Or sometimes managers who have no clue about the percentages do. Hillman should have walked Kotchman and let Ramirez pitch to Hunter for the DP; Kotchman hits over 40 points better against lefties than righties over his career, and has been tuning up lefties to a better-than-.525 clip so far this season. These are the sort of things one has to know as a manager; Hillman obviously doesn’t.

Victory. Best. Soccer Movie. Ever…

(Not that the list is long, mind you)…

At the end of the game, a 5-1 win for the Diamondbacks, my wife looked at me and said: “My god, if these people ever went to a hockey game, they’d have heart attacks.”

The stolen home run might be an amazing sight to behold, as is, I’m sure, a running full-extension double-play, or a contetious pick-off, or a diving outfield catch. Thing is, the game we saw had none of it. There was one rally in the 4th where Arizona scored 4 runs, and nothing much happened the rest of the game.

And yes, I understand the game, all the nuances and the vagaries. Baseball is a game with long periods of inaction which make any of the periods of action seem more interesting that they really are. At least it’s cheap.

The best part of the whole evening is when my 5 year old looks at me and says, ” I hope it goes into extra innings”

The sad part is, although it was a quick game, 3 and 5 year olds have to go to bed before 10:00 on weeknights. And sometimes middle relievers decide games.

I love those moments, so much that I sometimes forget where to put the punctuation.

I think that’s also true in other baseball situations. After watching enough baseball, you should be able to predict some events in advance, through no gift other than repeated observation. I was watching a close game between the Cubs and Reds once, and from the way Rick Sutcliffe was pitching I had a feeling he was going to do something stupid against Eric Davis. “Watch this,” I told my roommate. “Sutcliffe is going to try that low fastball again and Davis is going to hit it out.” Next pitch, boom, I wind up looking like a genius, but I don’t think there was much of a trick to it. I’d just seen Eric Davis hammer enough low fastballs during his career, and I’d Sutcliffe throw enough of them in that game, to put two and two together. It’s one of the things I like about baseball; It occasionally gives me the opportunity to look smarter than I really am.