HB - for the record I went back and looked at the sequence to Kepler where the drastically outside pitches happened.
The first wild outside one happened at 0-1 and it did not bounce but was caught very close to the ground. And thrown hard and quite outside. Hand was doing his best to "channel" the Andrew Miller slider to lefties.
The second one was even more outside and most definitely did bounce. That is a wild pitch 9 out of 10 times, that stop by your "friend" was by no means routine. It was way out there, hard, and bounced quite a bit before it reached him. No way he should have been able to move that far and still be able to corral that thing.
Even the pitch that Kepler ultimately struck out on was the same thing as the first slider I referred to, Perez caught it outside with his glove down on the ground.
The fact that Brad Hand had the confidence to throw those 3 diving outside bouncers/near bouncers to Kepler with Byron Buxton (of all people) on 2nd base with no outs is unique and valuable. Hand even ended up winning the battle on one of those pitches.
Buxton stayed on 2B. Buxton would have scored from 3rd because the next batter Polanco drills one to deep right center. Instead, Buxton goes to 3B on the tag up, but now 2 outs.
They intentionally walk Nelson Cruz (duh) and pitch to lefty Rosario. Again, first pitch way outside and low as they pitch him the same way.
At 3-1 to Rosario - Hand FINALLY throws him a simple fastball and challenges him instead of all those crazy sliders and gets a swing and miss. But Hand goes back outside with a fastball at 3-2 and walks Rosario.
CJ Cron up. Bases loaded (all due to Moroff's botched 2 base popup misplay) and Hand gets Cron to pop out to right field. Moroff owes Brad Hand a dinner for that Houdini act that bailed him out.
Look, I am not smart enough to know if Perez's lack of offense this season will offset whatever he gives the pitching staff. Luckily I don't need to know I'm just a fan.
But in this game, Perez showed ME (if no one else) where his value lies. He enabled Hand to disregard any fears about what pitches he might use. With a top baserunner on 2B. In the most crucial of situations.
I've seen enough baseball to know that Perez gets all kinds of credit for how that 9th inning win played out and that what took place often does not with other teams and other catchers.
Find it in your heart to at least give him that.
