marquis webb
14-13, 5.73 14-6, 3.14
whoa, there. reyes was supposed to replace mulder, not reprise him. but that was a hell of an impersonation he did last night --- right down to the deflating rest-of-the-night-off effect his outing had on his teammates. i wasn't watching while it happened, and haven't had the heart to cue up the video; i gather that location was his main undoing -- he left pitches over the plate, and they got liquified.
worst outing of his career, and it couldn't have come at a worse time -- ie, when he's trying to establish some trust with the manager and position himself for a postseason start. last night's shellacking will cost him whatever credit he'd built up via his two memphis starts and last sunday's strong performance vs the pirates; the playoff rotation is now back to carpenter, suppan, and pick your poison. but -- if i may reiterate an opinion i stated on monday --
but if he is a better option, he's running out of time to convince the powers that be. his next start falls on wednesday afternoon at home vs the astros.
odd coincidence: each of reyes' last two starts has fallen on a day of emotional pregame ceremonies involving the home team's hero -- and in both cases the hero followed up with a monster game. sunday it was pujols' "Buddy Walk" and the ensuing three homers; last night it was gonzo, who had a perfect night after being honored before the game for cracking baseball's all-time top 20 in career doubles. i'm not at all suggesting that these events have anything to do with how reyes pitched; just an interesting coincidence, that's all.
another of the organization's young pitchers got bashed around pretty good last night -- adam ottavino, who took the loss as quad cities got knocked out of the playoffs. with the short-season team at state college having wrapped up its season on thursday, the cardinal farm system has officially wrapped for 2006; encouraging year in a lot of respects. one of the success stories, chris narveson, made his mlb debut last night and exhibited commonplace ohmigod jitters -- shooed a man home from 2d base all by hisself via a wild pitch and a balk. another maiden appearance, by john nelson, was just as benignly inept -- he whiffed.
ah, but so what? you're big-leaguers now, fellahs -- the end of the rainbow. sincere congratulations to both.