Potluck

These are sliders:

These particular sliders are from Dirty Pierre’s in Forest Hills. They never, ever disappoint you. The same can’t be said for A.J. Ramos’ sliders. Some are good, some are bad. And some will make you throw up. I like to call them “potluck sliders”. You never know what you are going to get with one of A.J.’s sliders. Could be a swing and miss, could be a wild pitch, could be a three run rally in the ninth to tie the game against your former club. You just never know.

Unless you’re the Marlins. They knew. Because they’ve seen it eleventy million times. So when they saw it coming, they knew what to do. Ron Darling was wondering “why the Marlins would ever trade Ramos. He was a big part or their bullpen.” Very next pitch: Justin Bour led off the ninth inning with a home run and Ronnie had his answer. Here’s my rough count of Ramos’ pitches through the tie:

Bour: FB, SL, FB, SL, SL (HR)

Realmuto: SL, SL, FB (Infield single)

Dietrich: FB, SL, CH, SL, FB, FB (K)

Anderson: FB, SL, FB, SL (1B)

Then with first and third, Ramos clutched his security blanket:

Gordon: SL, SL, SL (K)

A.J.’s three best sliders of the inning.

Ellis: SL, SL, FB, SL (1B)

Now, with the score 4-3, Ramos faced Ichiro, and then thought he was going to get cute with the best pure hitter to ever live:

FB, FB, FB (Game tying single.)

The Marlins sat slider on their ex-teammate. Bour’s home run, and the singles by Brian Anderson and A.J. Ellis were textbook examples. They sat back and waited for it, got it, and put it where they wanted to put it. And those sliders, as opposed to the three he threw to Dee Gordon, were of much lower quality than the sliders you find at Dirty Pierre’s.

When Ramos came into a blowout the other day, Steve Gelbs relayed a story that Ramos sees non-save situations as opportunities to work on things and throw pitches you wouldn’t normally throw. It didn’t work out so well then. On Tuesday, in a save situation, he obviously saw it as an opportunity to rely on his slider and get beat by his former team, who knew him and his slider very well. And Ichiro can hit anybody’s anything, even at age 78.

After the Marlins tied the game and sent it to extras, did you have any doubt about how this would end?

A tenth inning homer from J.T. Realmuto sent the Fish home as winners. #Marlins pic.twitter.com/a2C1VcuHuG

— Today in MLB (@Todayin_MLB) September 20, 2017

How does one top off a steady diet of sliders? Well with some ice cream, of course.

https://twitter.com/SInow/status/910295052584456192

If a Met ate ice cream in the dugout like Dee Gordon did, that Met would go on the DL with brain freeze.

— Metstradamus (@Metstradamus) September 20, 2017

Today’s Hate List

1. J.T. Realmuto
2. Dee Gordon’s ice cream
3. Brian Anderson
4. Brian Ellington
5. Justin Bour