Dropping the Ball (Phillies 4, Giants 3)

It would take a big man not to mention that Vicente Padilla's two-out RBI "hit" in the second inning was actually a flat-out drop by Neifi Perez. And that the resulting run loomed large in the Giants' 4-3 loss. And that Perez supposedly is only in the bigs on the strength of his defense. And that Perez went 0-for-3 at the plate. And that Perez was pulled for a pinch-hitter for the first time this season.

Clearly, I'm not that man.

More later.

UPDATE: Jason disagrees with me about the Padilla play, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to pull out the heavy artillery: Greg Papa agrees with me. You have no idea how much it pains me to say that. Hit, error, whatever, Perez has to play like Ozzie Smith at short to justify his multiple plate appearances. Bottom line is he should have made that play, is capable of making that play, and just didn't do it.

By the way, I was able to see the Fox replay via MLB.com. I may have mentioned the TV and radio feeds available there (for a price) before, but if you haven't checked it out, you're missing a great deal. I never have to miss a post-game radio wrap, and just about any game played has a TV feed archived. It's sweet.

Pierzynski finally got around to homering as a Giant, and it wasn't a cheapie. He hit it into the seats in right-center, but that shot was dwarfed by Jason Michaels' bomb to center. It bounced off the top of the concession stands and skipped against the base of the scoreboard. I can recall three guys dinging it off that roof: McGwire in BP, Bonds, and I think Richie Sexson. Not perfectly clear on that last guy, but was definitely a guy with power.

So I'm looking at the box, and that 10 hits, three runs stares back at me. There was only one GIDP, so it wasn't that ... ah, Feliz had 7 left on. Wow, rough game. There seems to be no middle ground with him. Not complaining, as he's doing pretty well. Pierzynski is showing signs of breaking out, as well. Love to see it.

Comments

[Jason]

I agree, Marty, that if Neifi is to at all justify his existence in the line-up he has to get that ball.

But it was still a hit.

[Marty]

You know I'm predisposed to giving Neifi grief. Here's some more, from Jon Miller (admittedly not an even-handed fellow) on the radio:

"Actually, looking at the television replay ... he actually reached into the glove and got his hand on that ball, and then it fell out of his bare hand. Now they scored that as a hit, which I just can't ... I can't even imagine. That was an error all the way. (looong pause) I mean if that's not an error, there is no "error" ... let's just get rid of it. We can get rid of the scorer that way, right?"