{"id":769,"date":"2010-08-16T12:55:25","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T17:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=769"},"modified":"2010-08-16T13:00:05","modified_gmt":"2010-08-16T18:00:05","slug":"dodgers-belisario-balks-defies-all-baseball-logic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/769","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers’ Belisario Balks, Defies All Baseball Logic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>On Thursday night, the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers<\/strong> surrendered a 5-run lead against the Philadelphia Phillies, giving up 3 runs in both the 8th<\/sup> and 9th<\/sup> innings and ultimately losing 10-9.\u00a0 Although many of the Dodgers\u2019 players lent a helping hand in making the late-inning collapse exceedingly memorable, the brunt of my focus is on Ronald Belisario\u2019s mental error- a blunder so rare that it baffled every umpire on the field, as well as the manager of both teams.<\/p>\n

With nobody out in the bottom of 8th<\/sup> inning, Belisario<\/a><\/strong> opted to do a 3rd<\/sup>-to-1st<\/sup> pickoff move, hoping to catch an anxious Jayson Werth with too large a lead.\u00a0 There was just one slight problem, there was no a runner on 3rd<\/sup> base.\u00a0 The only guy on base was Werth\u2026and he was on 1st<\/sup>.\u00a0 That\u2019s right, this means that Belisario made a move to an unoccupied base(3rd<\/sup>) in an attempt to deceive Werth.\u00a0 BALK<\/em>.\u00a0 However, this was no ordinary balk, it was arguably one of the most bone-headed and unthinkable balk in baseball history; it should have counted for a run, not just a single base.\u00a0 If we refer to a players\u2019 mental errors as \u201cbrain farts,\u201d then Belisario\u2019s gaffe should be recognized as \u201cbrain explosive-diarrhea.\u201d Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In a game that had been all Dodgers through 7 innings, Belisario entered in the bottom of the 8th<\/sup> to protect starter Clayton Kershaw\u2019s lead and try to stabilize a tumultuous Dodgers\u2019 bullpen.\u00a0 After giving up singles to Placido Polanco and Mike Sweeney to start the inning, Belisario uncorked a wild pitch that allowed the runners to advance to 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup>, 0 out, and Jayson Werth at the dish.<\/p>\n

After a 2-run single by Werth that cut the Dodgers\u2019 lead to 3(9-6), and still 0 outs recorded in the inning, pitching coach Rick Honeycutt thought it might be a good time to go talk to the right-hander, and buy the bullpen some time.\u00a0 Was there really anything that Rick could have been said out there that might have prevented the ensuing Ruben- Sierra-like behavior?\u00a0 With Ben Francisco at-bat, Belisario balked in a manner that left the veteran umpire crew, both managers, and many of the players confused over what they had just witnessed.\u00a0 Everybody just looked around for a minute, unsure of themselves and searching for anybody who seemed to be acting with conviction.\u00a0 Even Charlie Manuel, a guy who you would have expected to have seen it all, appeared confused about the play.<\/p>\n

Once the at-bat resumed, Belisario promptly gave up a ringing, RBI double to Francisco before being pulled.\u00a0 His line for the day: 0 IP, 4, 4 ER, WP, and a Balk.<\/p>\n

But how can something like this even be possible?\u00a0\u00a0 How could Belisario so blatantly disregard a rule that is essentially known a priori by every pitcher?\u00a0 Does he spend too much time around Manny Ramirez over there? Is he trying to get pregnant, as well?<\/p>\n

Having played extremely competitive baseball for my entire life, I can honestly say that I have never seen a pitcher balk like Belisario did on Thursday night.\u00a0 I mean come on, he is a Major League pitcher!\u00a0 He gets paid, healthily nonetheless, to do this for a living!\u00a0 Even the most awkward, un-athletic, unknowledgeable guys that I have ever played with know that a pitcher can\u2019t do what Belisario did.\u00a0 In fact, he shouldn\u2019t have even been in that position in the first place.<\/p>\n

Belisario was pitching against a depleted Phillies\u2019 squad that had its perennial All-Stars, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley on the DL, as well as Shane Victorino and Dominic Brown absent from the starting lineup.\u00a0 Regardless of whom he faced in the Phillies\u2019 order, and despite whether the Dodgers\u2019 lead by 1 or 20 runs, Belisario\u2019s mindset should have been consistent with what the situation called for: Stay aggressive, pound it low in the zone, let them try to overcompensate, and get groundball outs.\u00a0 Especially after allowing the hit to Werth and being left in to face Francisco- the 6th<\/sup> hitter- with still 0 outs, going right after the hitters would have been the only way for Belisario to make it out alive.<\/p>\n

With Ruiz, Wilson Valdez and a pinch-hitter(pitcher\u2019s spot) due up after Francisco, why was there any need to worry about Werth at either 1st<\/sup> or 2nd<\/sup> base?\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 That is why everything about how Belisario handled himself in the outing suggested that he was pitching with the \u201cplay not to lose\u201d mindset, as opposed to the aggressive, \u201cbury them.\u201d\u00a0 Belisario probably entered the game thinking, \u201cWow, we\u2019ve got a huge lead, Kershaw pitched well, I better not blow it for everybody.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s that line of thinking that opens the door for the humiliating errors, both mental and physical, that have the capacity to rapidly infest a team\u2019s morale.<\/p>\n

To further the discussion on Belisario, I thought that I would rattle off a few possible explanations in defense of the poor guy.\u00a0 Considering that I did already compared him to \u201cThe Village Idiot,\u201d Ruben Sierra, it\u2019s the least that I could do.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m concerned that Belisario has been taking the whole \u201cghost runner\u201d thing a little too seriously for, well, his entire life.\u00a0 This can me only one thing, Ronald Belisario sees dead people.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thursday night\u2019s outing was just the second for Belisario since being removed from the restricted list, which had been his home since July 7th<\/sup>.\u00a0 According to the Dodgers, he was placed on the list so that he could undergo substance abuse treatment<\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to go out on a limb and claim that he was drunk during this appearance, no.\u00a0 Instead I\u2019m going to assert that he was not drunk and therefore couldn\u2019t think straight.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe he was trying to pick off the Phillies\u2019 3rd<\/sup> Base Coach Sam Perlozzo.\u00a0 I would that though that Perlozzo\u2019s older appearance and goofy-ass coach\u2019s helmet might have given it away, but I\u2019m just not willing to put it by him quite yet.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Last but not least, maybe Belisario simply didn\u2019t know that such a move was prohibited?\u00a0 He seemed to go about it with some conviction, so who\u2019s to say that he knows all of baseball\u2019s rules.\u00a0 One thing is for certain: I bet that he was always pretty confused as to why other pitchers never attempted that move.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Thursday night, the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers surrendered a 5-run lead against the Philadelphia Phillies, giving up 3 runs in both the 8th and 9th innings and ultimately losing 10-9.\u00a0 Although many of the Dodgers\u2019 players lent a helping hand in making the late-inning collapse exceedingly memorable, the brunt of my focus is on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,6,16,11,13,14],"tags":[680,347,135,685,684,496,559,297,679,681,683,682],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":771,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions\/771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}