It’s not the home run, it’s the walk and error before the home run.
No, actually, it’s not the home run or even the walk and error before the home run. It’s the utterly, completely, disastrous offense.
Yeah, there were no runs, so obviously that’s bad.
But there were scarcely even any decent at bats. Let’s count them:
- Isaac Paredes fought through ten pitches to draw a walk in the second. Brandon Lowe also drew a walk late in the game.
- Early in the game Jonathan Aranda was out on a 110mph liner that was caught.
- There was a bloop single from Jose Caballero and an infield single from Randy Arozarena.
- And hat tip to Yandy Diaz whose ninth inning single was actually some hard contact against a good pitcher.
But otherwise it was mostly weak contact for 27 quick outs.
Zack Littell more than held his own. He did give up a home run, but he was otherwise very effective, pitching seven innings with nine strike outs to one walk.
He’ll get the loss for the game, but this loss is not on him.
