Bad contagious.
We play such a maddening brand of baseball. Losses like tonight's are games I wish I'd never watched. Bad approaches by just about every hitter over age 20, failures to execute (on both sides of the ball) that evoke the legendary John McKay quote, an unbelievable .571/.625/1.143 slash line for the first hitter of each Giants inning. Lately, I have no more confidence with a Ranger on third and fewer than two outs than I do with the bases empty and two down. Even the best teams drop more than a third of their games. Losing happens. But I'd feel a lot better if we made teams that beat us work a lot harder. Or even a little. Chad Billingsley may be one of the best pitchers in the league right now, but he's walked 4.2 batters per nine innings this season. This, in a nutshell, says a lot: The Rangers worked one walk off Billingsley in seven innings on Sunday. The Angels worked five walks off Billingsley in six innings tonight. The significance of that is not just the creation of run-scoring opportunities. Billingsley got through his seven innings in Arlington needing just 97 pitches (13.9 per inning). The Angels saw 112 pitches in six innings tonight (18.7 per inning), chasing the 24-year-old. Tigers lefthander Dontrelle Willis, between his two 2009 stints on the disabled list, both due to an alleged anxiety disorder manifested by a virtually complete absence of command, made seven starts. In six of them, he issued 26 walks in 27.1 innings. In the other Willis start, Texas drew two walks in 6.1 (one-hit) innings. Toronto lefthander Brian Tallet: Between two lousy June starts (five runs in six innings against the Angels and eight runs in 3.1 innings against Florida), he shut Texas out on two hits over seven innings on the 9th. The season is past the 40 percent point and my team is still in first place, a position it's held for the last 44 days. I wouldn't want it any other way, but it sure makes the losses – especially ones like tonight's – sting a lot more. I hate losses no matter what shade they come in, but that one would have been better for my health if I'd only seen the box score. We're in desperate need of some good contagious. The bad contagious needs to beat it, without waiting for Josh Hamilton to come back. =========================================================== To join the free Newberg Report mailing list so you can get e-mail deliveries of every edition of the newsletter, daily minor league game recaps, and frequent Newberg Report News Flashes, go to www.newbergreport.com and click the "Mailing List" link on the top menu bar. (c) Jamey Newberg http://www.newbergreport.com Twitter @newbergreport If you want to be removed from this list, please e-mail me at newbergreport@sbcglobal.net