Day One Hundred and Ninety-One

The Gunslinger

It's Adam. Nobody calls me Gunslinger, I just like the idea that someone might one day. I made my first official Minor League start today against the Cardinals Class A team. I enter most games with the same goals in mind. A) Establish the strike zone. B) Expand the strike zone. C) Command secondary pitches for strikes. D) Dominate the bottom of the zone. Among others things these are the main things I strive for on the mound, and for the most part, they're in order of importance. 

I felt funny warming up today, that's a good start. I felt funny in my pre-game bullpen too, that's even better. If you have ever known a pitcher well, you've probably heard them say something like "I always shove when my pre-game sucks" or "I couldn't miss in my pre-game pen and I got lit up in the game." I started the game off right, hitting the first batter. He was on top of the plate and I threw a hard fastball in, right where I wanted it. From what I could tell it was a strike, but because of his position in the box, the tailing fastball grazed his pants. I walked the next batter; this is not how I intended the game to start. The error in left field, on a flair, left the bases loaded with no one out, so I punched the next guy out to set myself up for a GBDP and got it! Only problem was my second basemen didn't notice the ball rolling between his legs. 2 runs score, inning rolls over due to pitch count. Shoot.

Motivated to make this day end better than it started, I struck out the side in the second inning.

The 3rd was clean as well. I induced a foul out on a first pitch get me over slider to a lefty on the first pitch of his AB. On another slider the next hitter grounded to short. After toeing the rubber for one final batter, I ended my stint in fascist fashion, a strikeout.

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I think Adam just wrote in code. Maybe it's his way of thinking he can get out of his blog-writing responsibilities. Not going to happen. For those of you who can't read the language of Baseball, here's what all that meant in English:

Inning One:

Adam hit the first batter. Then walked the next. Then an error. Bases loaded. No outs. Adam struck out the next hitter. Then a GBDP (ground ball double play) should have been the result of the next hit to get them out of the inning. But the second baseman made an error. So the coaches ended the inning on pitch count.

Inning Two:

Adam struck out all three hitters in a row.

Inning Three:

Adam caused a guy to foul out. Another to ground out. And finally, against his final hitter, struck him out. 

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Oh, and I, Kendall, started P90X today!