Jason Schmidt. April. Number of pitches: 132.
That should tell the whole story, right there. That's like, "John Doe. Male. Number of burglary arrests: 12", when deciding on a housesitter while you go to Duluth for a week. Sure, maybe there's a back story. Mitigating circumstances, and whatnot. If, however, you are pressed for time, you can just refer back to the original line of fact to give you all you need.
We have time to go into this back story, however. It doesn't start to look better the deeper you dig.
- Schmidt did not look especially sharp last night, and was not the dominating force we have seen in the past.
- His pitch count was over 100 pitches at the end of six innings. In the bottom of the sixth inning in a tie game, there was a runner at second base, two outs, and Schmidt's spot coming up to hit. A pitcher who, again, had thrown over 100 pitches. C'mon.
- Even ignoring the idea it was a good, nay, great time to pinch-hit for Schmidt, the Giants had lefty Scott Eyre warming up in the bullpen to start the seventh. Brian Giles, a left-handed hitter, was not worth enough attention to bring Eyre in. Alou was determined to have Schmidt finish the seventh inning. Whatever. Then, the cherry on the idiot sundae is placed. After a laboring Schmidt throws a five-pitch walk to Brian Giles, you start to see the little beads of sweat shoot out from his head like a pitcher in a video game from 1988, and another left-handed batter comes up in Ryan Klesko.
Perfect time to cut your losses, and make up for the earlier mistakes. Nope. Schmidt stays in, there's a quick double, and the Padres take the lead. Then Eyre comes in to face the right-handed Ramon Hernandez. It was like watching someone study a chess board for ten minutes, only to decide what makes most sense is to stick the rook up their nose.
Yes, the Giants won. Yippee?