Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges.

What does the title have to do with baseball? Nothing. I just wanted to say that.

We lost last night. Tough loss. Let the other team back in the game in the 4th, then lost it in the 6th.

But I choose to expound upon how to prevent runs from scoring on things such as 1st and 3rd situations and passed balls with a man on 3rd, or at least, minimize the damage. The solution is simple, keep as many runners from reaching 3rd as possible. If the other team chooses to run into outs, take them as they come. For example...

Last night, other team had a man on 3rd. Batter walks. The runner kept on going to second base. The other team is handing us an out. Regardless if the runner on 3rd scores, we should have gotten the runner going to 2nd out. A few things prevented this. One, as much as I have wanted to, we haven't worked on this situation in practices. Two, the catcher was slow in getting the ball back to the pitcher. Three, the SS wasn't covering 2nd. Four, the 2B, who was properly backing up the throw to the pitcher, was forced to take the throw from the pitcher and backpedal to apply the tag to the runner.

How to remedy this? a) Work on this in practice. b) The catchers have to be quick and accurate getting the ball back to the pitcher. c) Batter walks, SS should be covering 2B (and every pitch, thereafter).

There is a flaw in the other teams strategy sending the runner to 2nd on a walk. It would be safer for them to stop the runner at 1B, and have him steal on the 1st pitch. There is a greater probability that something will go wrong with the throw from the catcher to 2nd, than there would be, if the pitcher throws to 2nd, on the walk. So, if they choose to run that play, we take advantage of it. If we got that man at 2nd, that inning would have been a lot different. That would have been the 1st out of the inning, and that runner would not have scored.

Other thoughts. It's time for a change at SS. RJ, as much I hoped he would step up and be the 12 year old leader the team needs, is still playing in a funk, fog, whatever you want to call it. My nominations for replacement would be Ben or Tommy. Maybe we can give both an inning trial to each next game. Also, RJ needs tee work.

Catchers have to be more, crisp, in their execution. Passed balls, throws to the pitcher, 2nd base, etc.

That is all for now.