” reared their ugly head again in this series. 19 strikeouts by us on Saturday. NINETEEN. And then all 4 of PITTS early runs were tied to walks. We ended up “only” walking 5, but 3 of those scored. BTW, they walked 2 on Sunday.