Pitt - Final Regular Season Series

[Deleted member 2897]

1 more win and we finish 15-2 on the season in 2+ game series. Incredible.

Those 2 losses were UCLA and a B9 comeback @Miami.

We just about beat everyone.

 

[Gtbowhunter90]

How did Barons HR look? Another absolute bomb? Missed game, had to work.

 

[gtrower]

How did Barons HR look? Another absolute bomb? Missed game, had to work.

Which one? First one was close. Second one was gone.

 

[MWBATL]

We had three absolute bombs tonight. McCann’s might have been the longest....it didn’t look that good off the bat but kept going...and going...and going. It was wayyyyyy outta there. But Baron’s were both no-doubters as well. Their right fielder barely moved on his second HR.

Really encouraged by both Bartnicki and Hughes pitching tonight. Both were just excellent. Bartnicki excellent in his last two outings, and Hughes was decent against Mercer but very good tonight. Not feeling as good about our starter, but maybe it was just one bad inning. Maybe the HR rattled him a bit. Will be curious to see how he fares in ACC Tournament (assuming he starts a game there).

 

[GT Bravo]

McCann"s was the biggest I have seen. Measured 454 or something crazy. Baron's 2nd was probably similar.

 

[JacketOff]

Overall a great team win tonight. For as bad as Willingham was in the 2nd, he was actually pretty dominant the other 4 innings. He looked visibly angry in the last couple of innings, and he pitched like it. He threw multiple pitches at 93 in the 5th when he was nearing 100+ pitches. I think him maybe figuring out his mentally will be big going down the road, and while it still looks awful in the box score, squeezing 5 innings out of him today was huge.

Bartnicki looked really good, and was effective for nearly 3 full innings, when he usually struggles going back out for a second inning. Hughes looked really good again tonight. I think Willingham finishing strong and showing some emotion that hasn’t been typical of him got our offense kickstarted. Baron with another huge day. McCann looked bad but came through with a bomb to essentially control the momentum. Murray had a huge double AND a bunt hit that contributed to our rallies. Let’s keep it rolling, and with a little help, we’ve put ourselves in a great position.

 

[The Doddfather]

Bartnicki summed it up in his interview with Wiley. 1 run over the last 7 innings for the pitching staff, and he attributed it to the fact that they have confidence in our offense which he feels is the best in the ACC right now. Our pitching staff, although a little more thin as of late, has to feel good about their chances every time they go out just because they are getting so much support. I know pitching dominates the postseason most times, but if our offense can keep up this pace, we will be tough to beat no matter whom we play. After all, Our lineup has seen a ton of top pitchers this year, and I guarantee there aren’t a lot of teams out there right now that have a hotter lineup than we do.

 

[FredJacket]

Overall a great team win tonight. For as bad as Willingham was in the 2nd, he was actually pretty dominant the other 4 innings. He looked visibly angry in the last couple of innings, and he pitched like it. He threw multiple pitches at 93 in the 5th when he was nearing 100+ pitches. I think him maybe figuring out his mentally will be big going down the road, and while it still looks awful in the box score, squeezing 5 innings out of him today was huge.

Bartnicki looked really good, and was effective for nearly 3 full innings, when he usually struggles going back out for a second inning. Hughes looked really good again tonight. I think Willingham finishing strong and showing some emotion that hasn’t been typical of him got our offense kickstarted. Baron with another huge day. McCann looked bad but came through with a bomb to essentially control the momentum. Murray had a huge double AND a bunt hit that contributed to our rallies. Let’s keep it rolling, and with a little help, we’ve put ourselves in a great position.

I, for one, was squirming quite a bit wondering why CDH seemed uninterested in yanking Willingham. He (Hall) didn't really explain why in his post game interview. I wish someone had asked. In hindsight, it was huge. Not only for Willingham's confidence, but saved bullpen arms for the rest of this series too.

Huge win...the way it played out. This team's ability to work pitch counts up on an opposing staff is incredible. Not sure if there is a stat that tracks/compares teams... but we're very consistent at doing it. And teams without deep bullpens suffer mightily against us.

 

[THWG]

I, for one, was squirming quite a bit wondering why CDH seemed uninterested in yanking Willingham. He (Hall) didn't really explain why in his post game interview. I wish someone had asked. In hindsight, it was huge. Not only for Willingham's confidence, but saved bullpen arms for the rest of this series too.

Huge win...the way it played out. This team's ability to work pitch counts up on an opposing staff is incredible. Not sure if there is a stat that tracks/compares teams... but we're very consistent at doing it. And teams without deep bullpens suffer mightily against us.

I think Hall has so much confidence in the offense that he believed they could get back anything Willingham gave up. I'm sure he also wanted to save the bullpen as much as possible. Willingham showed a lot of mental toughness last night. I know it was a bad start, bug he kept the offense in the game, saved the bullpen, and gave us a chance to win which all you can ask from a starter.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

I think Hall has so much confidence in the offense that he believed they could get back anything Willingham gave up. I'm sure he also wanted to save the bullpen as much as possible. Willingham showed a lot of mental toughness last night. I know it was a bad start, bug he kept the offense in the game, saved the bullpen, and gave us a chance to win which all you can ask from a starter.

So true about Willingham. Sure, he gave up 6 runs, but that was when we still had 8 sets of at-bats left. They knew if they could tighten up, we had plenty of time to chip away at their lead, and we did. Still, the entire order for Pitt came through in T2. The entire team lit him up. They were chomping at the bit to do it all over again in T3, T4, T5, etc and he shut them down.

 

[MWBATL]

I completely agree that Willingham coming back and giving us 3 more shutout innings after the rocky second was huge, and hopefully helps going forward. The one thing that concerns me about what I saw from Amos was the trouble he had putting batters away once he got 2 strikes on them. Many of the hits, hit batsmen, etc seemed to occur with two strikes...looks like he needs an “out” pitch. (Not that I really know anything about pitching, of course. I don’t. But I did notice much of the damage occurred with two strikes.)

 

[NW GA JACKET]

I agree on Willingham, showed his competitive spirit by coming back and shutting them down. He struggled to put them away most likely because he didn’t have his stuff working, at least in the 2nd inning. I will say it looked like he had at least a couple struck out and didn’t get the call, or fell behind in count because of it. I wasn’t impressed with ump, and that is for both sides. We took some strikes that looked like balls and balls that looked like strikes.

 

[MWBATL]

I agree the ump was extremely inconsistent, especially on pitches on the outside edge. Half the time a pitch one inch outside was a ball, half the time it was a strike. But, like you said, he called it that way for both teams.

 

[GTRambler]

Just my opinion, but I believe Coach Danny Hall showed his guts last night. I wanted him to pull Willingham out for a relief pitcher to start the 3rd, after getting shellacked in the 2nd giving up 6 runs.

In hindsight, I now believe that CDH was willing to sacrifice losing the first game by not overworking his two or three best relievers and saving them for use in the second and third games in this series, in order to maximize his team’s chances of winning games two and three.

This is because Hall doesn’t have much quality depth in his relief corps, and is forced to best play the hand he is dealt with.

Thankfully Willingham settled down and came through in 3rd, 4th and 5th innings, and the offense finally broke through.

 

[MWBATL]

Just my opinion, but I believe Coach Danny Hall showed his guts last night. I wanted him to pull Willingham out for a relief pitcher to start the 3rd, after getting shellacked in the 2nd giving up 6 runs.

In hindsight, I now believe that CDH was willing to sacrifice losing the first game by not overworking his two or three best relievers and saving them for use in the second and third games in this series, in order to maximize his team’s chances of winning games two and three.

This is because Hall doesn’t have much quality depth in his relief corps, and is forced to best play the hand he is dealt with.

Thankfully Willingham settled down and came through in 3rd, 4th and 5th innings, and the offense finally broke through.

I have to agree. I felt Hall lost us some early season games with the way he handled the relief corps and pitching staff in general. This game, he wins for us(and I lose). I would have pulled Willingham in the 2nd, and Hall (and Willingham) both proved me wrong bigly.

 

[65Jacket]

I sat with Willingham's parents last night, and they commented on how mad he was after the second inning. I hope he pitches mad the rest of the year if that is what it takes. B the way, I read that Baron's second homer was 474 feet. He was quoted as saying that it was the longest one he had ever hit.

 

[forensicbuzz]

I hate how the game day app says 6-0. It’s 0-6.

In 50 years of playing, scoring, umping, coaching, and reporting on baseball, I have never seen anyone report a score backwards. That's just weird.

 

[gtie73]

Plate umpire was consistently inconsistent last night but as noted for both teams . Sat close to the Willinghams last night. The 2nd was hard to get through but they were vocally supportive both for the good and bad. It wasnt hard to hear the mother. Unfortunately , unless a HR or some special play occurs we have a quiet crowd at games.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Plate umpire was consistently inconsistent last night but as noted for both teams . Sat close to the Willinghams last night. The 2nd was hard to get through but they were vocally supportive both for the good and bad. It wasnt hard to hear the mother. Unfortunately , unless a HR or some special play occurs we have a quiet crowd at games.

So she was willinghim to victory?

 

[RoosterJacket]

Looking at it, the impact Ramsey continues to make on this team is incredible. I think a key factor last night was our guys getting the starting pitchers pitch count up knowing after him, they drop off significantly with arms. I have to believe Ramsey’s hitting philosophy plays into this. If any recall, he was a similar hitter at FSU and actually FSU has always been pretty good about working the count. Starting pitcher got tired and we took advantage.

This team is fun to watch!