Give a Batter a Life…

My father used to say, "Give a batter a life and he’ll come back to hurt you."

That is just what happened in the top of the 5th in Philadelphia when Phillies catcher Chris Coste did not catch a pop foul off the bat of Eric Byrnes. The next pitch was a ball and the pitch after that was Double No. 26, a shot over the head of CF Shane Victorino.

And then Byrnesie was driven in by Conor Jackson, who should have had a double to center also, but Victorino cut it off, made a great throw and Jackson was tagged out by 2B Chase Utley.

Byrnesie has now scored 49 runs, that ties his total for A,A’05, so I hope he gets to crunch that category tomorrow. The astrologically aware should know that Vesta is applying an opposition to Byrnesie’s natal sun, so his focus should be heightened now.

The EB line for the night was 2-4 (he was left on deck in the 9th) with 1 R, 0 Ks, 0 DPs, and 0 LOBs because he came up four times with no one on base. (GRRR! That doesn’t help the RBI totals!)

Chris Coste learned his lesson and caught the pop foul Byrnesie hit in the 7th, even though it meant bending over the railing of the D’Backs dugout. Even the Phillies announcers thought, at first, that this ball was out of play. Too bad it wasn’t. That was the only bad out Byrnesie made tonight. He lined out to right in the third inning, but DTLFL didn’t mind that because it was hard hit. Unfortunately, it was hard hit AT Bobby Abreu. Another night, that ball lands in the gap for a two-bagger. We want Byrnes to remember that he has power to the opposite field and doesn’t have to try to pull everything to get an XBH.

As mentioned before, Byrnesie has surpassed last year’s Total Bases. His batting average is up to .288. And the double gives him his first XBH since 7/17. DTLFL is ready for Eric to have another hot streak like he did in the first three weeks of May. We really enjoyed watching him bat over .320.

We’re also really pleased to see the double. He entered the day 25th in the NL in two-baggers even though he was only 67th in ABs. We look forward to more doubles. He is now 58% of the way to our benchmark of 45. July has been a bit thin on XBHs. He needs to pick it up a little more. DTLFL trusts that he will.

We also like the fact that, last night, he walked on two occasions with a runner on third and 2 outs. No crazy swinging at balls like a few nights ago. Now, he needs only 6 more BBs to top last year’s total.

The D’Backs lost tonight 6-4. Brandon Webb was not sharp tonight. He was also not helped by errors by Hudson and Tracy that allowed 2 unearned runs to score in the first inning. Tough error on Tracy because the ball was hard hit, but it went right through his legs.

K.R.