Omar Gastelum (left) and Jonathan Clark (right) (Photo by Kavin Mistry)
By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) – BSB Beat Reporter
There are some situations in sports where the phrase ‘can’t happen’ is the best tool to describe how detrimental they are.
Missing free throws in the second half of a basketball game: can’t happen.
Getting called for unnecessary roughness after the whistle blows: can’t happen.
Pitchers giving up walks on end to hitters: can’t happen.
There are only ramifications and no positive outcomes when giving a hitter a free 90-foot trip to first base.
In the Spartans’ young season, this is extremely tacit after Nevada swept them, scoring 46 runs in the span of three games. A dozen on Friday, 19 on Saturday and 15 on Sunday. Spartan pitchers walked a grand total of 24 hitters during that span.
This is night-and-day compared to the Spartans’ three-game winning streak, when pitchers allowed 10 runs and 15 walks during that time span before facing the Wolf Pack.
It was a collective effort with Ethan Ross, Cade Van Allen and Jonathon Clark allowing three or more walks, but Micky Thompson’s eight walks allowed on Sunday takes the cake.
Thompson’s inability to find the strike zone was a masterclass on how walking batters slowly piece together an explosion of chaos.
He walked the bases loaded to start the game then got a sacrifice fly, strike out and fly out afterward. Allowing one run after setting up the worst possible situation for himself is commendable, but it eventually caught up.
Thompson walked the first four hitters to begin the second inning.
Registering seven walks before getting four outs is nightmare fuel for starting pitchers. Imagine Freddy Kreuger, but instead of a striped sweater and finger knives,, it’s an umpire yelling out “Ball four!” while “Walk It Out” by Unk plays.
All of the time Thompson spent playing with fire caught up to him.
Walks ‘can’t happen’ because it sets teams up for a nuclear kill shot that could decide how the other six-and-a-half innings will shake out.
“It just takes the wind out of your sails,” said SJSU head coach Brad Sanfilippo.
“When the tempo is so slow it’s hard and not the recipe for success.”
Sanfilippo noting the effect walks have on tempo is imperative to showing how it affects the game beyond x’s and o’s.
When only the pitcher and catcher are involved in the action, it can cause players in the field to lose focus.It’s not a direct correlation to the five errors the Spartans combined for on Saturday and Sunday, but they certainly could be loosely attached.
Throwing strikes is especially important with the offenses the Mountain West beholds.
UNLV leads the conference in hitting with a .307 batting average and through a solid chunk of games, there are five players in the conference hitting over .400.
Possibly even more ridiculous are the 10 players who are reaching base at a ridiculous clip of above .430.
With this much firepower, you’re asking for trouble when handing out multiple walks an inning. It’s like simultaneously texting and drinking coffee while driving and expecting to go from destination A to B in one piece.
