Swing or No Swing

On a 3-2 pitch with two out in the ninth, Dustin Pedroia tries to check his swing on a pitch in the dirt, but the first place umpire calls it a swing. Pedroia is out, and the Indians hold on for a 5-4 win.

It was a fascinating statistical game. The Indians and Red Sox pitchers combined to strike out 26 of the 71 batters they faced, issued just two walks, and hit a batter. So two legs of the three-true outcome stool were strong. The teams combined for six solo home runs, so the third leg was weak. On top of that, of the 36 AB that did not end in a home run or strikeout, the teams collected 14 hits, good for a .389 BABIP. So the high strikeout rate of the game should have limited hits, but giving up home runs, and the batters putting the ball in play hard when they made contact led to a good number of hits and a decent number of runs.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2d7vBNV