Thankfully, this thread is still open because I need to gripe a little more about the _______________ loss of the season. The blank is because I can't figure out what adjective you use. It's not the worst, that's the Braves, 9 run lead loss that will live in infamy. It's probably not the most embarrassing, though Zimmermann should definitely be embarrassed by his performance.
I also don't know who to blame. Jordan is the most obvious person but he was only doing what he could yesterday. It wasn't his day and he's not the kind of pitcher who can get by when he's that far off. He throws too many strikes and he's rarely wild. That's a recipe for what happened yesterday when he's off. Davey, on the other hand, had to see what Zimmerman had yesterday and needed to be more proactive. The third fourth inning was the biggest problem and the fact that Zimmermann didn't finish it makes Davey all the more blamable. Two thirds of an inning may have cost the team the game. No reliever was likely to be as bad as Zimmermann was yesterday, considering they scored three runs after Zimmermann left the game.
The inability to hold runners is a fatal flaw that can't be overcome. It has to fixed. You can't get around it. More to the point though than the base stealers, is the hits given up AFTER the bases have been stolen. If you give up a base steal, you have to strike out the batter. If you take 2.0 seconds to get the ball the plate, you also can't give up hits. That's also a recipe for losing baseball.
I'm still upset about this game.
One more thing, I think the trainers were part of the problem. Because it hasn't been that hot and humid recently, I'll bet they were less cognizant of how muggy it was going to be yesterday. I'll bet the team, Jordan specifically, didn't properly prepare for the humidty...then he had that really long fist inning.
