Dave Purcey, hangin' loose

Are we at the point yet where our affections for Big D are clear and I no longer have to refer to him as "resident favourite"? I'm going to assume that we are and press on with it...

Purcey took the hill for the Chiefs this afternoon in Durham, getting tagged with the loss after a laborious 5 2/3 IP against the Rays' affiliate. It was probably his poorest start of the year, but he didn't have his ass handed to him by any means and it just wasn't happening for a sleepy 'cuse offense. At the end of the day Purcey surrendered 3 earned runs on 5 hits, including a solo homerun, gave up only 2 walks, and struck out 7. That kind of an outing can go either way; today it went downhill.

Syracuse
Player	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Purcey (L, 3-3)	5.2	5	3	3	2	7	1	2.22
League	1.1	0	0	0	0	3	0	3.95
De Jong	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	4.50

Moving into the box score minutae, note that he threw 68 of 106 pitches for strikes, indicating that his control was good for the night despite the early-ish exit. Reversing a recent trend towards keeping the ball on the ground, Purcey got only 2 groundouts to 8 fly outs. His GO:FO ratio will be as much of key to any future big league success he may go on to have as keeping the walks in check.

The Chiefs apparently decided to get shut out as a touching gesture of solidarity with the real Jays, falling 3-0. Lindy LaRue went 2 for 4 with a double.

Getting a funny feeling Purcey will be in the big league rotation at the end of July, right around the time that an unnamed flake with an electric arm gets shipped out of town for somebody's young talent...

I have some other esoteric thoughts, but I'm not really in the mood right now honey. The humiliation so far in Cleveland has been total--why am I still watching this shit?--and its hard to shake the listlessness that this club takes to the field on a nightly basis. Evening gents, I'm off to pour a whisky.

-- Johnny Was