Enough Already

On Tuesday, the Pirates destroyed the Diamondbacks, 12-1. But the game featured some serious ugliness towards the end. In the top of the seventh, the Pirates were leading 9-1. Arquimedes Caminero, who's exhibited only passing knowledge of the strike zone so far this year (13 walks, three hit batters, and a wild pitch in 17.1 innings), came on for the Bucs. He got center fielder Chris Owings to ground out but then gave up back-to-back singles to shortstop Nick Ahmed and Jake Lamb. Then, with runners on first and second and the count full, he hit second baseman Jean Segura in the head with a 96 mph fastball. 

In the bottom of the inning, Evan Marshall, who'd faced two batters in the sixth, gave up singles to second baseman Josh Harrison and shortstop Jordy Mercer. Catcher Chris Stewart grounded out, with the runners advancing to second and third. Marshall's first pitch to third baseman David Freese, a 95 mph fastball, hit him, either on the shoulder (Pirates broadcast) or grazing his uniform (Diamondbacks broadcast).

In the top of the eighth, Caminero still on the mound, catcher Wellington Castillo walked, left fielder Yasmany Tomas struck out, pinch hitter Chris Herrmann forced Castillo, and then Owings singled. With runners on first and third and the count 1-2, Caminero hit Ahmed in the head with an 89 mph split-fingered fastball.

A notes about this: First, this occurred the day after Pirates pitcher Ryan Vogelsong was hit in the head with a 92 mph fastball thrown by Colorado's Jordan Lyles. Vogelsong's now on the disabled list with broken facial bones. So it's not like nobody was aware of the risks here. 

Second, it's pretty clear that Caminero didn't intend to hit Segura or Ahmed, and certainly not in the head. It's not so clear about Marshall, who has a history if ill-advised retaliation. 

Third, it's fortunate that Segura and Ahmed are both OK..

Fourth, I was glad that neither the Pirates nor the Diamondbacks TV announcers talked about "protection" or any other Book of Exodus eye-for-an-eye nonsense. Nobody was making excuses for this sort of thing.

All that being said...Enough already. Pirates pitchers have hit opposing hitters 19 times this season, the fourth most in the league. Pirates batters have been hit 31 times, the most in the league. Last year, they hit the most batters (75) and were hit the most (89). In 2014, they hit the most batters (88) and were hit the second most (78). In 2013, they hit the most batters (70) and were hit the most (88). From 2013 to 2016, they've hit 252 batters (15% more than any other National League team), and been hit 286 times (20% more than any other NL team).

As I've pointed out (here and here), some of this may be retaliation for prior hit batters, but a lot, maybe most of it, isn't. But that doesn't make it OK.

Look, I get it. Hit batters are part of the game. Sometimes a pitch gets away from the pitcher. Some batters stand really close to the plate. Pitchers need to be able to pitch inside as well outside, and sometimes they miss. That's all understandable and forgivable. 

What isn't understandable and forgivable to me is intentionally hitting a batter with a pitch. If I intentionally throw a hard object at high speed and hit you, it's criminal battery. Hard contact is part of the game if you're playing football or hockey, and the players dress appropriately. It's not supposed to be part of the game of baseball. Throwing at a batter because he flipped his bat or slid hard or because his team's pitcher hit a batter on the other team isn't just dumb moral equivalence, it's dangerous. Baseball can wait until a player gets killed, or suffers a traumatic brain injury, or is otherwise never able to play again because he's hit by a pitch. (I'd say "or suffers permanently decreased performance" but that's already happened.) Or it can do something now.

First thought: Immediately eject any pitcher whose pitch hits a batter in the head. I think Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale had it right when he said after the game against Pittsburgh, "You know what, when guys get hit in the head and they get hit in the face, there's no place for that in the game. And if the guy is not trying to do it, then he shouldn't be here at this level." I know some have called for ejecting any pitcher who hits a batter, but that could lead to batters leaning in, getting grazed by the pitch, in order to get an ace pitcher out of the game. Nobody's going to lean in with his chin. 

Second thought: Give umpires more latitude to eject pitchers who throw at batters. Granted, a lot of hit batters are in a gray area. But some aren't, like the Pirates-Reds HBPfest on May 11, in which a Red hit a Pirate, then a Pirate hit a Red, then a Red hit a Pirate, it happened again, then a Pirate hit a Red and a Red hit a Pirate. 

Some people will say that that's the way the game's governed itself for over a century and it shouldn't change. Sorry, not buying it. The average fastball velocity so far this year is 92.3 mph; that can do a lot more damage than fastballs of Ty Cobb's and Babe Ruth's and Joe DiMaggio's eras, so it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. Besides, the game went for decades with no nonwhite players on the field. That wasn't a good idea. Until 2014, baseball didn't bother enforcing the interference rule, prohibiting fielders from blocking the baserunner's path the base, at home plate. That wasn't a good idea either. If governing itself means that Ryan Vogelsong gets bones broken in his face one day and has Jean Segura getting tested for a concussion the next, I'd say it's a pretty pathetic job of self-governance. Roll back the historically high trend of hit batters now, baseball, before you have to, with regrets.

Next Up, Sort Of: The Arizona Diamondbacks

I could've sworn the series with the Snakes started tonight. Out for dinner last night, got home, fired up the AtBat app, and I sure was surprised to see the Pirates game there. So this is a preview of the next two games, I guess.

How Are They Doing Lately? The Diamondbacks are 16-12 over the past 30 days, resulting in a .571 winning percentage that is exactly in the middle of the 15-team National League. They've scored 4.6 runs per game, the sixth most, and given up 3.25 runs per game, the second fewest. That kind of run differential typically results in a record of 18-10 or 19-11 over 28 games. In fact, Arizona has the best run differential in the league over the last 30 days.

What's Going Right? Arizona's starting pitchers have a 3.22 ERA over the last 30 days, trailing only the Mets and Cardinals, and the relievers' 3.08 ERA is sixth best. The starters have induced grounders on 51% of batted balls, second most in the league, and have stranded 82% of baserunners, a figure that is both remarkably high and unlikely to persist. They've gotten batters to swing at 35% of pitches outside the strike zone, the highest percentage in the league over the last 30 days. The bullpen's also generated a lot of grounders, the second-highest percentage in the league.

The offense has been pretty good, too. Over the past 30 days, Diamondbacks hitters have the fourth highest batting average (.273), third highest on base percentage (.331), and sixth highest slugging percentage (.422). The club's tied with the Cubs for third in the league in stolen bases, with 21 over the period, with a good 75% success rate.

What's Going Wrong? The batters have struck out a lot (23% of plate appearances, fourth most in the league) and hit only 23 homers (fourth lowest) over the past 30 days. They lead the league in percentage of batted balls hit hard, but those hard-hit balls are resulting more in singles (they're first in the league over the past 30 days), doubles (fifth), and triples (first) than round trippers. 

Who's Hot? The Diamondbacks have two of the hottest hitters in baseball: Left fielder David Peralta has a .398/.440/.590 slash line with 23 RBI over the past 30 days, and center fielder A.J. Pollock's hitting .362/.425/.532 with 21 runs scored and ten stolen bases. Perennial All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt's at .319/.436/.457. Catcher Wellington Castillo's batting only .257 over the past 30 days but he's launched eight homers. Closer Brad Ziegler is seven-for-seven in saves with a 3.18 ERA over the past 30 days, and rookie lefty reliever Andrew Chafin has allowed five hits, two unintentional walks, and no runs over his last 13 games.

Who's Not? Tonight and tomorrow, the Pirates will face the two Arizona starters with the worst ERAs over the past 30 days: Chase Anderson (3.75) and Robbie Ray (5.33). Then again, last night's winning pitcher, Jeremy Hellickson, had a 3.72 ERA in the 30 days leading into the game, and he allowed just one run over 5.1 innings to get the win. Hard-luck reliever Daniel Hudson, who missed pitched in only 12 games over the past three years due to injuries, has allowed a 6.00 ERA and three homers over his last twelve appearances. 

The middle infield has been a Diamondbacks weakness all year. Rookie shortstop Nick Ahmed's a slick fielder but he's batting just .173/.198/.247 over the past 30 days. The Diamondbacks have two pitchers with a higher OPS this year than Ahmed's .445 over the past 30 days: Hellickson (.485) and Josh Collmenter (.486). Second baseman Chris Owings has also been bad--.235/.270/.341--and those numbers represent an improvement over his .231/.262/.329 prior to the last 30 days.

What's the Outlook? The Pirates swept three in Arizona back in April. That won't happen in this series. They start lefties Francisco Liriano and J.A. Happ the next two nights, and the Diamondbacks this year are worse against left-handed starters (12-15) than righties (46-44). On the other hand, they've almost exactly the same against both types of pitchers (.735 OPS against righties, .732 against lefties). With the hard-charging Cubs (15-2 in their last 17 games, now two games behind the Pirates for the first wild card) starting a two-game series at home against the disappointing Tigers, the Pirates probably need to at least split the last two games before opening a four-game series at home against the Giants.