Keys to tonights game- 1.) Get House to settle in. House likes to pitch in a faced paced rythm. But the trick is getting him to settle into that fast paced rythm. He has been known to lose a bit of control in his fastball when he feels the game has got away from him (which has happened in the first two innings of games recently). But if he has the confidence and the ability to settle in...as well as gets some good defense and run support...he has shown that he can work the small part of the plate- and expand the strike zones. He must continue to grow in the area of itemizing his pitches to keep his pitch count low so he can go deeper into ball games. Remeber- House is still a young pitcher. He has given us some great starts... but he is still learning. He needs all the support he can get from his defense and offense. Speaking of offense.... 2.) Score early! Easy enough, right? ;) Get the early lead. I know we like to wait till the sixth inning or after to start scoring runs... and that is great! Do not change that late inning offense! Just also start to score a few early on in the game as well. It helps ease pressure off your offense, and it helps settle in (see key #1) your pitcher. You are going up against a primarily fastball throwing pitcher in Collmenter. He has a 4.09 ERA for Arizona this year. He throws a fastball, curve and change up...but he throws his fastball about 70% of the time. He does not record too many strike outs, or walks for that matter- So he likes to have the ball put into play... but you can also rack up some serious hits/runs quick against him if you zone in on his pitches early. 3.) Keep the energy up! We are a beaten and battered team right now, with two more of our regular starters going on the dl. This is tough. Whether or not you like what Murphy and Swisher have been doing lately, injuries this late in the season can take the wind out of a teams sails... but only if they let it. Some new young faces are getting the opportunity to step up and fill in. So winning will have to take a new form. But the players- both new and old- have to show up to win. I actually did not want an off day yesterday because I was afraid the momentum from taking the last two against New York would fade. Kipnis, Brantley and Gomes have really started to heat up again... and we need them to stay that way. And we need the others to join in- especially Santana. When Santana is playing well... the whole team seems to play well. We are playing with a new leader in our division. We are still 5.5 games back, only now it is behind KC. Our focus needs to be on winning series... starting by taking game one of this two game series tonight against Arizona.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:30:30 +0000