Close But No Cigar

Apparently, home plate umpire Brian Gorman isn't familiar with the "foot outside the batter's box" rule. If he was, then Magglio Ordonez would have been out before he had the chance to hit the double that scored what turned out to be the game winning RBI's. Most of you will remember that Brady Clark was called out on this very rule by Alfonso Marquez in Philadelphia back on May 27. Bill Schroeder and Darren Sutton commented that this was a very obscure rule, and one that was not called very often.

Well Marquez has made fans aware of this rule now, and many people around me in the stands were complaining about the lack of call on Ordonez's positioning in (or out, as it were) the batter's box. Personally, I don't give a crap whether this rule is enforced or not, but we can't have one rogue umpire who calls it when it suits him. It's gotta be all or nothing.

But back to my point, Magglio Ordonez had not just part of his foot, but his entire foot at least eight inches outside the back line of the batter's box. The rule says that a batter is out when he hits a ball, fair or foul, with one or both feet outside the batter's box. Brady had only part of one foot outside the box and he was rung up. Brian Gorman, are you paying attention?

I'm not saying that's the only reason the Crew lost last night, but it didn't help. Neither did that crappy throw from Matt Wise to first, or the crappy throw from Corey Koskie to first. Neither one of them had a play. Hold the ball, give up the base, but don't give up a run on a bad play, which is exactly what they did.

It really was a shame, too, because Doug Davis was brilliant last night. Doug held the Tigers to three hits through seven innings, walked only one (which is huge for Doug), and struck out nine. He also picked off a runner at first, although the first base ump didn't agree with me, or my entire section, for that matter. My section (213) was directly above first base, and trust me Eric Cooper, Doug nailed that runner, and you blew the call. (Seems like a lot of that was going on last night. No wonder the Tigers have the best record in baseball. Do they take this umpire team with them all the time?)

Before I forget, props to Geoff Jenkins for that spectacular catch he made last night to take a hit away from Pudge Rodriguez.

I'm not sure what's going on with Matt Wise. He used to be lights out all the time, but he hasn't been reliable at all lately. I never used to get nervous when Matt came into a game, but these days, it seems like it's a crap shoot whether he'll be on or off. He gave me one of his signed photo cards at a Friday night autograph signing, and told me I could throw darts at it. If he keeps pitching like he did last night and making stupid errors, I might take him up on it.

Moving on. Rick Helling is back with the Crew and takes the mound for his first start this season again Zach Miner. I mentioned the other day that this looks like it should be a good matchup for Helling, but I'm not one to say anything to jinx the team. As I mentioned the other day, Miner has thrown only 17 innings this season, and has allowed 14 hits, five ER's and three homers. He's walked five and struck out eight. During his last start in Tampa Bay last week, he threw 32 pitches in the first inning alone before he settled down. This is a matchup in which (hopefully) Helling's experience will benefit the Crew.

One negative that Rick will have to overcome tonight is Pudge Rodriguez. Rodriguez was Rick's catcher in Texas, and can provide probably the best scouting report the Tigers could hope to get. Rodriguez is a dangerous hitter in his own right, (.304 career average), but it's going to make it a lot worse that he probably knows what's going to be thrown at him. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that Rick has something up his sleeve that Pudge hasn't seen.

That's all I have for this edition Brewer fans. Until next time, go Brewers!