Fun With Rain Delays and Young Pitching
April 2, 2008 at 10:20 pm | Posted in Chad Billingsley | 9 CommentsThree games into the season, and our first questionable managerial decision!
Explain this: tonight’s game called for a matchup of two of the brightest young pitching prospects in baseball, Chad Billingsley for the Blue and Tim Lincecum for the Giants. Great! Something to look forward to. Except that the forecast called for imminent rain, and both 
pitchers were scratched to avoid having them throw an inning or two and then get washed away, causing them to waste a start. Which, by the way, is something I’ve never seen before. But, okay, fine. Hong-Chih Kuo starts, followed by Ramon Troncoso, and they put together four of the ugliest scoreless innings you’ll ever see, helped in no small part by the Giants offensive incompetence.
So in the 4th inning, the rain starts to come. The Dodgers go up 1-0 in the bottom of the frame on a James Loney RBI single (helped immensely by the previous batter, Andruw Jones, hustling down the line to beat out what would have been an inning-ending double play). As the 4th inning ends on a Matt Kemp flyout to center field, the rain comes down harder. With the Dodgers now having a lead, the umpires suddenly have motivation to get through the top of the 5th inning.
Who comes out to pitch the top of the 5th for the Dodgers? Chad Billingsley. That’s right – he couldn’t start the game because it might rain; but then when it does rain, he can come in. Of course, he gave up the tying run before the rains came.
After a 72 minute delay, Esteban Loaiza is currently on the hill. So the entire reason that Billingsley didn’t start the game – to avoid having him get warmed up but not get to pitch a full start – ended up happening anyway. Meanwhile, if he had been allowed to start, we’d have been able to get a full five innings out of him before the rains came.
Ah, hell, I guess it could be worse – Bruce Bochy did the exact same thing with supposed starter Tim Lincecum, except he’s allowing his prized young righty to stay in the game after such a long delay. Brilliant.
- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness 
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Right now, I am waiting for Vin’s scathing review of Slappy McNoodlearm’s fine outing, last night. I have expressed some pithy opinions, but I feel that Vin will come up with something that will be thought-provoking and full of insight.
That being said – Juan Pierre in a Dodger uniform is an abomination of biblical proportions.
Comment by grabarkewitz— April 3, 2008 #
[...] around in his first three appearances around rain delays and relief stints. (Relive that terror here.) He still needs to work on keeping the pitch count down and getting deeper into games, but just in [...]
Pingback by MSTI’s First Half Review: Pitching « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— July 15, 2008 #
Comment by MSTI’s First Half Review: Pitching « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— July 15, 2008 #
[...] already among the best pitchers in baseball. If not for his rough start to the year (thanks, crazy rain delay decisions!), his ERA would be under 3.00, which would be absolutely fantastic. So, Joel? Yeah, thanks [...]
Pingback by There’s a Lot of Good Info Here That No One’s Going to See Because It’s a Holiday Weekend « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— August 31, 2008 #
Comment by There’s a Lot of Good Info Here That No One’s Going to See Because It’s a Holiday Weekend « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— August 31, 2008 #
Comment by MSTI.com’s 2008 In Review: Starting Pitchers « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— November 9, 2008 #
[...] in which Joe Torre handled him through rain delays and relief appearances his first two times out (relieve that horror here, if you must). It’s not that April starts don’t count, because they do, but if you look at his [...]
Pingback by MSTI.com’s 2008 In Review: Starting Pitchers « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— November 10, 2008 #
[...] his ridiculous “third base days off“, batting Juan Pierre leadoff every goddamn day, tempting the fates of both Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda by using them before and after long rain delays, and [...]
Pingback by Joe Torre Hands Off to Don Mattingly « Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— September 17, 2010 #
[...] to his ridiculous “third base days off“), batting Juan Pierre leadoff every goddamn day, tempting the fates of both Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda by using them before and after long rain delays, and [...]
Pingback by MSTI’s 2010 in Review: Management « Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— November 26, 2010 #