"the Astros loaded the bases on a series of weird defense from Atlanta and a very disciplined at-bat from Luke Scott..."
"You cannot walk Scott," Brian Jordan said. (about Farnsworth) "You cannot throw him a 3-2 slider and not go after him. Then you sit back and wonder why."
kudos to hobbs for changing his approach a bit in this situation. since his recall it seems like he's been hacking at a lot of pitches, particularly low pitches, which i bet is the scouting report on him, and the reason why farnsworth threw him that slider on 3-2. to show that much plate discipline in that situation is huge, considering that: 1. he's a rookie in an extreme pressure situation 2. berkman's on deck so he must assume he'll get something around the plate 3. farnsworth's a hard thrower, so scott's got to be ready to swing at anything resembling a strike 4. garner sent him out there over other available pinch-hitters because he has power, and the team needed runs in that situation, so it would have been easy to go with the reggie sanders home run or nothing approach
it's not hard to think back to the chris truby at-bat, and how overmatched he looked in that key situation. remembering that makes hobbs' at-bat seem that much greater.
