Panther of the Game: you tell me and we'll both know...
Mark my words - if they stay healthy, the Blue Jays will make the playoffs. This is was the most grindingly tough opponent that we have faced this season.
...and the coveted PANTHER award goes to...
Panther of the Game: Maicer Izturis
Bottom line is there were two outs in the bottom of the 9th in a tie game and Izzy could have gone all 08-Angel on us and grounded to 2nd base. He didn't and we won be cause he didn't and that, my friends, is Panther.
0 recs | 48 comments
Terrific win. Halos are showing grit.
I also dig the walk off call with Hud driving the sound engineers crazy.
When you have multiple Panther candidates, you’ve got multiple guys stepping up to get the win. That’s a good thing.
The HBP is only panther if you believe that Howie didn’t think it was a curve ball. If he DID take the HBP deliberately then he’s panther for taking one for the team. Otherwise you gotta give it Maicer. Jose Wails got the job done again! Bullpen now has 4 reliables like we had when it was Brendan, Shields, K-Rod, Percy. And if Speier can find his early 2007 form, you’ve got 5 solid relievers. I don’t even think anyone of em are juicing. How awesome is that?
If Johnny could learn to play infield, we’d be stoked!
melvintoast - June 1, 2008
Now imagine what the Jays could do if they weren't stupid...
...and held onto the Big Hurt?
You also have to think that the wild card race will probably come down to Tampa Bay, Toronto, and whoever is in second place in the Central.
cardinalwraith - June 1, 2008
Macier Izturis stepped up and got us two wins in a row with the walk off hit for the W.
Those Blue Jays are’nt birds, they are freaking animals!
44FAN - June 1, 2008
Let me correct that, Rivera got the walk off on Saturday. Brain cell slip!
44FAN - June 1, 2008
That's known to happen after so many walkoff victories.
Zu Long - June 1, 2008
maicer for the clutch hitting...
something we haven’t had a lot of lately.
honorable mention to ‘dondo.
NoDakHalo - June 1, 2008
Panther is Arredondo
Two-and-a-third of scoreless mastery, and another win. Damn you, Nick Swisher, for your tarnishing of this otherwise perfect (to this point) pitcher!
PieceOfAase - June 1, 2008
Agreed
2.1 scoreless, tense innings in the heat of battle for a guy who was closing a level below … thees ees panther.
mattwelch - June 1, 2008
i actually thank Nick Swisher
for getting that first homer out of the way. ‘Dondo has been money since.
SCHalo - June 2, 2008
If you go onto mlb.com
They’ve got portrait of Jose but HK is the action shot.
melvintoast - June 1, 2008
i say arredondo
hes awesome
Carl Johnson - June 1, 2008
1 year ago he was in A ball
and he was starting games 2 years ago!
anaheim angels - June 1, 2008
Arredondo
Kept the one run lead – giving the team an opportunity to win the game
gorams77 - June 1, 2008
I say SEAN RODRIGUEZ.........His bat is now turned ON and got us back into the game.
Panther = SRod
Co Panthers go to Garland, HK47, and Arredondo. But SUPER props to Mice Tits…....
acuda27 - June 1, 2008
Garland?
Did you watch the game or even read the recap? Jonny G-Land threw 44 pitches in the 1st and couldn’t even make it to the 6th inning today.
Unless we’re giving Panthers for extending his innings long enough for me to get an even shade of pink on both arms, he has no business being mentioned in this WIN thread.
ReggieBullits - June 1, 2008
He gets a mention for fighting through a bad day on the mound
instead of collapsing a la Weaver 2 days ago.
Zu Long - June 1, 2008
I'm fighting a bad day on the toilet... Nominate me.
melvintoast - June 1, 2008
If part of my life revolved around how well you crapped
I might. But it doesn’t. So, TMI.
Zu Long - June 2, 2008
Garland was just being Garland today, nothing more, nothing less.
44FAN - June 1, 2008
Senor Rodriguez gets my vote
First career big fly seals the deal for today’s Panther
AHaloInSF - June 1, 2008
Fangraphs gives it to Maicer over HK by a decent margin.
Zu Long - June 1, 2008
Maicer
not even close in my opinion. We’re a team completely lacking clutch hitting with RISP and we won a game on his hit with 2 outs. I dont see how you can give it to anyone other than the guy who WON the game. Am i crazy?
ihearhowie2.0 - June 1, 2008
Maicer
For a guy to immediately step up and bring in the go-ahead run on the 1st pitch… that’s Panther!
Los Angeles de Anaheim - June 1, 2008
Tough call ...
leaning towards Arredondo, who will make us all happy some day for being able to watch Frankie blow his arm off for the Yankees … or …
my vote: The Boy King
highlandhalo - June 1, 2008
Why would that make you happy?
Zu Long - June 1, 2008
Qualified remark
But if Frankie is going to hold us to ransom, and then have his arm blowed up, I’d just as soon have that happen to the Yankees rather than to us, when Arredondo looks capable of doing the closing job just as well at $15 mill less a season.
That’s what I meant. Of course if would not make me happy if Frankie’s arm blew up, just better if he’s a Yankee if/when it happens.
Get it?
highlandhalo - June 1, 2008
Frankly, no.
But then I don’t really understand ANYTHING about your position on Franky. So, whatever, fine.
Zu Long - June 1, 2008
makes sense to me
yea!
calikraze - June 1, 2008
Frankie says relax.
melvintoast - June 2, 2008
Didn't see the game but....
Fuck yeah!!!!
That’s for May…
Big Easy Halofan - June 1, 2008
I vote Izzy again, thank you
I’am throwing monitors off the stage, cuzz rakim said move the crowd!
Funke5ive - June 1, 2008
Tough Call today...
I am guessing Gazoo for Panther…though Arredondo and Oliver get honorable mention
K3YEROUT - June 1, 2008
Ps…can u believe Fattolo is 3-0 for BoSux? That just pisses me off…fat f’er
K3YEROUT - June 1, 2008
Why the hate?
He would have stayed if we would have kept him. If you subscribe to the notion that his rise and injuries were needle-based, then he is fragile and not long for the Sux. besides, he gave up 4 ER’s today and still got the W. Why? because THAT team has not forgotten how to score lots of runs.
Stirrups - June 1, 2008
I agree with the majority
Gazoo for Panther
howiestheman - June 1, 2008
Smoke, meet Mirrors.
How the hell is this team doing it?
It’s been real tough to pick a POTG around here. That says something. Nobody is playing huge and carrying the team. There is no real “core” producers. Kotch is having a good year, but one guy does not make a “core”. It seems more like the club is finding some strange way to connect the particular success of two or three guys in any given game and weave that into a win. Even the pitching has lost some consistency, but they find a way to glue some segment of good pitching in each game to some offensive contribution and get just enough to pull it out. This week, it even involved the advantage of being the last at-bat. Get just a single run more than the other guys and the game is stopped immediately. Four times that was leveraged and added to the elixer.
No Lackey. No Escy. No Howie. No Figgy. No Aybar. Vlad with bad wheels. Vlad with bad year anyway. GMJ back to normal. Izzy late to engage. Q barely engaged. Rivera ignored. Wood hitting more like DiSarcina than any “Cal Ripkenesque monster” (you gotta scroll to about the middle, “Positional miscellania”), half the starting line-up rushing towards the Mendoza Line, Speier losing his touch, Mosely coughing up hairballs, Bootcheck still stuck being Bootcheck.
I mean, really, these guys have one of the best records in all of baseball? Deal with all that and win a few games and , yeah, Ok, you’re getting lucky. But these guys are not “winning a few games”. They just won their 6th consecutive series, against the hottest team in the Major Leagues, against one of the best closers in baseball. They are slowly inching away from the rest of the Division. They are winning A LOT.
It ain’t chemistry. It ain’t grit. It ain’t math. It ain’t luck. Just what the hell is it?
Stirrups - June 2, 2008
...the residue of design...
Scioscia designed the team to be like this … a little more pop preferred, but this is pretty much the SothBall blueprint.
Rev Halofan - June 2, 2008
This feels more like one of the back pages in his stack of blueprints.
I am not complaining. Just happily mystified. This is, perhaps, more like Xtreme-SothBall. Or, maybe, Pure-SothBall. It certainly ain’t the SothBall of recent years.
Stirrups - June 2, 2008
Well yeah
they definitely expected a little more power and the drop-offs of the Salt Lake Bee players to what could be expected of league average players is a little steep – but the pitching has been great and the little bit of offense has carried them .. ta-DA!
Rev Halofan - June 2, 2008
Sosh is being revealed as our Yoda.
Who knew that he was the greatest ass-kicker in the galaxy?
Stirrups - June 2, 2008
Theory
1. Defense. We have gone from middle of the pack to the top.
2. I have this sort of theory, or feeling, that our pitchers pitch better the worse our offense is. And Saunders and Santana stepping up for the loss of Lack and Escy was something no one could have predicted.
It’s pitching and defense. Remember, with great pitching and great defense you will win. With great offense and horrible pitching you will lose.
Of course we need good pitching so badly right now that if one of our guys gives up 3 runs in 5 we are ready to run him out of town. If we were scoring 5,6,7 runs we would be say pretty good job.
Anyway, that is my feelings on the matter. But I will say there seems to be some intangibles in there also.
vladtheimpaler - June 2, 2008
Oh, and Panther
Iz it is.
vladtheimpaler - June 2, 2008
scottnak - June 2, 2008
Late pregame post
Fix. NBA officials. Black Sox.
vladtheimpaler - June 2, 2008
Hey Scott
I don’t see my picks, or those antone else who only made the pregame picks in my fanpost. I belive I got 1 point, as I picked the Blue Jays to score 3 runs.
billhune - June 2, 2008
or those antone else
should read
or those of anyone else
billhune - June 2, 2008
Damn.
I said I wrote ‘em down, and I forgot to transfer it. Sorry! They’re in now on my personal copy!
scottnak - June 2, 2008
I vote...
for Sean Rodriguez as panther.
Downing Rules - June 2, 2008
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