My apolgies in advance.

With no one to stop me I am about to commit the Cardinal sin of fandom: act like I know what I'm talking about.

I'm still fretting over Felix and was not excited with yesterday's outing.  Servais' quote captured it all, "Felix Hernandez, actually he pitched pretty well."  It's the actually part that's telling because I don't think Servais and I have any confidence in Felix's consistency.

Here's what I've seen in his first two starts: an excellent opening inning followed by a really shakey second.  Yesterday he came back with a one-two-three third, but for me getting banged around in thr second was all I needed to see.

I don't have the stats, but I think I can find them.  All last season he did the same thing... a sharp first inning followed by a poor second or third.  It got so I could count on it.  And I was never disappointed in my prediction, but actually, I was.  Watching Felix fail provides no satisfaction.

His pattern of pitching well the first couple of innings, then falling apart is not uncommon.  The usual explanations are that pitchers who fall off from a hot first inning either: came out amped and concentration and focus fell off as the adrenline went back to normal levels, got tired as the game went on or batters figured them out the second or third time they faced.

I think in Hernandez' case it's a variant of the first condition.  He comes out focused on how he needs to pitch, gets results and then... gets careless?  Overconfident?  Less focused?

......

News.  Bellarmine Prep best Central Valley 46-44... there in the final four for the Washington State 4A Women's Basketball Championship.  Play Eastlake tonight.  Here's a link to local press coverage:

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0rV8HnJuE2BFmRbhnoPuwPS3Q#Tacoma_Dome

Leading the Lion's off the bench celebrating yesterday’s win, my grand-daughter, #23, Larkin Daly.