Sunday

[wsjmsu75]

We need to save pretty much all of our relief pitching for that game. I'm afraid we have about a snowball's chance of a win before then. Hate to say it. Unless Bednar pitches the game of his life tomorrow.

 

[MSUDC11]

Simmons has been excellent for us, and did a lot to save our pen after MacLeod had to leave early.

 

[ronpolk]

Winning tomorrow won’t have a ton to do with Bednar. We have not pitched bad tonight outside of 1 inning.

 

[wsjmsu75]

Winning tomorrow won’t have a ton to do with Bednar. We have not pitched bad tonight outside of 1 inning.

Maybe not, but it will have a ton to do with whether we can jump on Leiter for some early runs. Wish I could be more optimistic about that.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

We did pitch well. I hope the Vandy team that played Georgia in game one shows up tomorrow.

 

[olblue.sixpack]

Winning tomorrow won’t have a ton to do with Bednar. We have not pitched bad tonight outside of 1 inning.

Without those two walks to start the fourth, I’m not sure the scholarship issue would have come up tonight.

 

[Apoplectic_Objurgator]

Coaches have to be smarter for a weekend series with Vandy. Save McLeod or bednar for Sunday. Stop playing checkers

 

[ababyatemydingo]

It's just as much our hitters being patient and not swinging at first pitches in the turf as it is Bednar pitching a perfect game. They aren't all-world hitters. They just have lights out 1 and 2 pitchers. No excuse for Rocker to pitch a complete game on 100 pitches. Work the damn count and get into their pen by the 5th or 6th.

 

[rynodawg]

That’s the main thing I’m disappointed about tonight, so many swings at curves in the dirt, and putting balls in play on 0-0 count. Against Rocker and Leiter we should be rarely swinging until 2 strikes in count. The only real chance is to get them to 100 pitches by inning 6 or 7.

 

[Apoplectic_Objurgator]

It’s not like us to swing early. Did uga do that? Wondering if that was the game plan?

 

[anon1787432961]

By scoring two earned runs we busted Rockers ERA. Now all we need to do is score 1 run Saturday to bust Leiter's.

 

[ronpolk]

ThatÂ’s the main thing IÂ’m disappointed about tonight, so many swings at curves in the dirt, and putting balls in play on 0-0 count. Against Rocker and Leiter we should be rarely swinging until 2 strikes in count. The only real chance is to get them to 100 pitches by inning 6 or 7.

Rocker has walked 15 people in about 64 IP this season. Knowing that, you want to give yourself 1 swing against the best pitcher in the country? Why even swing at all. You get in an 0-2 or 1-2 count against rocker and he’s going to strike you out 90% I bet. Or at least induce weak contact.

The only way to hit a guy like rocker is to be aggressive and hope he makes mistake pitches. You can’t sit back, take pitches and hopes his pitch count gets up. His history tells you he does not have a problem throwing strikes.

 

[MetEdDawg]

Rocker has walked 15 people in about 64 IP this season. Knowing that, you want to give yourself 1 swing against the best pitcher in the country? Why even swing at all. You get in an 0-2 or 1-2 count against rocker and he’s going to strike you out 90% I bet. Or at least induce weak contact.

The only way to hit a guy like rocker is to be aggressive and hope he makes mistake pitches. You can’t sit back, take pitches and hopes his pitch count gets up. His history tells you he does not have a problem throwing strikes.

This. You have to be aggressive with Rocker. You don't sit back and let him dominate you. You go down being aggressive. If his curve was so easy to lay off of, don't you think the best hitters in the best conference would do that regularly?

You are going to have far more poor at bats against Rocker than good at bats when he's on. You've got to hope you can do what we did in the first inning a couple times in a game. You aren't going to wait him out because he throws too many strikes. In SEC games only, Rocker has 7 walks in 41 innings. His WHIP in SEC play is .80.

He's just a dominant pitcher folks. And he dominated us last night. That's what those types of pitchers do.

 

[jdbulldog]

It's just as much our hitters being patient and not swinging at first pitches in the turf as it is Bednar pitching a perfect game. They aren't all-world hitters. They just have lights out 1 and 2 pitchers. No excuse for Rocker to pitch a complete game on 100 pitches. Work the damn count and get into their pen by the 5th or 6th.

I understand what you mean but when going against a guy like Rocker our hitters cannot afford to hit from behind. Thus we see that aggressive approach.

 

[ababyatemydingo]

I understand what you mean but when going against a guy like Rocker our hitters cannot afford to hit from behind. Thus we see that aggressive approach.

Being aggressive and swinging at balls way out of the strike zone are two different things. Rocker figured out that they were swinging early and adjusted to it, and got them to give him a free strike by chasing balls way out of the zone. Then, the hitter's whole mentality changes.

 

[ronpolk]

Being aggressive and swinging at balls way out of the strike zone are two different things. Rocker figured out that they were swinging early and adjusted to it, and got them to give him a free strike by chasing balls way out of the zone. Then, the hitter's whole mentality changes.

We were not swinging at balls way out of the zone. Just because you see the catcher end up catching a curve ball down low does not mean it crossed the plate out of the zone. Rocker has some pretty dramatic break on his curve. We were taking competitive swings last night, as far as pitches in the zone. The adjustment I saw rocker make was throwing way more breaking balls early in the count. You could tell from the first inning that we geared up to hit his fastball early in the count.