The Milwaukee Brewers have two very good starting pitchers in Yovani Gallardo and Zack Greinke. The rest of their starting pitchers are very good relative to most starting pitchers in high school and college, but Gallardo and Greinke are the stars. Ron Roenicke had to pick between 'em for the start on Opening Day against the St. Louis Cardinals. He chose Gallardo, who also started on Opening Day in 2011 and 2010. He chose wrong. Based on the results, which is unfair.
Yovani Gallardo Rudely Pummeled In Opener
Ron Roenicke gave the ball to Yovani Gallardo to start on Opening Day against the Cardinals. The results were less than inspiring, for Roenicke and Gallardo.
Friday afternoon, Gallardo recorded 11 outs. That would be an impressive amount of recorded outs for a closer, or a shortstop. It’s less impressive for a starting pitcher, and if there’s a silver lining for the Brewers, it’s that Gallardo wasn’t removed due to injury. He was removed because he’d been getting his ass kicked.
Gallardo wound up charged with six runs. For good measure, he had five walks to go with three strikeouts. And he gave up four dingers. Can’t ignore those four dingers. Those four dingers are kind of the whole reason I’m writing this post. But before we get to those, check this out.
- Gallardo was making start number 1
- In the fourth inning, he recorded 2 outs
- He had 3 strikeouts
- He allowed 4 homers
- He issued 5 walks
- He gave up 6 runs
- He gave up 7 hits
Ordinarily I’m not one for numerology, but in this instance I don’t think there’s any denying that something’s up. What’s up? I don’t know, we’ll need some numerology experts to chime in, but keep your eyes peeled for the number 8. That number 8 could be the key to our discovering the next item in the sequence, which would be the number 9.
Now let’s get back to those four dingers. Gallardo had never before allowed three home runs in a game. He had allowed four home runs in a game, once - last September, against the St. Louis Cardinals. That was eight Gallardo starts previous. Eight! In the month numbered nine! All of the pieces are falling into place before our very eyes!
In allowing four dingers on Friday, Gallardo taught us all a lesson on the importance of hitting your spots. Facing Yadier Molina in the second inning:
Missed up. Facing Carlos Beltran in the third inning:
Missed up. Facing Matt Holliday right after Carlos Beltran:
Missed...actually he didn’t really miss by much here. A little up. Facing David Freese two batters after Holliday:
Missed up and away. Here’s a five-batter sequence from Gallardo’s third inning:
- C. Beltran homered to deep right center
- M. Holliday homered to deep center
- L. Berkman walked
- D. Freese homered to deep left, L. Berkman scored
- Y. Molina walked
Gallardo threw just 45 of his 89 pitches for strikes. Of course he didn’t have his best location. If he had his best location, none of this would have happened. Perhaps even more remarkable than what the Cardinals did to Gallardo is that the Cardinals did that to Gallardo while battling the shadows. You’re always hearing about the havoc that can be wreaked on hitters by those shadows. Why, without the shadows, the Cardinals might’ve hit eight dingers! Or ten dingers! It’s impossible to say. We can only guess, with exclamation points.
This probably doesn’t mean a whole lot. Gallardo has bad games. Last April he gave up seven runs to the Nationals. Last June he gave up eight runs to the Red Sox. Last September he gave up those eight runs to the Cardinals. Gallardo’s a human pitcher, with human days. On this Friday, the Friday of the Milwaukee Brewers’ first game of the 2012 regular season, Yovani Gallardo was human, and the St. Louis Cardinals were something that beats the crap out of humans. A wall, I guess. Or a slippery flight of stairs.
See More:
