First here's the graphic Comcast showed at the beginning of his at bat in the 3rd inning.
.583 seems pretty good. This is misleading. Here's why.
In the 3rd inning, Pablo Sandoval came up with runners at the corners and 2 outs. Sandoval is aggressive. This is not a secret. But in 2012 he is becoming somewhat of a disciplined hitters by Vladimir Guerrero standards. Sandoval is swinging at the fewest number of pitches in his career. However, this was before the hammate injury he suffered in early May. Since coming off the DL, he is swinging at throw overs to first base and has reverted back to fat lard Panda that has no idea what he's doing. It's 22 at bats, so its not the end of the world. But, this happened.
It's never good when the catcher has to get out of his crouch to catch the baseball. I like how Jesus Montero kind of looks around after the swing like "... so yeah are we like...are we counting that one? What just happened." Here where Pablo swung:
Here's how MLB game day displayed the pitch, which is number 3:
He had a similar lack of judgement in the 8th inning:
This is where that pitch was
That pitch looks worse than it might be because the Montero has to reach away from his body to catch it. Still, the pitcher Charlie Furbush was probably trying to throw the rare 'pitchout with nobody on base'. And low and behold, it worked.
Obviously, its been 22 at bats for Sandoval since coming back from the DL, which is a microscopic sample. He needs time to readjust to Major League pitching and get his rhythm at the plate. He'll bounce out of this, and a lot of the time he can hit pitches that aren't close to the zone. Sometimes you just have to marvel at how bad Sandoval can look at the plate sometimes and how ultra-mega-super-very aggressive he can be. Right now, if pitchers are smart they'll only throw pick off throws to first when Sandoval bats and hope that he swings. Because he will. For now, I'm not worried. I just hope it ends soon.
Related: Furbush is an unfortunate name.
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