Wow.
Callback to the April 1, 2008 Newberg Report, sent two and a half hours ago, with Seattle ahead in the second inning, 1-0:
"Still feel good about this game." Check.
"I think it's going to be Josh Hamilton or David Murphy who does something to turn this thing around." Check. Check.
"[B]ut man, I sure would like to see us catch the ball better." Check.
Wow. I'm such a basket case of a sports fan. There's no reasonable explanation for Game Two (that's April, not October) kicking my tail like this one did, but I don't see any way that I'm going to be able to sleep for at least another hour. Might as well write.
That was a great game. And an awful game. There's no chance that this morning's papers will have enough space to tell the whole story, which of course is a terrible shame since a lot of you probably weren't able to stay up to watch the last few unbelievable innings.
But before the crazy final third of the game, the Padilla Flotilla was on a mission, following Kevin Millwood's outstanding start in the opener with an equally strong effort. I'm not sure either righthander looked as good at any time in 2007, which is a big thing. If we can get a good bit of 2006 out of those two, you best not write 2008 off prematurely.
The defense got even sloppier after I sent that earlier email (kudos, by the way, to Padilla for not unraveling when his defense was showing signs of doing just that), and I'm sort of hopeful that the flu has had something to do with the middle infielders being off their game in the field. (Young, in particular, was really sick tonight, I understand.) I was thinking the fastball off Ian Kinsler's right hand in the seventh might have affected him on the Ichiro grounder that he lost the handle on in the ugly eighth, but the incredible at-bat Kinsler then had off J.J. Putz to start the ninth (an at-bat that will unfairly get lost) convinced me that his hand, no matter how bad it was, wasn't going to get in the way, or serve as an excuse. Brenden Morrow.
I said on the radio yesterday that for me, Joaquin Benoit (along with Jason Jennings) might be the swing guy on the pitching staff, a guy whose ability to follow up on his 2007 success might be the difference between making this staff a really good one and a real problem. Tonight was not very encouraging.
C.J. Wilson, on the other hand? Ten strikes in 14 pitches. He looked completely in control of the game.
So did Eddie Guardado, whose 10 strikes out of 15 deliveries in the seventh had his old teammates consistently off balance.
Callback to March 27: "[Hank] Blalock is going to have a huge year. Huge."
I haven't felt this good about Blalock since his first full season.
Everyone will remember what Hamilton did with the bat tonight, but his speed made an absolutely huge difference in this game, on defense and on offense.
Incidentally, if it were Boston or the Yankees who managed to pry Hamilton loose from the Reds this winter, he would have been on the cover of Time Magazine before camp ended.
I'm such a huge David Murphy fan.
King Felix is not only really, really good at pitching baseballs, he's a heck of a good fielder, too.
You could hear Tom Grieve laughing underneath Josh Lewin's call of the Hamilton blast off Putz. Eric Nadel's voice cracked slightly when Ben Broussard dug Michael Young's throw out to retire Ichiro and end the game. This was a game that rewarded great baseball fans, and I truly hope most of you stuck around past midnight to experience all of it.
===========================================================
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
If you want to be removed from this list, please e-mail me at newbergreport@sbcglobal.net