Curve Win, No One Dragged Off by Polar Bears

The boys won a wild one at the blustery cold BCB over those damned Erie SeaWolves, 9-7.

The odd tactical move of the night belonged to Erie manager Phil Nevin (remember him? It feels like he only washed out of the major leagues two years ago). Thad Weber, who used to be a prospect but nowadays is more of a punching bag, gave up six runs in the second inning: Single, double, double, single, flyout, single (plus a two-base error that put Chase d'Arnaud on third), single, single, single, sac fly, groundout.

Yeowch.

Give up six runs on a three-run bomb and a two-run double, sure, that's normal. But Weber walked no one this inning; the Curve were swinging the bats and hittin' them where they ain't. Six singles, two doubles, most of the singles on seeing-eye grounders or low liners. It's one of those innings that brings out the philosopher in me. Was Weber really pitching poorly, or was he just spectacularly unlucky? Balls in play, especially ground balls, are outs a predictable percentage of the time, but of course there are clusters of outs and clusters of hits (big innings). Is it mostly random, or are they caused by the pitcher's performance actually swinging up and down? Such is debated in baseball circles all over. Honestly, I have no idea, nor am I sure whether it matters.

Anyway, all sides agree it happens often enough. What doesn't happen very often is the pitcher--Thad Weber, in case you forgot--staying in to pitch to eleven hitters in one inning, finally escaping, and then staying in to pitch four more innings. And pitched them well; not until Weber, somewhat inexplicably, came out to start the seventh did the Curve finally rough him up and chase him.

Never ones to leave their fans bored, the Curve let the Seawolves hang around. It was 6-4 after Erie chased Tim Alderson--more on him in a later post--and then Mike Beltram ran them out of a potentially big inning trying to go first-to-third on Cale Iorg's single with the leadoff hitter due up and Altoona's worst pitcher in 2010 (Dustin Molleken) on the mound. Miles Durham gunned him down, his second Baserunner Kill in as many games. Very, very bad mistake by Beltram and/or Erie's third base coach.

The Curve seemed to pull away with Josh Harrison's two run double in the 7th, but Jeff Sues, still struggling with inconsistency, let Erie back into it, 9-7, before Daniel Moskos came in and slammed the door on the SeaWolves and sparked celebration on the streets of Altoona.

This is pure speculation on my part, but I do not expect Moskos to spend more than another week or two in Altoona. Now that he's a reliever, he should be in Pittsburgh by year's end as a LOOGY (Lefthanded One Out GuY) by September, and, heck, let's go crazy; we can hope he might even prove a useful reliever even against the occasional right-handed hitter. Anyway, the Eastern League isn't providing Reliever Moskos much challenge, so his promotion to Indianapolis is probably imminent.

Tomorrow we'll be live at the BCB, Section 108 and/or standing near the giant mascot bobbleheads behind the plate as always. Game time temperature is expected to be around 40 degrees, with high winds. They're giving away handbags to the first 2,000 women in the park*; I really have no idea whether anyone will turn up for them. I mean, if it were bobblehead dolls or little branded baseballs or something, I'm sure 2,000 men would show up just to collect the loot, and would be gone by the 4th inning. Guys love random loot.

I'm confident that, given the weather conditions, by the 6th inning there won't be 800 people left in the park. What I don't know is whether 2,000 women will show up to collect their handbags and then go home, or if the women will prove not to care so much about a handbag they'll never use and only 800 people will show up in the first place. I hope they turn up; the bigger the crowd, the more fun for everyone, if you ask me. I can't help but wonder what the Curve folks are going to do with all those handbags if 2,000 ladies don't appear.

* Don't get me wrong... well, OK, somebody's going to get me wrong, but I can live with that. I totally support 'ladies' day' type promotions, and I'm glad the Curve are doing something special for the ladies. It is Mother's Day, after all (though you don't have to be a mother to collect the loot tomorrow, girls and ladies!) I just can't help but wonder what would happen if a sports team announced, we're giving loot to the first 2,000 men to show up, but women aren't allowed to have any.

Well... I lied; of course we all know what would happen. Lawsuits would happen. I have no particular comment; I just think it's interesting. From a business standpoint, it makes sense because most of your customer base is already male; they're going to turn up whether you give them free stuff or not (as long as the team's winning, which I'm happy to report the Curve are.)