Running LCS thread

Owings has not faced the Rockies at all this year (with the exception of his pinch-hitting on Friday). Might work in his and the Diamondbacks' favor. Helton mentioned too in the postgame interview on TBS that he'd not faced Owings.

 

Hard to say how Owings will do tomorrow. He's been consistently inconsistent as he figures out how the hell to pitch in this league. He's got a lot to learn about damage control, but that takes time. ... Sometimes, he'll throw four hitless innings and then he won't get out of the fifth. Got knocked out in the third inning by St. Louis a month ago, and he came back and threw a 2-hit shutout against San Fran in his next start. Didn't allow a run into the seventh against Pittsburgh in his last start (9/27), which means he comes into Monday's game on a 15.1-inning scoreless streak.

The second time through the order is the key -- if he gets through it unscathed, he might dominate the rest of the game. If he doesn't ...

 

Owings' plate appearance in Friday's game that I attended might have drawn the biggest cheers of the night.

 

I understand the theory behind using Owings over Webb, but to me it isn't a matter of saying you can't win without the ace on the mound. It is about getting two more starts out of Webb instead of one. Even with his struggles against the Rockies, I can't imagine that team wouldn't feel better about having him on the mound as much as possible.

If Webb is ready to go, you use him. If he's more like a Jake Peavy in that he isn't himself on short rest, you use Owings.

The thing with Pinella was a completely different situation. That was with Game 1 tied at 1-1 and Zambrano was pitching extremely well. He had only thrown 85 pitches and easily had one more inning in him. Not that you expect Carlos Marmol to get lit up in relief, but the Cubs definitely should have waited at least one more inning to go to the pen.

 

I'll say Red Sox beat Rockies in six. If they both get there.

 

We're underway in Cleveland...

 

I disagree.

a) Nobody is "himself" on short rest. There is not a pitcher alive today who pitches better on three days' rest than four.

2) I see your point about using Webb as much as possible, because yes he's that good. But I think that theory can be destructive to a young team without many stars. I really don't think that team will feel so much better with Webb, especially since he just lost Game 1 and especially down 3-0. At this point, having him out there isn't going to make that much of a difference. (As I said earlier, you still have to use two other starters to win Games 5 and 6 to get back to Webb again.)

So if today you make the call "we'd feel better having him on the mound as much as possible," tomorrow you're sending the message "we don't feel quite as good without him on the mound." So maybe Webb helps you avoid the sweep, but now you've put your team in a negative mindset for the next two games.

I think using Webb would backfire as soon as he tired -- and on three days' rest, odds are he would tire early.

No matter how well or poorly Owings pitches tonight, I think using Webb would have been a bad move.

 

J.D. Drew still sucks. That is all.

 

And Lofton puts the Tribe up 2-0.

 

Which makes the leaving-bases-loaded deal even worse.

 

That definitely seemed like Dice-K grooving one in the hopes of getting ahead in the count, because his location was pretty sharp to that point. Pretty amazing that Lofton can still make a pitcher pay like that.

 

Kenny Lofton? Geez, he's older than Jimmy Key. (dated ESPN commercial joke).
God love 'em. Go Tribe.