It was felt all throughout the clubhouse, felt all throughout the stadium I believe. Papelbon claimed that he "tried to bring certain things to attention that would make the Phillies better," but he was ignored. Can't imagine why. If anyone has the clubhouse leader pedigree, it's Jonathan "Get off the pot" Papelbon. On July 22, Odubel Herrera sent a walkoff single into left center to beat the Rays; and Papelbon subsequently sent Herrera to the ground in celebration.
In fairness, Papelbon was excited. The hit earned him his second win on the season after he'd turned in two scoreless innings of relief.
But considering this came after his awkward All-Star break quotes — and only weeks before he'd call out his former team for its losing culture — this feels like some unnecessary roughness.
Herrera, though, should probably be glad a crotch grab wasn't involved. But it seems curious that when you Google search "Papelbon loses temper," the sixth of more than 4 million results features this headline: Kim Jong-un loses temper with terrapin farm workers. The connection to Papelbon here, I boldly propose, is slight. After seeing the North Korean leader admonishing terrapin breeders for their "irresponsible work style," a few crotch grabs, politically incorrect statements and boneheaded baseball plays seem a little less problematic.
But an issue remains: Papelbon's sophomoric humor and phallic gestures may not pass inspection from the pastime's protectors, but they are ultimately, mostly harmless.
The Wednesday night scene, however, illustrates a dangerous side to an ignorant, immature mindset rarely checked by consequence. A ball high and tight in Papelbon's hand, at worst, keeps the pitcher up to date in the all-important self-inspection for testicular cancer.
But a ball high and tight near Machado's head could have done irreversible damage. And that consequence of a hothead with a history of hotheadedness can't be tolerated. Getty Images. Written By Cory Collins. Papelbon targets Machado. AP Photo. Papelbon's crotch grab. As a pitcher, Papelbon never really had a reputation as a junk artist.
Papelbon berates reporter. Papelbon's crotch grab, Part II. Papelbon blows and blames. Papelbon demands trade. Papelbon's Christmas sweater. Papelbon's Puig 'joke'. Papelbon protects guns.
Politics aside, this was awkward, and awkward timing. Some highlights from the transcript via Sports Radio Interviews : Did you feel about leaving the Red Sox after the chaos of the collapse last September? Papelbon and porn. Papelbon's a dirty dog. His teammates weren't amused. Papelbon, craps and Okajima. Don't worry, this is safe for work. Papelbon calls Phillies losers. Papelbon choke-tackles teammate.
Even in victory, Papelbon has a tendency to take it too far. Papelbon's terrapin passion. Okay, this one isn't Papelbon's fault. At all. That brought Matt Kemp to the plate for one whale of a showdown. Papelbon threw Kemp a first-pitch fastball, and Kemp swung at it and put it in play.
Kemp singled to score Abreu. Replays showed that Kemp was safe, by perhaps the literal slimmest of margins. The score then was , and Papelbon got Andre Ethier to fly out to send the game to the 11th.
In the 10th, the Phillies scored two, but also allowed two, so nothing was gained and nothing was lost. Much distance was traveled, around in a circle. There are three ways that we can analyze a pitcher's performance.
The worst way is by analyzing his box-score results. There's a whole lot of luck that goes into producing results, especially over small samples, or if you don't like the word "luck", there are things that are out of the pitcher's control.
The best way is by analyzing the pitcher's actual pitches, but this is incredibly difficult. There are game-theory issues; we don't know what the hitter was looking for, we don't know exactly what the pitcher was trying to do, and it's just hard to evaluate the quality of individual pitches. In between, we can look at pitch-by-pitch results, and batted balls. This isn't perfect, but it's a better way than the laziest way. In Papelbon's blown save, he allowed a line-drive double.
You don't ever want to allow those. He also struck out a pair of batters, and the singles came on a pop-up and two weak groundballs. One somewhat weak, one extraordinarily weak. Papelbon was tagged with a blown save, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that he earned it. So what? I don't know.
Papelbon got a little unlucky, meaning the Phillies got a little unlucky, and they wound up losing a winnable game. The Phillies aren't in a position where they can just give away winnable games without worrying too much about them. This was a rough way to watch the Dodgers tie the score, because the three singles should've been just about harmless, but the Phillies put themselves in a spot where they needed to get more of the breaks.
A blown save like this is always difficult to watch; it's the most difficult for the desperate. This was Papelbon's third blown save in his last seven opportunities. Something tells me this was the least deserved. I'm not going to try to defend his contract, because the Phillies paid entirely too much money, but this blown save shouldn't be included as part of the argument against it. This was a blown save that leaves you thinking "yeah, it probably just isn't the Phillies' year.
Since joining the Nationals, that rate has plummeted to Papelbon used to strike out three of every 10 batters he faced. He now strikes out just one of every six. There are, of course, plenty of ways to retire major league hitters. And plenty of big league pitchers, including relievers, have been quite successful at inducing weak contact and recording outs that way.
Taylor in left-center had an exit velocity of mph. Credit, of course, must be given to a Royals lineup that won the World Series last fall with late rallies just like this. They turned it into an art form, refusing to strike out, always delivering a key hit when they needed it most. We have been doing that, but unfortunately tonight was not one of them. But tomorrow shows what kind of character we have after a tough loss.
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