About the Game

Well, let's talk baseball because there was some good baseball played last night. Our starting pitcher Li Chenhao has done a marvelous job in these Olympics. He has played on the biggest stage in his sport and has accepted its challenges and pressures head on. He pitched 6 strong scoreless innings in the Korea game before the rains came and he was pitching well last night. The pressure was intense as we were playing USA Baseball, the birth place of the sport. It appeared more like we were playing against the uniform and history rather than playing the game. The players were apprehensive at every position and the pitcher was working very slowly, calculating every pitch. It was actually a great game until the incident overshadowed the performances. We had men in scoring position in the first two innings but could not push a runner across. Their pitcher did a great job of challenging our hitters and staying on his game plan. USA scored one run in the first and left a couple of runners on when the inning was over. That was it for the scoring until the bottom of the fifth. Our pitcher was pitching in and out of jams all night. His pitch count was escalating and they were grueling innings. He was grinding on every pitch as it seemed the game hinged on every one. He came to us after the fourth inning and said he was tiring, he was already at 78 pitches and it was beginning to show. We asked him to give us one more inning and to really focus on hitting his location rather than concern himself with how hard he was throwing. He induced a ground ball out of the first hitter for an out and the next hitter hit a high change up into the left center gap for a double. We then replaced him with a reliever and he got the first man out. There were two outs in the inning when things unravelled. The batter battled the count on multiple foul balls until he hit a high soft fly ball down the right field line. The second baseman was shading the middle of the field so he had a long way to run. He closed the gap quickly and was on pace to intersect the ball. As the ball descended he actually overran it and it fell to the ground, foul. Unfortunately, again I was told the replay showed it was a foot foul, the umpire called it fair and the second run scored. The next hitter then hit a double down the right field line, this time it was fair, and that is when there was going to be a play at the plate. The ball was thrown to the relay man and he made a perfect throw home, beating the runner. The runner then charged into the catcher in hopes of dislodging the ball. The catcher held onto the ball and the umpire called him safe. He said he missed the tag and the replay didn't put the umpire in a good light.
On a side rant, way, it was the same umpire that called our runner out for leaving the bag too soon in the overtime game against Korea. A play that didn't even draw a throw home. There is another unwritten rule in all of sports. Let the players decide the game on the field and don't make calls that change that. Even if he left early, you don't make that call. If there was a throw to the plate and he was safe, then yes. It's like a basketball player takes the final buzzer beater shot and the off guard made contact with his defender on the other side of the court. If that ref makes the call he will be stalked for the rest of his life.
Three runs scored that inning and made it a 4-0 deficit heading into the 6th. That is when the game was out of control and we had lost our opportunity to stay close with USA. After the ejections we brought in a reliever and he ended up giving up four runs and the game was essentially over.
How about this; I made my managerial debut last night after our manager was ejected and that lasted a total of about 15 pitches. Boy can I manage. I was thrown out of the game after our pitcher hit their hitter, in the head no less, and we were both gone as well we should have. We were warned that if any hitter gets hit we would be tossed. The crazy thing about it is that I called for a curve ball on that pitch and the catcher called for and inside fastball. In that situation you had better be careful going inside because if you lose it inside you stand a good chance of getting thrown out. Our catcher replaced our starter and he has little to no experience. The game was going 100 mph in his head as he missed 4 out of the 6 pitches I called.
One last positive note was that the catcher who was run over ended up hitting a monster home run in the last inning. It was his first Olympic hit and he ran around the bases with his hand above his head and his finger pointing tho the sky and stomped on home plate. That is not typically the way you would run around the bases and certainly nothing that we would condone, but under the circumstances, who would fault him. USA baseball maybe.